Slattery Lab Final Contemporary Environmental Issues

Current world population

7.5 billion

what a hydrography shows

A hydrography is a graph showing the rate of flow (discharge) versus time past a specific point in a river, or other channel or conduit carrying flow. The rate of flow is typically expressed in cubic meters or cubic feet per second (cms or cfs).

Primary pollutants vs. secondary pollutants

A primary pollutant is an air pollutant emitted directly from a source. A secondary pollutant is not directly emitted as such, but forms when other pollutants (primary pollutants) react in the atmosphere.

4 hydrologic groups

ABCD. A=LOW RUNOFF D=VERY high runoff

alkalinity

Alkalinity refers to the capability of water to neutralize acid. This is really an expression of buffering capacity. A buffer is a solution to which an acid can be added without changing the concentration of available H+ ions (without changing the pH) appreciably.

atmospheric deposition

Atmospheric deposition is the pollution of water caused by air pollution. In the atmosphere, water particles mix with carbon dioxide sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, this forms a weak acid. Air pollution means that water vapour absorbs more of these gases and becomes even more acidic.

bioaccumulation and biomagnification how do these happen

Bioaccumulation refers to how pollutants enter a food chain; biomagnification refers to the tendency of pollutants to concentrate as they move from one trophic level to the next

bioaccumulation

Bioaccumulation refers to the accumulation of substances, such as pesticides, or other chemicals in an organism. Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a - possibly toxic - substance at a rate faster than that at which the substance is lost by catabolism and excretion.

Density Dependent, Density Independent

Density-dependent regulation can be affected by factors that affect birth and death rates such as competition and predation. Density-independent regulation can be affected by factors that affect birth and death rates such as abiotic factors and environmental factors, i.e. severe weather and conditions such as fire.

What is DO, why is it important, what factors affect DO?

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is the amount of oxygen that is present in the water. It is measured in milligrams per liter (mg/L), or the number of milligrams of oxygen dissolved in a liter of water.

dissolved oxygen

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is the amount of oxygen that is present in the water. It is measured in milligrams per liter (mg/L), or the number of milligrams of oxygen dissolved in a liter of water.

Doubling Time

Doubling time is the amount of time it takes for a given quantity to double in size or value at a constant growth rate. We can find the doubling time for a population undergoing exponential growth by using the Rule of 70. We can find the doubling time for a population undergoing exponential growth by using the Rule of 70. To do this, we divide 70 by the growth rate (r).

effect of mercury on humans

Elemental and methylmercury are toxic to the central and peripheral nervous systems. The inhalation of mercury vapour can produce harmful effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems, lungs and kidneys, and may be fatal.

renewable vs nonrenewable energy source

Examples of renewable energies include solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass. Nonrenewable energies come from resources that are not replaced or are replaced only very slowly by natural processes. The primary sources for nonrenewable energies in the world are fossil fuels -- coal, gas and oil.

Carbon Source and Carbon Sink

Forests, soil, oceans, the atmosphere, and fossil fuels are important stores of carbon. Carbon is constantly moving between these different stores, that act as either "sinks" or "sources." A sink absorbs more carbon than it gives off, while a source emits more than it absorbs.

habitat fragmenttion

Habitat fragmentation is the process by which habitat loss results in the division of large, continuous habitats into smaller, more isolated remnants.

heterogeneity

Heterogeneity is a word that signifies diversity. A classroom consisting of people from lots of different backgrounds would be considered having the quality of heterogeneity. The prefix hetero- means "other or different," while the prefix homo- means "the same."

tropospheric vs. stratospheric ozone why is ground level a problem and how is it formed?

In the troposphere, the ground-level or "bad" ozone is an air pollutant that damages human health, vegetation, and many common materials. It is a key ingredient of urban smog. In the stratosphere, we find the "good" ozone that protects life on earth from the harmful effects of the sun's ultraviolet rays.

What does a water footprint measure?

Indicator of freshwater use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer.

outdoor vs indoor air pollution and sources

Indoor air pollution refers to the pollutants found in indoors. The main cause of indoor air pollution is inefficient fuel combustion from rudimentary technologies used for cooking, heating and lighting. There are also natural indoor air pollutants, like radon, and chemical pollutants from building materials and cleaning products that also impact t health. outdoor: particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide.

infiltration

Infiltration is the process by which water on the ground surface enters the soil. Infiltration rate in soil science is a measure of the rate at which soil is able to absorb rainfall or irrigation. It is measured in inches per hour or millimeters per hour.

minimum viable population

Minimum viable population (MVP) is a lower bound on the population of a species, such that it can survive in the wild. This term is used in the fields of biology, ecology, and conservation biology.

NAAQS( limits and what it stands for)

National Ambient Air Quality Standards: Limits: CO, Pb, NO2, O3, Pm, So2

largest energy demand sectors in US

Natural Gas and Petroleum, Coal(fossil fuels) (than renewable energy)

sources of mercury sources in north texas

Natural sources of mercury include volcanoes, forest fires, cannabar (ore) and fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. Levels of mercury in the environment are increasing due to discharge from hydroelectric, mining, pulp, and paper industries. in North Texas, (Power Plants)

Measuring NPP

Net Primary Productivity (NPP), or the production of plant biomass, is equal to all of the carbon taken up by the vegetation through photosynthesis (called Gross Primary Production or GPP) minus the carbon that is lost to respiration.

Point Source vs. Non Point source popplution

Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution, unlike pollution from industrial and sewage treatment plants, comes from many diffuse sources. NPS pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground.

Process and consequences of eutrophication

Oxygen depletion, or hypoxia, is a common effect of eutrophication in water. The direct effects of hypoxia include fish kills, especially the death of fish that need high levels of dissolved oxygen. Changes in fish communities may have an impact on the whole aquatic ecosystem and may deplete fish stocks

photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that can later be released to fuel the organisms' activities (energy transformation).

Population Momentum

Population momentum refers to population growth at the national level that would occur even if levels of childbearing immediately declined to replacement level. For countries with above-replacement fertility (greater than 2.1 children per woman), population momentum represents natural increase to the population.

What ways can you reduce your ecological and water footprints?

Purchasing less, conserving water, being mindful of what you consume

S and J curve

S-shaped growth curve (sigmoid growth curve) A pattern of growth in which, in a new environment, the population density of an organism increases slowly initially, in a positive acceleration phase; then increases rapidly approaching an exponential growth rate as in the J-shaped curve; but then declines in a negative acceleration phase until at zero growth rate the population stabilizes

soil

Soil is a mixture of minerals, organic matter, gases, liquids, and countless organisms that together support life on Earth.

3 soil separates

Soil particles within this fraction are further divided into the 3 separate size classes, which includes sand, silt, and clay. The size of sand particles range between 2.0 and 0.05 mm; silt, 0.05 mm and 0.002 mm; and clay, less than 0.002 mm.

factors that influence soil formation

Soils are formed through the interaction of five major factors: time, climate, parent material, topography and relief, and organisms. The relative influence of each factor varies from place to place, but the combination of all five factors normally determines the kind of soil developing in any given place.

Species Eveness

Species evenness refers to how close in numbers each species in an environment is. Mathematically it is defined as a diversity index, a measure of biodiversity which quantifies how equal the community is numerically. So if there are 40 foxes, and 1000 dogs, the community is not very even.

Species Richness

Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the abundances of the species or their relative abundance distributions.

wavelength, frequency and energy related

The greater the energy, the larger the frequency and the shorter (smaller) the wavelength. Given the relationship between wavelength and frequency — the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength — it follows that short wavelengths are more energetic than long wavelengths.

Greenhouse Effect

The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet's atmosphere warms the planet's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere. If a planet's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases (i.e., greenhouse gases) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions.

What does an ecological footprint measure?

The land that's required to sustain a person's use of natural resources.

Reactants and products of photosynthesis

The reactants of photosynthesis are water, light and carbon dioxide, while the products are oxygen and sugars. Cellular respiration occurs in direct synchronicity with this process, using the products of photosynthesis as its reactants and producing its reactants.

Carbon Reservoirs

The reservoirs are the atmosphere, the terrestrial biosphere (which usually includes freshwater systems and non-living organic material, such as soil carbon), the oceans (which includes dissolved inorganic carbon and living and non-living marine biota), and the sediments (which includes fossil fuels).

Fertility Rate

Total fertility rate: Average number of children a woman would bear during her lifetime, assuming her childbearing conforms to her age-specific fertility rate every year of her childbearing years (typically, age 15 to 44)

turbidity

Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality.

biological corridors

a geographically defined area which provides connectivity between landscapes, ecosystems and habitats, natural or modified, and ensures the maintenance of biodiversity and ecological and evolutionary processes

Simpsons Biodiversity Index

a measure of diversity which takes into account the number of species present, as well as the relative abundance of each species. As species richness and evenness increase, so diversity increases.

Buffer zones

an area of land designated for environmental protection.

watershead

an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas.

AQI (what it stands for and what its used for)

an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells you how clean or polluted your air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for you. The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air.

5 greenhouse gasses

carbon dioxide(burning fossil fuels and deforestation), methane(feedlots and rice fields), nitrous oxide(vehicles, machinery) , chlorofluorocarbons (spray cans) , water vapor (natural)

CAFO

concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) is an animal feeding operation (AFO) that (a) confines animals for more than 45 days during a growing season, (b) in an area that does not produce vegetation, and (c) meets certain size thresholds

Steps to fracking, whats in the fluid?

drilling, adding sand and chemicals to water, pressurizing and forcing into ground through horizontal and vertical piping. Sand in water to help break up

trophic level

each of several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy.

Eutrophication

excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.

eutrophication

excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.

Largest source of electricity generation in US

fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum)

GMO

genetically modified organism

Commons

is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable earth.

PGR

is the rate at which the number of individuals in a population increases in a given time period, expressed as a fraction of the initial population. The annual percentage growth rate is simply the percent growth divided by N, the number of years.

What happens to a population after it overshoots its carrying capacity?

it will than rapidly decline

Ecological overshoot

occurs when a population temporarily exceeds the long term carrying capacity of its environment. The consequence of overshoot is called a collapse, a crash or a die-off in which there is a decline in population density. When the ecological footprint of a population exceeds the biocapacity of the environment it lives in, this can be called an 'ecological overshoot'

organic food

organic produce and other ingredients are grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or ionizing radiation. Animals that produce meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products do not take antibiotics or growth hormones.

NPP (Net primary Productivity)

rate of accumulation of biomass

Biocapacity

refers to the capacity of a given biologically productive area to generate an on-going supply of renewable resources and to absorb its spillover wastes. Unsustainability occurs if the area's ecological footprint exceeds its biocapacity. total capacity of an ecosystem to support various continuous activity and changes.

Absorption

take in or soak up (energy, or a liquid or other substance) by chemical or physical action, typically gradually.

Demography

the composition of a particular human population.

biomagnifications

the concentration of toxins in an organism as a result of its ingesting other plants or animals in which the toxins are more widely disbursed.

carbon assimilation

the conversion process of inorganic carbon (carbon dioxide) to organic compounds by living organisms. The most prominent example is photosynthesis, although chemosynthesis is another form of carbon fixation that can take place in the absence of sunlight.

Monoculture

the cultivation of a single crop in a given area.

RNI

the difference between the number of live births and the number of deaths occurring in a year, divided by the mid-year population of that year, multiplied by a factor (usually 1,000). It is equal to the difference between the crude birth rate and the crude death rate. The difference between the birth rate and the death rate of a country or place is called the natural increase. The natural increase is calculated by subtracting the death rate from the birth rate.

runoff

the draining away of water (or substances carried in it) from the surface of an area of land, a building or structure, etc.

Ecological footprint

the impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources.

Carrying Capacity

the maximum population size of a species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the environment".

carbon emission respiration

the process in which carbohydrates are converted to water and carbon dioxide, so that carbon is released again into the air. So, during this process, both animals and plants return the carbon dioxide they had previously inhaled back to the atmosphere so that the carbon cycle can continue.

electromagnetic spectrum

the range of wavelengths or frequencies over which electromagnetic radiation extends.

particulate matter

the sum of all solid and liquid particles suspended in air, many of which are hazardous. This complex mixture contains for instance dust, pollen, soot, smoke, and liquid droplets.

Environmental Resistance

the sum of the environmental factors (such as drought, mineral deficiencies, and competition) that tend to restrict the biotic potential of an organism or kind of organism and impose a limit on numerical increase.

Reflection

the throwing back by a body or surface of light, heat, or sound without absorbing it.

Greenhouse effect

the trapping of the sun's warmth in a planet's lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface.

Biodiversity

the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

Virtual water

the water that's used to produce food and pretty much everything else we consume and use. (the water that don't even think about)