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Sustainability and the Environment

The first half of semester notes. It includes vocabulary and study mat...
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Sustainability and the Environment (ENVS 1205K)

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Academic year: 2019/2020
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Columbus State University

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Sustainability and the Environment

1-1

Environmental Problems ● Sustainability​:  Nature’s model ability to use resources without jeopardizing those resources in  the future.  ● Examples​: Solar Energy   ● Biodiversity​: ​the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or  ecosystem. Trees  Plants  Bugs  Organisms  Genes  Habitats  ● Cycling​:  Wastes of any organism become nutrients or raw materials for other organisms   “Nothing is wasted” 

Processes Create Natural Capital  ● Natural Capital​: Natural resources and ecosystem services that keep us and  other species alive and support our human economies.  Natural resources​:   ● Materials and energy that are essential or useful to humans  ● Human activities can degrade natural capital  ● Actions cause trade-offs  ● Renewable resources replenish naturally (Example: Forests, grasslands,  fresh air, fertile soil)  ● Food crops  ● Nonrenewable resources never regenerate or require geological time  scales to renew (Coal, oils, metals, minerals resources  ● Reduce  ● Repurpose  ● Reuse  ● Recycle (takes a lot of energy) 

● Ecosystem Services​:  Processes that provide benefits to humans at no cost  ● Support life and human economies  

Measuring Natural Resources Use  ● Economic Growth​:  Nations goods and services  ● Gross Domestic Product​:  Annual value of all goods and services  ● By all businesses, foreign and domestic, operating within a country  ● Ignores environmental cost and resource degradation Economic Development (not growth)  ● Goal: Use economic growth to raise living standards  ● More-developed countries (United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New  Zealand, and most European countries)   ● Less-developed countries (Most countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America) 

1-2

How do our actions affect the earth?  ● Over consumption depletes capital  ● Degradation, pollute, or diminishing Natural resources  ● Happening at an accelerating rate  Tragedy of the Commons  ● Shared Resources  ● Atmosphere, groundwater, plants, animals  ● Lack of Restrictions  ● Resources valuable  ● Humans Overexploit  ● Solutions: laws and regulations/private ownership  Measuring Impact​: (IPAT)  ● I=P(A)(T)  ● I= Environmental Impact  ● P= Number of People (population size)  ● A= Affluence per person  ● T= Technology used  ● Goal: make consumption sustainable  ● Many interdependencies between P x A x T  Ecological Footprint​:  ● Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to survive  ● Supply resources 

How does one do science?  1. Identify a problem  2. Learn problem background  3. Ask a question  4. Propose a hypothesis (plausible explanation, testable, falsifiable)  5. Collect data  6. Publish -> peer review  7. Repeat 

What is a good experiment?  ● Experiments- identify patterns and causes  ● Good experiments include  -Treatments  Experimental group  -Controls  Comparison group  -Replicates  Repeated measurements  -Randomization 

Science has limitations  ● Science cannot prove anything absolutely  ● Phenomena often have many influences  -Difficult to identify causation  Underlying explanations  ● Statistics are helpful- but can be misleading 

Science Searches for Explanations  ● Scientific theory  -integrates many independent hypotheses, observations, and experiments  -discarded when results no longer support it 

2-2

What is Matter?  ● Matter: has mass and takes up space  ● Matter composed of Elements:  Fundamental type of matter  -cannot be broken down chemically into other substances-oxygen, hydrogen,  helium  ● 3 states: Solid, liquid, gas 

Atoms are the building blocks of elements  ● Elements are made of one type of atom  ● Atom- fundamental units  ● Atoms composed: Nucleus, electrons (-), protons(+), neutrons  ● Circled by electrons 

Molecules are groups of elements  ● Molecules: two or more atoms of the same of different elements held by  chemical bonds  ● Oxygen, proteins,DNA, fats, etc. 

Matter Cannot Be Created or Destroyed  ● Physical change  ● Chemical change (reaction)  -Change in chemical composition  ● Law of Conservation of Matter  -Atoms “in”= Atoms “out”  ● Photosynthesis  6CO2+6H2O->C6H12O6+6O2 

2-3

What is Energy?  ● Energy is the capacity to do work or make things happen  -Kinetic Energy (motion)  ● Motion  ● Heat (lower density=rise)  ● Light  -Potential Energy (stored)  ● Stored   ● Convert to kinetic  ● Examples: candy bar, hillside, water behind dam 

Energy Comes in Many Forms  ● Energy can take the form of waves  -Electromagnetic energy 

Energy Quality Varies  ● Energy Quality  -Great capacity to do useful work  -Examples: Light, Fossil Fuels  -Concentrated solar 

