Environmental Science Final

aquatic ecosystems because top consumers live much longer than producers.

A reverse biomass pyramid is typical of

nitrogen fixation

The majority of the air we breathe is composed of diatomic nitrogen. Unfortunately, most of that gas cannot be used by living organisms in this state. It must be converted into a usable form in a process called ____________, a process that is primarily carried out by bacteria but can also result from lightning.

carrying capacity

The maximum population of a particular species that an ecosystem can support without that ecosystem being negatively impacted, such as the maximum number of rabbits that can live in a forest without a massive loss of vegetation is known as the __________ of that ecosystem.

converted and stored.

To be a widely used energy source for humans, solar radiation must be

all the plants, animals, and microbes in a geographic area.

Which of the following describes a biotic community?

Eumaeus atala

Which one of the following is a proper scientific name of an organism?

silt and clay.

Which one of the following soil types will hold the most water? The most water would be held by a soil consisting of equal masses of

It can be produced by anaerobic bacteria in environments such as cow intestines and wetland sediments.

Which one of the following statements about methane (CH4) is correct?

true

. Biodiversity has three components: species diversity, genetic diversity in species, and ecosystem diversity.

climatic conditions, especially temperature and moisture.

. The main categories of biomes are based on differences in component organisms' response to

hypothesis

1. You observe a flowing artesian well during a vacation trip. You ask yourself, "How does the water flow out of the ground without needing to be pumped out?" You decide that this must happen because there is higher pressure underground forcing out the water. This assessment is your

False

A J-shaped growth curve indicates a population that has achieved a dynamic balance between biotic potential and environmental resistance.

ionic / weaker

A chemical bond formed between an electropositive atom (typically hydrogen) and an electronegative atom (such as oxygen) is called __________bond, which is responsible for the bonding of water molecules in liquid and solid states, and are _________ than covalent and ionic bonds.

12

A country which has a crude birth rate of 33 and a crude death rate of 21 is growing at what percent per year?

hydrogen and oxygen and generates electricity and water.

A hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell uses

region will naturally recover and eventually become forest again

About 10% of a large forest experienced a severe fire that burned all but the largest trees. Soon after the fire, the landowner consulted biologists to ask what should be done to the burned region. The biologists explained that if the landowner does nothing, the

reach a peak and then slowly decline.

According to the "Hubbert curve" U.S. oil production will:

to allow for uncertainties, it should be much lower than MSY.

According to the "precautionary principle", how should the total allowable catch relate to maximum sustained yield (MSY)?

soil erosion/ degradation

Amy lives in coastal Louisiana, and she loves to host crawfish boils every April. Over the years, she has noticed that her property taxes have decreased. This is because her property value has decreased. She consults with her brother, who aced Introduction to Environmental Sciences, and he tells her this change is because of two reasons. A: her backyard has gotten smaller and smaller as her soil has fallen into the Gulf of Mexico. B: her front yard no longer grows azaleas or other plants because she has been dumping the salt water she uses to clean her crawfish into her flower beds. Thus, her decreased property value is because of (A)________________ and (B)_____________________.

false

Anaerobic respiration occurs without oxygen and may produce methane gas (CH4).

has a higher humus content.

As far as agricultural applications are concerned, the main distinction between topsoil and the underlying subsoil is that topsoil

loss of natural services

At the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, the loss of coastal wetlands due to human activities contributed to the severity of storm damage caused by recent and severe hurricanes. This loss of coastal wetlands therefore represents a

N2

Bacterial denitrification is an anaerobic process that converts NO3 - to __________.

7,000 g/ha

Compared to conventional tillage, how much more organic carbon would be saved annually by using reduced tillage

generates no sulfur dioxide or carbon dioxide emissions.

Compared to the generation of electricity using coal, nuclear power

6CO2

Complete the following reaction of cellular respiration: C6H12O6 + 6O2 →__________+ 6H2O

C2H12O6

Complete the following reaction of photosynthesis: 6 CO2 + 6 H2O → _________________ + 6 O2

false

Current photovoltaic (PV) technology uses sunlight to generate electricity by heating up water and using microscopic hydroturbines.

false

Dam construction provides important reservoirs of water for human use and has no negative environmental effects.

a detritus-feeding decomposer feeding on the wastes of a consumer eating a producer.

