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Chapter 1: Science & the Environment, Chapter 2: Economics, Politics,…
Chapter 1: Science & the Environment
The Three Themes
Sustainability
Definition:
the practical goal toward which our interactions with the natural world should be working. (system process that can be continued without depleting a process (material/energy) required to keep going).
Examples of Sustainability: forestry and fisheries. Also, population transition, a resource transition, a technology transition, a political/sociological transition, and community transition.
Stewardship
Definition:
managing natural resources through actions, programs, and having a well-being for the greater good of society.
How to be stewards of society: no plastic usage, recycle more, use solar/ water power/ renewable sources, public transportation, composting, vegan/vegetarian diet.
Sound Science
Definition:
The basic understanding of how the world works and how human systems interact with it. It stems from scientific work based on peer-review research.
Opposite: Junk Science:
information that is present as valid science but that does not conform to the rigors of the method and practice of legitimate science.
How to evaluate science:
Do experiments and publish. Look at your data, does it make sense. account for all observations. Can it be repeated (how do other scientists view your data). look for biases in methods in data.
How do we know if an experiment is powerful?
-replicates within study and by others situation. -does it rise important questions. -does in contain a control--> a standard or a blank (changing variables) -does it use statistics.
Example: Scientific Method-->
The process of making observations into a model demonstrating how the world works. It often involves forming hypotheses, experimentation, and conducting further testing for confirmation.
In terms of the scientific method:
a) Researchers collect information about fish size, type, and PCB levels fish tissue in a river system. What are they collecting?
They are collecting observations and data
for experimentation
b) They believe, based off of site information, previous works from similar locations, and own knowledge, that fish tissue will be very high in PCB due to the proximity of an industrial plant upstream. What is this?
They have made a researched hypotheses and conducted a theory
Hypotheses: a tentative guess concerning the cause of an observed phenomenon that is then subjected to experimentation to test its logical or empirical consequences.
Environmental Paradox
Stewards of Environmental Science and Change
Rachel Carson--> Founder of the Environmentalist movement
. She wrote "silent spring" that brought awareness to the usage of DDT and its damages to the environment.
DDT: a pesticide that was used to kill off bark beetles that spread a fungus (invades tress and kills them) called Dutch elm disease.
was also used in salt marshes, causing for life around these systems to die.
Environmental policy: President Kennedy believed in Carson's work, which led to the making of the Environmental Policy Act, DDT was banned in the US and most other countries by 1970.
she is credited with initiating major reforms in pesticide policy as well as an environmental awareness that eventually led to the modern environmental movement and the creation of the EPA
Garret Hardin:
he was a human ecologist that warned people about the issue of over population and wrote a book called "Tragedy of the Commons"
Wangari Maathai:
she was the first Kenyan woman to receive her Ph. D. and founded the Green Belt Movement to help rural Kenya women.
Aldo Leopold:
he was an ecologist and professor at UW and was the founder of wildlife ecology and contained the term "land ethics" in his work
He is also the writer of "A Sandy County Almanac" which is a conversation text with a number of environmental essays.
Chapter 2: Economics, Politics, and Public Policy
Economics:
the social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and with theory and management of economies and economic systems.
Economic systems:
social and legal arrangements that people construct in order to satisfy their needs and wants to improve their well-being.
Two types of economic systems
Centrally Planned Economics:
characteristics of dictatorship. (Russia, Cuba, Soviet Union)
Free-Market Economics:
characteristics of democracy. (USA, France, Netherlands)
How to Measure Economic Process
GDP: Gross Domestic Product:
The total value of good and services exchanged in a year within a country. (Most counties use this now/ used to compare rich and poor countries)
GNP and GDP:
both measure resource use/overpopulation as a
GAIN
because you are making money off the materials and products that are produced.
GNP: Gross National Product:
The value of products and services produced by people of a country annually.
GPI: Genuine Progress indicator:
environmental economists means of measuring economic progress (measures economic sustainability/ global income/ environmental degradation)
GPI:
our economic sustainability measurement, treats this as a
LOSS
due to the inherent environmental damage from said activity such as overpopulation, biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, loss in soil/water quality, and other goods/services
Services and goods
Ecosystem services:
things that the environment does for us and helps improve our wellbeing.