-Examples: lake, stream, forest, prairie, estuaries 

Producers and Consumers are the Living Components of Ecosystems  ● Producers ​(autotrophs)  -plants (photosynthesis)  -algae  -Co2+H2O+solar energy->sugars+oxygen  ● Consumer ​(heterotrophs)  -plants and animals (respiration)  -sugars (fats, proteins,etc) + oxygen-> CO2+H2O+energy  ● Decomposers   -fungi and bacteria (respiration)  -release CO2 

2-6

Energy Flows Through Ecosystems?  ● Energy ​flows ​through food chains and food webs  ● Matter ​cycles   -food chains  -​Movement of energy and nutrients from one trophic level to the next  -food web  -​Network of food chains  Most energy lost as heat 

Usable Energy Decreases with Each Link in a Food Chain or Web  ● Biomass  -dry weight of all organic matter of a given trophic level in a food chain or food  web  -decreases at each higher trophic level due to heat loss (energy inefficiencies)  ● Ecological efficiency  -energy pyramid  -Ninety percent energy loss with each transfer ​(10% Rule)  -Less chemical energy at higher trophic levels 

Why is there an ecological pyramid? What law goes with it?  ● Second law of thermodynamics 

Some ecosystems Produce Plant Matter Faster Than Others Do  ● Net primary productivity (NPP)  -measure of how fast producers can make the chemical energy that is stored in  their tissues 

-ecosystems and life zones differ in their NPP  -most productive: marshes, tropical forests, and estuaries (where saltwater  and freshwater meet)  -rainforests->0% efficient 

2-7

What happens to matter in an Ecosystem  Energy Flows->Matter cycles  ● Matter ​(nutrients) cycle in the biosphere  ● biogeochemical cycles (nutrient cycles)  ● Cycles​: Driven by incoming solar energy, organisms, and earth’s gravity  ● water  ● carbon  ● nitrogen  ● phosphorus 

The Water or Hydrologic Cycle  ● Natural renewal of water quality  ● Water transport  ● Major processes:  ● evaporation  ● condensation  ● precipitation 

Humans Affect the Hydrologic Cycle  ● Withdrawing large amounts of freshwater at rates faster than nature can  replace it  ● Clearing vegetation  -reduces the amount of water seeping into the ground  -increases runoff  ● Draining wetlands  -increases flooding 

The Essence of the Carbon Cycle  ● Link between photosynthesis in producers and aerobic respiration in  producers, consumers, and decomposers  -circulates carbon in the biosphere 

Human Activities Affect the Carbon Cycle  ● Greenhouse effect: caused by CO2 and other greenhouse gases, tree  clearing/land use change, burning of fossil fuels 

Geological Processes Affect Natural Selection  ● Continental Drift​ caused by movements of tectonic plates (Pangea)  ● Continents and oceans locations shifted   ● Species migrated, adapted to new environments, and diversified 

Geological Processes and Climate Change  ● Long-term climate changes  ● Ice ages followed by warming periods  ● Asteroids and cataclysmic volcanoes   ● Extensions: loss of species  ● Speciation: new species  

Science Focus: Earth is Just Right for Life to Thrive  ● Moderate temperatures result from earth’s orbit distance from the sun,  rotation speed, and gravitational mass  ● Atmosphere ​influenced by primary producers (70% nitrogen, etc)  ● Oxygen (formed ozone)  ● Ozone protects from ​Ultraviolet Radiation​ (damage to DNA)  ● Consumers cycle carbon dioxide  ● Earth (​Goldie Lock​) 

3-3

How do Speciation, Extinction, and Human Activities Affect Biodiversity?  ● How do species evolve?  ● Speciation- ​one species splits into two or more species  ● How speciation occurs  ● Isolation ​(space or time)  ● Reproductive incompatibility (no longer be able to reproduce together)  ● Examples: Grey fox and Arctic fox 

Changing the Genetic Traits of Populations  ● Artificial selection  ● Use selective breeding/crossbreeding  ● Genetic manipulation  ● Inserting new genes  ● Considerations  ● Ethics/Morals (playing God)  ● Trait escape (super salmon)  ● Harmful consequences  ● BT corn pollen kills monarch butterflies  

Extinction is Forever  ● Endemic species: found only in one area  ● Vulnerable   ● Mass extinction: 5 major events in past  ● 25-95% of species disappear  ● Current extinctions  ● Due to human activities  ● 10-1000 times faster  ● Than background  

3-4  What are Biomes and How have Human Activities Affected them?  ● Climate helps to determine the nature of biomes  ● Biomes: characterized by climate and vegetation  ● Climate differences: precipitation and temperature  ● Georgia ​has ​deciduous forests​ (leaves fall) 