Dung beetles feeding on the waste of cattle grazing on hay in a field represent

A) one trophic level does not consume the entire trophic level below it. B) some of the calories consumed drive cellular activities and do not add mass C) some ingested materials are undigested and eliminated. .... ALL OF THE ABOVE

Energy is lost as it moves from one trophic level to the next because

Resource Partitioning

Five species of warblers coexist in the spruce forests of Maine by feeding at different levels in the trees and on different parts of the trees. This is an example of

use the energy of sunlight or inorganic chemicals to manufacture organic molecules.

Green plants and chemoautotrophic organisms are classified as producers because they:

false

Hadley cells at the equator consist of rising dry air associated with deserts and falling moist air that produces precipitation and rain forests.

Humans can deliberately regulate their fertility.

How is human population ecology different than population ecology of other organisms?

the population will increase by about 3 million people

If a country experiences 7 births, 2 deaths, and 1 new immigrant every minute of a year, how will its population change in one year?

second-generation biofuel using enzymes that convert cellulose to fermentable sugar

If ethanol production in the United States more than doubles between 2015 and 2022, it will need to rely on

rr

If r represents a gene for resistance to DDT, and to be resistant an individual must be homozygous, choose the resistant individual(s) below:

500

If the carrying capacity for a population of fish is 1000 fish, _______fish should be harvested to achieve maximum sustainable yield (MSY).

true

In a healthy soil environment that demonstrates sustainability, topsoil is renewed by the addition of detritus and humus.

microscopic algae in the water.

In a lake, resources would include

highest trophic level.

In any food web, biomagnification will result in the highest concentrations of toxins in the

false

In general, the optimal population for harvesting the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) is at the carrying capacity of the population.

false

In most energy conversions, entropy decreases as heat is released during the conversion.

true

In the western United States, rain shadows most frequently occur on the leeward, east side of mountain ranges.

false

In the world, there is general agreement that the safest place to store long-term nuclear waste is in the major oceans.

true

Invasive species can be disruptive in a new ecosystem because the native species have not evolved with these organisms.

The Montreal Protocol of 1987

Is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion.

the chemicals are non-biodegradable or persistent and highly soluble in lipids.

Many synthetic organic chemicals are concentrated in the fat of carnivores because

false

Methane (CH4) is an inorganic molecule because it has no C-C bond.

true

Most of the world population growth in the near future will be in developing countries.

true

Nuclear power plants in use today rely on fission reactions to generate heat to boil water

food web.

Nutrients cycle through plants, animals and soil in an ecosystem. Scientifically, the combination of all the feeding relationships that exist in an ecosystem is called

true

Nutrients essential for plant growth are mostly returned to the soil by decomposers.

The percentage of saltwater will increase, the percentage that is frozen will decrease, and the percentage of liquid freshwater will remain largely unchanged.

Of the world's total volume of water, 97.5% is saltwater and 2.5% is freshwater. That 2.5% is divided into 1.7%, which is frozen (e.g., in glaciers and polar ice caps), and 0.77% is liquid freshwater, which is available for human use (e.g., rivers, groundwater). How might these numbers change as a result of global warming?

cogeneration

On a winter day, most automobiles keep the passengers warm by using heat generated by the engine. This use of the heat by-product from a gas engine is an example of

reduces intraspecific fighting and ensures adequate resources for some members of a species.

Territoriality

silent spring

Rachel Carson's book ______________________ describes the environmental effects of _________.

1 kilogram.

Radioactive substance A breaks down to substance B with a half-life of 1,000 years. If we start out with 4 kilograms of radioactive substance A, how much of those four kilograms of substance A will remain in 2,000 years?

limiting factors

Reducing the input of inorganic nitrogen to University Lake is expected to result in a decrease in the abundance of algae in the lake. If this happens, it would be an example of the law of ____________.

genetic and natural enemies control

Researchers genetically engineer a crop to produce chemicals that attract the natural enemies of a pest. This approach combines

in coastal regions where the water table is falling

Saltwater intrusion occurs

Acclimation

Several million years ago, North American foxes were a single species. However, the fox population became separated into geographically isolated sub-populations during periods of glaciation, and eventually the high-latitude and temperate-latitude sub-populations became distinct species with characteristics best suited to the environments in which they lived. This evolution of two species from a single species is an example of which ones of the following?

