GEOG 1000 - Chapter 3 Review Questions - World Ecology Prblms PDF

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Chapter 3 Book Review 1. The three harmful effects of the clearing and degradation of tropical rain forests are clearing these forests will reduce the earth’s vital biodiversity by destroying/degrading the habitats of many of the unique plant and animal species that live in them that could lead to early extinction, helps to accelerate atmospheric warming and thus projected climate change, and large-scale rain forest loss can change regional weather patterns in ways that can prevent the return of diverse tropical rain forests in cleared or severely degraded areas. 2. The two key concepts for this section 3-1 are the four major components of the earth’s lifesupport system are the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the geosphere (rock, soil, and sediment), and the biosphere (living things). The second is life is sustained by the flow of energy from the sun through the biosphere, the cycling of nutrients within the biosphere, and gravity. The atmosphere is a thin spherical envelope of gases surrounding the earth’s surface The troposphere is it’s inner layer that contains the air we breathe, consisting mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. The stratosphere is the global sunscreen allows life to exist on the surface of the planet. The hydrosphere is made up of all the water on or near the earth’s surface. Found as water vapor, liquid water, and as ice. The geosphere is the earth’s intensely hot core, a thick mantle composed mostly of rock, and a thin outer crust. Most is located in the earth’s interior. The biosphere is the parts of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere where life is found. The three interconnected factors that sustain life on earth are the one-way flow of energy from the sun through living things in their feeding interactions into the environment as lowquality energy and evenly to outer space as heat, cycling of nutrients (atoms, ions, and molecules needed for survival by living organisms) through the parts of the biosphere, and gravity which allows the planet to hold onto its atmosphere and helps to enable the movement and cycling of chemicals through air, water, soil, and organisms. The flow of energy to and from the earth is the solar energy powers the earth’s climate system, half is absorbed by the earth’s surface, the other is reflected by the earth’s surface and atmosphere back into space, absorbed by the earth’s surface is converted to heat and emitted as long-wave radiation, and some infrared radiation escapes into space but most is absorbed by greenhouse gases in the clouds in the earth’s atmosphere. The greenhouse effect is when certain gases in the earth’s atmosphere retain enough of the sun’s incoming energy as heat to warm the planet. It is important because it warms the planet and causes the devastating effects of global warming that are impending. 3. The key concept for this section 3-2 is some organisms produce the nutrients they need, others get the nutrients they need by consuming other organisms, and some recycle nutrients back to producers by decomposing the wastes and remains of other organisms.

Ecology is the science that focuses on how organisms interact with one another and with their nonliving environment of matter and energy. Organism is an individual living being. An example is a dog. Population is a group of individuals of the same species living in a particular place. An example is a herd of bison. Community is populations of different species, living in a particular place, and potentially interacting with each other. An example is forest. An ecosystem is a community of different species interacting with one another and their nonliving environment of matter and energy, whereas the biosphere is parts of the earth’s air, water, and soil where life is found. 4. The living components of the ecosystem are the biotic components. Some examples are water, air, nutrients, rocks, and solar energy. The nonliving components of the ecosystem are the abiotic components. Some examples are plants, animals, microbes, and all other organisms. Two other terms used to describe these ecosystem components are biotic and abiotic. 5. A trophic level is a feeding level, depending on its source of food or nutrients Producers (autotrophs) make the nutrients they need from compounds and energy obtained from their environment. An example is a plant. Consumers (heterotrophs) cannot produce the nutrients they need through photosynthesis or other processes. Instead they get their nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains. An example is a rabbit. Decomposers are consumers that, in the process of obtaining their own nutrients, release nutrients from the wastes or remains of plants and animals and then turn those nutrients to the soil, water, and air for reuse by producers. An example is bacteria. Detritus feeders (detritivores) feed on the wastes or dead bodies of other orgnaisms.An example is vultures. Photosynthesis is when plants capture about 1% of the solar energy that falls on their leaves and use it in combination with carbon dioxide and water to form organic molecules, including energy-rich carbohydrates. Primary consumers (herbivores) are animals that eat mostly green plants. An example is caterpillars. Carnivores are animals that feed on the flesh of other animals. An example is small fish. Secondary carnivores are animals that feed on the flesh of herbivores. An example is tigers. Tertiary consumers are animals that feed on the flesh of other carnivores. An example is killer whales. Omnivores are animals that eat plants and other animals. An example is pigs. There is little waste in nature because the wastes and dead bodies of organisms, as the nutrients that make life possible are continually recycled, in keeping with the chemical cycling principle of sustainability. Humans are the major exception in the natural process because only a small percentage of huge amounts of waste materials that human societies produce are recycled. They are a major violator of the chemical cycling principles.