Humans have Disturbed Most of the Earth’s Lands  ● Environmental destruction and degradation is increasing across the globe  ● How to preserve biodiversity?  ● Reduce consumption   ● Protect wild areas  ● Restore many of the land areas that have been degraded  ● Education  ● Positive incentives  

3-5

What are Aquatic Life Zones and How have Human Activities Affected them?  ● 97%​ salt water  ● 2%​ fresh water  ● 0%​ usable by humans  ● Water sustains biodiversity  ● Salt water covers ​71%​ of the earth's surface   ● Freshwater covers less ​2%​ of Earth’s surface   ● 20%​ fresh water is great lakes 

Keystone and Foundation Species play Critical roles in their Ecosystem  ● Sea otters  ● Rare , but have a large effect on the types and abundances of other species  ● Otters eat urchins to help kelp keep growing  ● Pollinators: bees, ants  ● Predators: lions, wolves, sea otters 

Why should we protect sharks?  ● Keystone species  ● Save human lives (eat species to keep balance in oceans)  ● Rarely get cancer  ● Great immune system  ● Three largest species (plant eaters)  ● Killed 100 million per year  ● Vulnerable but unprotected 

Most Consumer Species Feed on Organisms of Other Species  ● Predators- ​species that kill and eat living animals (=predator, -prey)  ● Play a role in evolution by natural selection  ● Predators play an important ecological role  ● Kill young, weak, and vulnerable  ● Change prey behavior 

Competition: lose/lose  ● Competitors- ​species struggle to gain resources against other species  ● Compete for food, habitat, mates  ● Intraspecific ​(same species)  ● Interspecific ​(different species) 

Consumer Symbioses  ● Parasitism ​(+parasite/-host)   ● Small organism that feeds on host  ● Rarely kills host  ● Help keep host population in check 

Shared benefit symbiosis  ● Mutualism- ​interactions where both species benefit  ● Pollinators/flowers- nectar/pollination  ● Gut flora  ● Ants- acacia trees  ● Anemone- clownfish  ● bees-flowers 

Symbioses: Only One Species Benefits  ● Commensalism- ​benefit fall to one species but no measurable cost to other  species  ● Spanish moss on trees  ● Cattle egrets- large grazers 

4-3

Communities and ecosystems change  ● Communities and ecosystems change over time  ● Ecological succession  ● Directional shift in the species in a community caused by interactions among  species 

Succession is ​Not ​a linear process

● Communities transform to a climax community- ​wrong  ● Steady state community   ● Example: mature rainforests   ● late -successional ecosystems   ● Maintained by intermittent disturbances  ● Ever-changing mosaic of patches  

4-4

What Controls Population Growth?  ● Population can grow, shrink, or remain stable  ● Population change​=(births+immigration) - (deaths+emigration)  ● Biotic potential  ● Max growth  ● Unlimited resources 

What Controls Population Growth?  ● Carrying capacity- K  ● Maximum population a given habitat can sustain  ● Environmental resistance  ● Factors limiting pop growth  ● Examples: space, water, sunlight  ● Example: too much waste 

US Population 3rd Largest and Growing  ● World’s largest total and per capita ecological footprint  ● Population still growing  ● 76 million in 1900  ● 329 million in 2019  ● Growth rate has slowed   ● Immigration important 

Several Factors Affect Birth Rates and Fertility Rates ● Children as part of the labor force  ● Cost of raising and educating children  ● Availability of private and public pensions  ● urbanization  ● Educational and employment opportunities for women  ● Availability of reliable birth control methods  ● Religion, traditions, and cultural norms 

Several Factors Affect Death Rates  ● Life expectancy  ● US ranks 32nd among nations  ● Infant mortality rate  ● Based on live births that die in the first year  ● Impacted by undernutrition and malnutrition  ● US rank 44 among nations due to inadequate health care for poor women  during pregnancy and for infants after birth  ● Drug addiction among pregnant women 

Migration Affects an Area’s Population Size  ● Immigration and emigration  ● Reasons for movement  ● Economics  ● Ethnicity  ● Politics  ● War  ● Environmental 

Population Age Structure Can Affect Growth or Decline ● Age structure categories   ● Prereproductive (0-14) 

● Reproductive age (15-44)  ● Post Reproductive age (45+)  ● Seniors (65+)  ● Fastest-growing US age group  Populations Made up of Mostly Older People Can Decline Rapidly  ● Severe effects  ● Fewer adults working and paying taxes to support an increasing elderly  population   ● Educational and health systems  ● Countries facing rapid decline  ● Japan, russia, germany, bulgaria, hungary, ukraine, serbia, greece, portugal,  and italy 

4-6

How Can We Slow Population Growth?  ● Is the earth overpopulated? An important controversy ● Can the world provide an adequate standard of living for a projected 2 billion  more people by 2050 without causing widespread environmental damage?  ● Population regulation  ● Opponents and proponents 

Demographic transition  ● Development reduces high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates 

Empowering Women Helps to Slow Population Growth  ● Factors that decrease total fertility rates   ● Education  ● Paying jobs  ● Rights supported  ● Women roles  ● Domestic work  ● Child care  ● Grow foods 

Family Planning Can Provide Several Benefits  ● Educational and clinical services  ● Responsible for a 56 percent drop in births in LCDs (1960-2012)  ● Issues in less developed countries  ● 42% of all pregnancies unplanned  ● 26% end with abortion  ● Lacking family planning 

5-2

Why Should We Care?  ● Diversity of species is a vital part of the earth’s natural capital  ● Reasons to prevent extinction  ● ethical/moral obligations  ● Ecosystem services: pollination, pest control, economically valuable products,  clean air and water  ● Evolution requires millennia to recover losses 

Ethics of Preventing Premature Extinction?  ● Species’ ​intrinsic value ​(existence)  ● Inherent right to exist   ● We didn't make it so we shouldn't destroy it  ● Ethical dilemma  ● What species to protect?  ● Biologists urge caution  ● True foundation of the earth’s ecosystems and ecological processes are  microorganisms  

5-3

How do Humans Cause Extinctions?  ● Habitat degradation is the greatest threat to species: remember ​HIPPCO  ● H- Habitat degradation/destruction  ● I- Invasive species (Zebra mussels)  ● P- population growth/ resource overuse  ● P- pollution  ● C- Climate change   ● O- Overexploitation 

Introduced Species Disrupt Ecosystems  ● Some species introductions are beneficial (corn, wheat, cattle, poultry, trees)  ● Introduced species​ may have no natural controls (predators, competitors, and  parasites, pathogens, open niches)  

Introduced Species Disrupt Ecosystem  ● Many arrive from other continents as stowaways  ● Example: Argentina ​fire ants  ● Introduced in US 1930’s  ● Overtake native ants  ● Have killed deer fawns, birds, people allergic to their venom, etc. 

Burmese Pythons in the Everglades  ● Burmese and african pythons  ● Sold as pets  ● Released by pet owners  ● May spread to other wetlands  ● Reproduce rapidly  ● Huge appetites→ prey pop declining  ● Deer (-94%), Bobcat (-87%), rabbits and foxes (-100%) 

Preventing Invasive Species Problems  ● Ban possession of invasive species   ● Create international laws and prevent species transfers  ● Cargo ships must be pest free  ● Inspect incoming goods  ● Treat ​ballast water  ● Develop effective controls/restoration  ● Identify high risk species  

Illegal Killing and Selling of Species  ● Poaching   ● World markets  ● Wildlife smuggling  ● High death rates  ● Birds/fish/large mammals  ● Prevention  ● Local control   ● Economic incentives 

5-4

Protecting Species: Laws and Treaties  ● Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES 1975)  ● Signed by 175 countries  ● Bans trade in listed species  ● Convention on Biological Diversity  ● Ratified by 193 countries (not US)- no enforcement  ● ESA- endangered species act  ● Protects ecosystems 

US Endangered Species Act  ● Endangered Species Act (ESA)  ● Passed 1973 (amended 3 times) 

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Sustainability and the Environment

Course: Sustainability and the Environment (ENVS 1205K)

11 Documents
Students shared 11 documents in this course

University: Columbus State University

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Sustainability and the Environment
1-1
Environmental Problems
●Sustainability:
Nature’s model ability to use resources without jeopardizing those resources in
the future.
●Examples: Solar Energy
●Biodiversity: the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or
ecosystem.
Trees
Plants
Bugs
Organisms
Genes
Habitats
●Cycling:
Wastes of any organism become nutrients or raw materials for other organisms
“Nothing is wasted”
Processes Create Natural Capital
●Natural Capital: Natural resources and ecosystem services that keep us and
other species alive and support our human economies.
Natural resources:
●Materials and energy that are essential or useful to humans
●Human activities can degrade natural capital
●Actions cause trade-offs
●Renewable resources replenish naturally (Example: Forests, grasslands,
fresh air, fertile soil)
●Food crops
●Nonrenewable resources never regenerate or require geological time
scales to renew (Coal, oils, metals, minerals resources
●Reduce
●Repurpose
●Reuse
●Recycle (takes a lot of energy)

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