APES In-Class Notes

Cornicopian Belief: No matter what happens, human ingenuity will overcome the problems

Neomalthusian: Resources needed will eventually

Industrial Revolution boosted populations

Environmental Impact = population x consumption per person x technological impact (can be negative or positive)

Open System: Takes inputs and gives outputs

Earth is an open system to sunlight and radiation

1-3% of sunlight is absorbed by plants and we radiate back useless heat

We are a closed system to metals and atoms (effectively)

Matter cycles in the earth, energy flows

Ratio of carbon-14/carbon-12 lets you carbon date

10 half-lives: When a radioactive material is safe b/c its emissions are less than the background emission

CH4 is natural gas and a clean source of energy

Greenhouse Gases: CO2 and CO

UV has low wavelength and is an ionizing radiation because it hits electrons

Aquatic systems are more efficient than terrestrial ecosystems

The pH of seawater is 8

Weather is an open system and a systems of analysis of weather would be inputs, outputs, and changes in this open system. It is an open system b/c it is powered by the sun

Nitrogen is the most required element by humans

Productivity is measured in Calories per meter2 per year

Phosphorus is most often the limiting factor in aquatic ecosystems, nitrogen is for land

Molecule: Any two atoms

Compounds: Any two ELEMENTS

Inorganic compounds: No C-C or C-H bounds

Energy = power x time

Energy efficiency = work done/total energy

Steady state: input = output

Primary consumers are herbivores

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Energy of an ecosystem is measured through biomass

Standing Crop: Amount of biomass present in an ecosystem at a particular time

Disturbance: An event caused by physical, chemical or biological agents that results in a change in population size or community composition

Watershed: All of the land in a given landscape that drains into a particular body of water

Resistance: A measure of how much a disturbance can affect its flow of energy and matter

Resilience: The rate at which an ecosystem returns to its original state after a disturbance

Restoration ecology: A new scientific discipline that is interested in restoring damaged ecosystems

The intermediate disturbance hypothesis: Ecosystems experiencing intermediate levels of disturbance are more diverse than those with low or high disturbance

Provisions: Goods that humans can use directly

Regulation services: The service provided by natural systems that regulate environmental conditions

Support Systems: The support services that natural ecosystems provide such as pollination, natural filters, and pest control

Resilience: Resilience of an ecosystem ensures that it will continue to provide benefits to humans. This greatly depends on species diversity

Cultural services: Ecosystems provide cultural or aesthetic benefits to many people

Rule of 70: Time it takes to double = 70/annual growth rate