Provisioning
: Goods obtained by ecosystems (Captured fisheries, timber, crops/livestock)
Regulating:
service obtained from regulations of ecosystem processes. (Air quality regulation, water regulation)
Cultural:
nonmaterial benefits from ecosystems (Spiritual and religious values)
Ecosystem goods:
Materials extracted from the earth
Wood, water, livestock, crops, food, minerals
The Three Branches of Government
The Legislative Branch:
congress (the house of representatives and the senate) They put polices and establish laws.
The Executive Branch:
President, Vice President, Cabinet, and Administrative Agencies. to get approval by the president to ask for government money.
The Judicial Branch:
Supreme Court, Federal Courts, and Circuit & District Courts. They are responsible for interpreting the law.
All three branches are needed for environmental laws to be established. This is because they allow for Environmental public policy laws to be made.
Public Policy:
means by which a government maintains order or addresses the needs of its citizens through actions defined by constitution.
Policy Life Cycle:
predicable course of policy development in democratic societies.
Recognition:
recognizes there is a significant issue
Formulation:
combat issue by creating environmental policy
Global climate change has been noticed by the majority of the population for the past two decades and currently, politicians are coming up with laws to combat this.
What political stage is this environmental issue currently under?
Implementation:
input policy after it is put into law (regulatory agencies)
Control:
policy works/ issue is under control
Strategies for public policy
Command and Control (Regulatory policies):
they direct the EPA to regulate pollution problems. Example: legislators may choose to set standards on pollutants that protect the health of the most vulnerable members of the population (Set standards and polluters must comply)
Market Based Polices:
All polluters are treated equally and may choose their responses on the basis of economic principles having to do with profitability. Example: cap-trade-system for SO2 emissions under the Clean Air Act of 1990
Environmental Policy
Cost-Benefit Analysis:
examines the needs and cost-effectiveness of proposed regulations.
It helps establish a cost-benefit ratio with reduced pollution and cost benefit plot
Cost-benefit analysis of environmental regulations is intended to build efficiency into policy so that society doesn't have to pay more than is necessary for a given level of environmental quality.
Environmental Laws require to protect human health and the environment. The must also comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations.
Measuring the Wealth of Nations
Natural Capital:
the combination of ecosystem capital and nonrenewable mineral resources (flow of goods, lumber, wood, fisheries)
Produced Capital:
is all the human made buildings and structures, machinery and equipment, highways, powers-lines, etc.
Intangible Capital:
Made of three components: Human capital (the population and its physical, psychological, and cultural attributes), social capital (social and political environment that people create for themselves in a society), and knowledge assets (to confided or written fund of knowledge)
This is what tells the difference between a rich and poor countries. Developing countries(Example Haiti) would have low produced and intangible capital, but high natural capital, where it is vise versa for developed countries (Example USA).
NGO's (Non-governmental organizations) :
organizations that have a strong sense of urgency to help the environment without the support of a country’s government (
examples, WWF, Natural Conservation)
Chapter 3: Basic Needs of Living Things
Ecology:
is the study of all processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms and the interactions between living and nonliving things and their environment.
The 8 Hierarchical Levels of Ecology
(from simple to complex)
1.Species:
is a group of individuals that share certain characteristics distinct from other groups.
(example robins verse redwing birds)
All members that can interbreed and have offspring
2. Population:
a certain number of individuals that make up the interbreeding, reproducing, group. Refers only to those individuals of a certain species that live within a given area.
(Example All grey wolves of YellowStone park.)
3. Community:
(Biotic Community) group of populations in natural area (aquatic communities,
Biotic Factors:
(living factors) vegetation. animals, plants, bacteria, etc.
Abiotic Factors:
(nonliving factors) water, moisture, air, sun, etc.
4. Ecosystems:
is an interactive complex of communities and the abiotic environment affecting them within a particular area.
(Forests, wetlands, grasslands, sand dunes, and coral reefs)
5. Ecotones:
transition regions between ecosystems.
(Grassland-Forest)
6. Landscape:
Clusters of interacting ecosystems like forest, open meadows, and rivers together
constitute landscapes. (GIS mapping is used to determine landscapes)
7. Biomes:
is a large area of earth's surface that shares climate and has similar vegetation.
(Tropical rainforest, grasslands, and deserts.)
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Taxonomy
: Helps to distinguish between closely related species
The order of Taxa (From least specific to most specific)
1. Kingdom
2
.
Phylum
3. Class
Order
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Species are denoted by binomial nomenclature
(meaning their name comes from gene and species with gene being abbreviated to the first letter)
Habitat:
refers to the kind of place--defined by the plant community and the physical community-- where a species is biologically adapted to live.
Ecological Niche:
is the sum of all of the conditions and resources under which a species can live: what and where it feeds, what it feeds on, where it finds shelter and nests, and how it responds to abiotic factors.
Optimums, Zones of Stress, and Limits of tolerance
Optimal range:
the range in which the best Response occurs.
Range of Tolerance:
the entire span that allows any growth at all.
Limits of Tolerance:
the points at the high and low points of the range of tolerance (temperature at which it is the final position before death)
Zones of Stress:
between the optimal range and high/low limits of tolerance.
Example is also temperature, where the plant can survive, but not a pleasurable conditions.
Limiting Factors:
a factor that limits growth and can cause stress.
Liebig Law of the Minimum:
stress/limited growth caused by one factor outside the optimal range.
A plant cannot be over or under-watered or it will lead to stress refers to this concept.
Synergism:
two or more factors interacting in a way that causes an effect much greater than one would anticipate from each of the two acting separately. (pollution with disease and drought)
The Four Environmental Spheres
This includes:
The Hydrosphere
(all the water on earth),
the Lithosphere
(all the rocks on earth)
The Atmosphere
(all the air on earth) and
the Biosphere
(all ecosystems on earth)
All of these spheres have
biochemical cycling:
matter, made up of compounds, elements, circulate through all four spheres in the form of the
Carbon, Sulfur, Phosphorus, and Nitrogen cycles.
Carbon Cycle:
The major source is air and the main form of carbon is CO2. It goes through the processes of photosynthesis and respiration, traveling through the air, land, and ocean from plants, animals, and decomposed material such as oil, coal, peat.
Human Impact:
Burning fuel moves it to the air from underground ground
The Phosphorus Cycle:
Its sources are organic material and comes mostly from the ground. It is in varies rock and soil minerals as the inorganic ion phosphate. It does not go into the air and it is mostly implemented into life through heavy mining. It is taken up by fish and animals.
Human Impact:
fertilizer use add it into waterways
Eutrophication
: causes the overgrowth of algae and bacteria and the death of fish (Happens when bodies of water become over fertilized and causes water pollution)
The Nitrogen Cycle:
many bacteria in soils, water, and sediments perform many of the steps in the nitrogen cycle. It goes through the bacteria into plants (as ammonium and nitrate compounds), which then animals eat and then recycled back. It is also caused by factories, cars, and also into the air. In the air it causes N-fixing by lighting.
Human Impact:
Fertilizer moves it into the soil, burning fossil fuels moves it into the air
The Sulfur Cycle:
source is found mostly in rocks and minerals, including deep ocean sediment. The weathering of rocks and volcanic activity sends sulfur into the atmosphere or soil. It also comes from wetlands and mining. Short amount of time in the atmosphere.
Human impact:
Burning moves it to the air, rain and mining move it to soil and water
Law of Thermodynamics
It has two laws: 1.
The Law of Conservation of Energy:
energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but can be changed from one form to another.
2. In any energy conversion, some of the unstable energy is lost in the form of heat
Chemical Formula for Photosynthesis:
6CO2
(Carbon Dioxide) +
12 H2O
(Water)
--->
(light energy)
C6H12O6
(glucose) +
6O2
(Oxygen) +
6H2O
(water)
Chemical Formula for Respiration:
C6H12O6
(glucose) +
6O2
(oxygen)
--> 6CO2
(Carbon Dioxide) +
6H2O
(water) +
energy
Chapter 4: Populations and Communities
Population vs. Communties
Population:
is a group of members of the same species living in an area.
Pattern of Change Equation (Change in Population
)
(Births + Immigration) - (Deaths + Emigration) = Change in Population
Environmental Resistance vs. Biotic Potential
Environmental Resistance:
The combination of abiotic and biotic factors that limit a populations increase
Affects of Environmental Resistance:
Biotic Factors:
predation, parasites, competition, and lack of food
. Abiotic Factors:
unusual temperatures, moisture, light, salinity, pH, lack of nutrients, and fire.
Biotic Potential:
(the number of offspring that members of a species can produce under ideal conditions) The rate at which a species reproduce under unlimited conditions is measured this way
Affects Biotic Potential:
It is the # of spores/seeds, live births, and eggs that a species can produce. This is affected by the number of young that survive and then produce themselves.
Affects Continued:
Ability to migrate, ability to invade new habitats, defense mechanisms, ability to cope with adverse conditions
Community:
the population of different species living together in one area
Population Growth Curves
All Growth Curves are measured with respect to the
Carrying Capacity (K): the maximum population of a species that a given habitat can support without being degraded over the long term, a sustainability system.
Constant Growth:
the population at the end of a period of time is equal to the population at the beginning plus a constant multiplied by the number of time units.
This happens rarely in nature because it is so simple (so there is no example of this since this is the idealist point)
Exponential Growth (J-Curve):
deals with a population explosion, where the number of offspring doubles with time, becoming a constant. (on the graph, it makes a J-shape towards the capacity line, passes it, and in reality, comes back down as a J shape due to dying off from starvation)
This happens in nature when an animal produces heavily in a short period of time. (
Example, lantern flies, a beetle population getting into a big sack of cereal)
Logistic Growth (S-Curve):
is when a process may slow down population growth so that the size of the population levels off. In the perfect world, and S-curve makes an S shape towards the carrying capacity and then fattens at that point. In reality, the S-curve cycle up and down the (K) line.
Two things to notice:
1. as the population nears its carrying point, the growth of the population slows until the population size remains steady; population growth is zero. 2. the maximum rate of population growth occurs halfway to carrying capacity.
This happens in nature when a population has a growth but then slowly steadies out. (
Example the white tail deer population in New Jersey)
Reproductive (Survival) Strategies
R-Strategies (weedy or opportunistic species)
Characteristics:
Environment: Advantage if less stable, Size: smaller, Life Span: shorter, Age at first reproduction: young, Offspring: more, parental care: little to none, population density: wild fluctuations
Example animals: dragon flies, minos, frogs, dandelions and oysters
Survivorship pattern relations:
These are known ad
Type III Species
, since these species have many offspring, most of the offspring die young, so only a few live to the end of a life span.
K-Strategists (equilibrial species)
Characteristics:
Environment: advantage is more stable, size: larger, Life Span: longer, Age at first reproduction: older, Offspring: fewer, Parental care: long and involved, Population stability: mostly stable
Example animals: deers, birds, otters, humans
Survivorship patterns relations:
These species are known as
Type I species
, because they have relatively low mortality in early life, and most individuals live almost the full natural life span for that species.
K/R Strategists Animals: rabbits, squirrels
Survivorship pattern species:
These species are known as
Type II
because they have an intermediate survivorship pattern.
Look at Figure 4.4 in textbook for correlation
Limits on Population
Limits on a population are due to the
population density: the number of individuals per unit area.
The higher the number, the greater the role of the limiting factor.
There are two types of density limits.
Density Dependent: limits that increase as population density increases
examples are predation, disease.
Density Independent: population limited by abiotic factors regardless of population size.
examples like wild fires.
There is regulation when it comes to limits
Top-Down Regulation
is the control of a population by predation (like rabbits controlled by their predators)
Bottom-Up Regulation
is the control of a population due to resource scarcity, mostly food (like bighorn sheep limited by grass)
When it comes to Competition for sources, it leads to two types.
Infraspecific Competition:
competition among members of the same species. This usually lead to density-dependent regulation. This Led to Charles Darwins' Finches research and survival of the fittest ideal.
Charles Darwin's Finches
Charles Darwin did research on the finches of the Galapagos Islands to support his idea of natural selection. It was able to bring about the Idea of
Island Biogeography Theory
which talks about 1. Species is colonized from elsewhere, 2. Speciation= natural selection = evolution, 3. Extinction. He also discovered that finches had different size beaks due to their environment and eating habits.
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Interspecific Competition:
competition for resources between different species.
Populations can sometimes not recover from low numbers, which is based of a critical number.
Critical Number
: minimum population for a species to survive in an environment.
It is used in wildlife conservation to classify where populations stand
: they can be classified as
Threaten, Endangered, or Extinct
to set in motion a number of actions aimed at the recovery of the species in question.
Definition:
Over the past 40 years, human well-being has been steadying improving, while natural ecosystems, (where we get our foods and services), has been declining.
This has led to four hypotheses
1. The measurements of human well-being are flawed; it is actually declining. (not supported)
2. Food production, a crucial ecosystem service that has been enhanced, outweighs the effects of declines in other ecosystem services. (supported)
3. Human technology, such as irrigation and synthetic fertilizers, makes us less dependent on ecosystem services. (supportive)
4. There is a time lag between ecosystem decline and human well-being; the worst is yet to come. (supportive)
Ecosystem services: Provisioning
--> good obtained from ecosystems.
Regulating-->
services obtained from regulation of ecosystems processes.
Cultural-->
nonmaterial benefits from ecosystems.