6. Microbes are the catchall terms for many thousands of species of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and floating phytoplankton. Aerobic respiration uses oxygen to convert glucose (or other organic nutrient molecules) back into carbon dioxide and water. Anaerobic respiration (fermentation) breaking down glucose (or other organic compounds) in the absence of oxygen. The end products of this process re compounds such as methane gas, ethyl alcohol, and hydrogen sulfide. Two processes sustain ecosystems and the biosphere through a combination of one-way energy flow from the sun through these systems and the nutrient cycling of key materials within them in keeping with two of the scientific principles of sustainability. They are linked all organisms to get their energy from aerobic and anaerobic respiration. 7. The key concept for the section is as energy flows through ecosystems in food chains and webs, the amount of chemical energy available to organisms at each successive feeding level decreases. A food chain is a sequence of organisms, each of which serves as source of nutrients or energy for the next. A food web is organisms in most ecosystems form a complex network of interconnected food chains. When energy flow through food chains and webs is not very efficient because with each energy transfer from one trophic level to another, some usable chemical energy is degraded and lost to the environment as low-quality heat. Biomass is each trophic level in a food chain or web contains a certain amount of biomass, the dry weight of all organic matter contained in its organisms. The pyramid of energy flows is if they all ate at lower trophic levels by consuming grains, vegetables, and fruits directly rather than passing such crops through another trophic level and eating herbivores such as cattle. There are more insects than tigers in the world because there is less organisms at each level. Most of the world’s people don’t eat meat because most people cannot afford to eat much meat. 9. The key concept for the section is the matter, in the form of nutrients, cycles within and among ecosystems and the biosphere, and human activities are altering these chemicals. Matter in an ecosystem A nutrient cycle is the elements and compounds that make up nutrients move continuously through air, water soil, rock, and living organisms within ecosystems, as well as in the biosphere in cycles. Nutrient cycles connect past, present, and future life because some of the carbon atoms in your skin may once have been part of an oak leak, a dinosaur’s kin, or a layer of limestone rock.

The unique properties of water are forces of attraction, water exists as a liquid over a wide temperature range because of the hydrogen bonds between its molecules, liquid water changes temperature slowly because it can store a large change in its own temperature, it takes a large amount of energy to evaporate water because of its hydrogen bonds, liquid water can dissolve a variety of compounds, water filters out wavelengths of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation that would harm some aquatic organisms, the hydrogen bonds between water molecules also allow liquid water to adhere to a solid surface, and unlike most liquids water expands when it freezes. The three major processes are involved in the water cycle are evaporation, precipitation, and transpiration. Surface runoff is the water that flows into streams, which eventually carry water to lakes and oceans, from which it can evaporate to repeat the cycle. Groundwater is the precipitation that sinks through soil and permeable rock formations to underground layers of rock, sand, and gravel An aquifer is where the groundwater is stored. The percentage of the earth’s water supply that is available to humans and other species as liquid freshwater is 0.024%. Human activities are affecting the water cycle in these three ways: we withdraw large quantities of freshwater from rivers, lakes, and aquifers are being depleted and some rivers no longer flow to the ocean; we clear vegetation from land for agriculture, mining, road building, and other activities that cover much of the land with buildings, concrete, and asphalt; and we drain and fill wetlands for farming and urban development. Clearing a rain forest can affect local weather and climate by reducing transpiration, especially in dense tropical rain forests. The carbon cycle is cyclic movement of carbon in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment. Human activities are affecting each cycle by adding large amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere when we burn carbon-containing fossil fuels, we alter the cycle by clearing carbon-absorbing vegetation from forests. The nitrogen cycle is cyclic movement of nitrogen in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment. Human activities are affecting each cycle by adding large amounts of nitrogen oxides to the atmosphere when we burn gasoline and other fuels, we add nitrous oxide to the atmosphere through the action of anaerobic bacteria on commercial nitrogen-containing fertilizer or organic animal manure applied to the soil, and we remove large amounts of nitrogen from the atmosphere faster than the cycle can replace it. The phosphorus cycle is cyclic movement of phosphorus in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment. Human activities are affecting each cycle by the removal of large amounts of phosphate from the earth to make fertilizer, by clearing tropical forests we reduce phosphate levels in tropical soils, and topsoil that is eroded from fertilized crop fields, lawns, and golf courses carries large quantities of phosphate ions into streams, lakes, and oceans. The sulfur cycle is cyclic movement of sulfur in various chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment.

Human activities are affecting each cycle by releasing large amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. We burn sulfur-containing coal and oil to produce electric power, refine sulfurcontaining oil to make gasoline, extract metals and mined. 10. The key concept for this section is scientists use both field research and laboratory research, as well as mathematical and other models, to learn about the ecosystems. Three ways in which scientists study ecosystems are they study nature directly, they study ecosystems in the laboratory, and they use models to stimulate ecosystems. We need much more basic data about the structure and condition of the world’s ecosystem to see how they are changing, to develop effective strategies for preventing or slowing their degradation, and to avoid ecological tipping points beyond which these systems will be disrupted or destroyed. The Holocene era was a period of relatively stable climate and other environmental conditions following a glacial period. The Anthropocene era was when humans have become major agents of change in the functioning of the earth’s life-support system as their ecological footprint have spread over the earth. The ten planetary boundaries designated by scientists are phosphorus cycle, ocean acidification, freshwater use, land use, ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosols, chemical pollution, biodiversity loss, carbon cycle/climate change, and nitrogen cycle. Three of these boundaries have already been exceeded, according to the scientist are nitrogen cycle, carbon cycle/climate change, and biodiversity loss. This chapter’s three big ideas are life is sustained by the flow of energy from the sun through the biosphere, the cycling of nutrients within the biosphere, and gravity; some organisms produce the nutrients they need, others survive by consuming other organisms, and still others live on the waste and remains of organisms while recycling nutrients that are used again by producer organisms while recycling nutrients that are used again by producer organism; and human activities are altering the flow of energy through food chains and webs and the cycling of nutrients within ecosystems and the biosphere. The three scientific principles of sustainability are showcased in tropical rain forests are producers within rainforests rely on solar energy to produce a vast amount of biomass through photosynthesis, species living in the forest take part in and depend on the cycling of nutrients and the flow of energy within the forests and throughout the biosphere; and tropical rain forests contain a huge and vital part of the earth’s biodiversity and interactions among species living in these forests to help to sustain these complex ecosystems....