C horizon

Severe wildfires followed by heavy rains have significantly eroded the soil of a formerly forested region. Which one of the following horizons is most Page 3 of 7 likely intact with little disturbance?

CERCLA; 1980

Superfund is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. ... It was established as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

better health care, education, and employment for women.

The 1994 Cairo and 2014 Stockholm population conferences broadly agreed that slower population growth resulted from

precautionary

The ___________principal requires that resource managers must favor resource protection where there is uncertainty.

habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, population, and overexploitation.

The acronym HIPPO identifies the five major factors contributing to extinction today. These are

Medical Revolution

The epidemiologic transition is largely a result of the

energy is neither created nor destroyed, but may be converted from one form to another.

The first law of thermodynamics states that

true

The goal of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is to keep crop damage below the economic threshold while minimizing use of synthetic organic pesticides.

a steady biotic potential but decreased environmental resistance.

The grasshopper population in a prairie is limited in large part by the number of birds in the region. Following a terrible storm that killed many of the birds, the grasshopper population exhibits exponential growth. This happens because the grasshoppers experienced

large industrialized cities.

The heavy reliance upon coal from the late 1800s through the 1940s was most apparent to anyone standing outside in

it is expensive and inefficient to get most of your dietary calories from meats.

The information of an energy pyramid reveals that

critical number

The minimum number of individuals of a species required to sufficiently maintain a population of that species, such as the minimum number of wolves needed in an ecosystem in order to have a healthy population of wolves is known as the __________.

intrinsic values.

The philosophy of the Endangered Species Act primarily reflects

decrease wind erosion

The planting of strips of trees and shrubs along the edges of plowed fields is used to

less / more

The ratio of nonworkers (under 15, over 65) to workers is referred to as dependency ratio. When this ratio is low, a society can spend __________on schools and old-age medical expenses, and ________on reducing poverty and economic growth.

top-down and bottom-up population regulation.

The relationship between the moose and wolf populations on Isle Royal reveal

stewardship.

The statement, "The Earth was not given to you by your parents, it was lent to you from your children" best reflects

sustainability.

The term that applies to whether or not a process can be continued indefinitely is

too many users of a resource

The tragedy of the commons is a result of

agricultural

There have been several major revolutions in human history that have profoundly changed the way in which humans interact with the environment. The development of agriculture by human societies about 12,000 years ago is known as the _________________ revolution.

true

Threatened and endangered species receive special protection from human activities such as hunting and habitat destruction because these activities are density dependent.

Clean Water Act of 1972

Under the CWA, EPA has implemented pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. We have also set water quality standards for all contaminants in surface waters.

Clean Air Act of 1970

United States federal law designed to control air pollution on a national level.

number of neutrons and atomic mass.

Uranium-235 and Uranium-238 differ from each other in their

greater use of birth control by most members of a society

Using the IPAT formula, which of the following would most likely reduce the environmental impact of a society?

kinetic energy increases enough to allow water molecules to break away from each other.

Water evaporates because

true

Wetland ecosystems are determined by depth, salinity, and permanence of water and fall into two general categories: coastal (tidal) and inland (non-tidal).

tropical rainforest.

What type of biome would you expect to find in a region where temperatures are warm and precipitation is abundant year round?

natural resources (goods) and services provided by ecosystems.

Which of the following best describes ecosystem capital?

They are transitional regions between ecosystems and may contain unique species

Which of the following best describes ecotones?

35% of the amount of coal used by the coal-fired power plant

You heat your home with electricity generated by a coal-fired power plant. Because energy from the coal is lost in the production and distribution of the electricity, it would be more efficient to just burn the coal in your home (although certainly less convenient!). How much less coal would you need to burn if you heated your home directly with coal, instead of using electricity generated from coal? You would need about

HIPPO

habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, population, and overexploitation

The Kyoto Protocol

is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets.