Intro. to Environmental Science - Exam 1

Private, voluntary efforts to keep the "tragedy of the commons" in check are often less effective than mandated public policy because of __________.

the free-rider problem (Even if one party fails to keep up its end of the bargain in a public area, others who are taking care of the resource may feel it is unnecessary to keep up their responsibilities because of free riders.)

This layer of the atmosphere contains 75% of the atmosphere's molecules, is closest to the Earth's surface, is constantly mixing, and gives us our weather.

troposphere (Unless you are in an airplane or space ship, you are in the troposphere.)

Early People and Agricultural Beginnings Long ago, two sisters were talking as they returned from their morning trip to collect mushrooms, seeds, berries, and green leaves for the day's meals. The younger woman was watching the progress of a small rabbit as it hopped across the path and toward the clan's trash midden (refuse heap), where broken tools (made of bone, stone, or shell) were tossed and discarded food was thrown. She noticed the rabbit stop and begin nibbling on the many new, green shoots sprouting across one side of the midden. She walked over to take a closer look and saw that some of last year's discarded dried fruits were growing. Surprised and interested, she called her sister over to discuss this find. It is probably TRUE that ________.

until now, this group had not considered deliberately planting seeds

No-till farming would be most beneficial for farmers ________.

using contour strip cropping

A condition in an experiment that can change is called a(n)......

variable

A ..... is the entire land area that supplies a river or stream with water from precipitation.

watershed

A ..... has water-saturated soil, shallow standing water, and ample vegetation.

wetland

The world population growth rate is currently approximately ________%.

1.2

In 2019, the population of the United States was approximately 330 million people, with an annual growth rate of approximately 0.6%. If the population of the U.S. were to continue to grow at this rate, what would be the approximate population size of the U.S. in the year 2219?

1.4 billion

The United Nations currently predicts that Earth will be home to almost ________ billion people by the year 2050.

10

If a population has a growth rate of 1.4% per year, what is the approximate doubling time in years?

50

What is the greatest negative environmental impact that occurs when people live in suburbs instead of living in cities?

Suburbanites take up many times as much space as city dwellers.

Which piece of legislation set strict standards for air quality and pollution control?

The Clean Air Act (This law set strict standards for air quality, imposed limits on emissions, and provided money for research.)

What is the role of the Energy Star program in energy conservation?

The Energy Star is given for electrical appliances with energy efficiency that meets certain standards for low energy consumption.

Earth's oceans hold:

The bulk of all of the water found on earth (The oceans contain 97.22% of all water, comprising about 1.321 billion cubic kilometers of salt water. This leaves only 2.78% of all of Earth's water as fresh water (non-oceanic).

A factory in a rural part of the United States has just been implicated in the release of toxic substances into the same water source that is used for drinking water in the area. Which of the following statements is true regarding this factory?

The factory is a point source of water pollution.

How can the actions of packrats serve as proxy indicators of climate change?

The packrat middens (dens) preserve plant parts for centuries. (Packrat nests (called middens) found in arid climates can be used to interpret the flora of the area (and thus the climate) centuries ago.)

A scientist manipulates the ..... in an experiment.

independent variable

The type of agriculture that has greatly increased the world's food supply but also has widespread environmental impacts is __________.

industrial agriculture

The transitional stage in the demographic transition model is initiated by ________.

industrialization

Rocky shorelines that are home to sea stars, mussels, crabs, and anemones and experience fluctuating water levels are ..... ecosystems.

intertidal

If you wanted to predict which biome you would find within a land mass, what two things would you need to know about it?

its annual rainfall and temperature

Floating brown algae that provide food and shelter for a diversity of animals characterize ..... ecosystems.

kelp forest

A ..... is a large body of water that has extensive areas of open water, some of which is too deep for photosynthetic life.

lake

A nutrient, like nitrogen, that is required in a large amount in an ecosystem is called a(n) __________.

macronutrient

Which of the following is an example of mitigation?

making legislation to reduce our use of fossil fuels. (Mitigation involves heading off a problem before it becomes too large to deal with.)

Denitrifying bacteria convert _____ to _____.

nitrates ... nitrogen gas

a nitrate is

nitrogen bonded with three oxygen atoms

a nitrite is

nitrogen bonded with two oxygen atoms

In the policy-making process, science is __________.

only one of the factors that influence policy makers (In addition to scientific studies, economic interests, ethical values, and political ideology influence the policy process.)

..... ecosystems include hydrothermal vent communities in the deep ocean bottom.

open-ocean

What caused the Aral Sea, the fourth largest lake on Earth, to lose four-fifths of its volume in 40 years?

overconsumption by cotton farmers

Fill in the blanks: ozone is made of __________ and is broken down by __________.

oxygen, chlorine (Ozone is O3. It is made of oxygen and is broken down by the chlorine in CFCs. Both chlorine and oxygen are strong oxidizing agents.)

Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring focuses primarily on the environmental problems associated with ________.

pesticide toxicity

What are the limiting factors to population growth?

physical, chemical, and biological attributes of the environment that act as limits for population growth

Which of the following is not a way that two populations of the same species can be geographically isolated?

populations have different mating seasons.

What event is credited with leading to the passage of the Clean Water Act?

the Cuyahoga River catching fire

A marine ecosystem is exposed to a potentially devastating invasive species and responds by remaining stable throughout the invasion. It could be said that __________.

the ecosystem demonstrated resistance to the disturbance

Populations in ocean fisheries have been dropping for decades, but the amount of fish caught has not declined. What factor is responsible for masking this drop in fish populations?

Advanced technology has allowed fishing fleets to find fish more efficiently.

.....the uptake of nutrients into an organism.

Assimilation

.....is information obtained from scientific studies.

Data

Why are over one-sixth of the world's people at risk for running out of drinking water?

Glaciers in many areas are melting.

A company that produces household cleaners decides to produce a "green" version of its products, even though the formulas are virtually unchanged compared to the original formulas. This is an example of ______.

Greenwashing

How have volcanoes formed the Hawaiian Islands with no subduction zones nearby?

Hawaiian volcanoes are situated above a hot spot. (Hot spots are locations in the Earth's crust in which molten mantle material has intruded due to the presence of thermal plumes (localized sources of intense heat).)

Which of the following statements about Earth's carrying capacity for humans is true?

Humans have a carrying capacity like all other species, although we can develop technology to help us overcome some of the limits that we would otherwise face.

In animal populations, DDT causes _____.

In animals, long-term exposure to DDT can cause death or severe birth defects.

Why are island species particularly vulnerable to introduced species?

Island species evolved in isolation and lack defenses against introduced species.

What is Earth's natural capital?

It is the accumulation of Earth's wealth of resources.

authors of the book

Jay Withgott and Matthew Laposata

Which one of the following statements is true?

Many African governments concluded that the potential long-term health effects of DDT were not as serious as the immediate problem of insect control. (They concluded that the immediate benefits of DDT outweighed the possible long-term harmful effects.)

Which of the following is true of the hydrologic cycle?

Most of the water that falls on the continents is derived from the oceans. (About 20% of the moisture evaporated from the ocean combines with 2% of land-derived moisture to produce 22% of all precipitation that falls over land. Clearly, the bulk of continental precipitation comes from the oceanic portion of the cycle.)

Which one of these is a nitrite?

NO2 -

Which one of these is a nitrate?

NO3 -

.....the conversion of organic nitrogen-containing compounds to nitrites and nitrates.

Nitrification

.....the conversion of nitrogen to a form that plants can use.

Nitrogen fixation

_____ removes nitrogen from the atmosphere.

Nitrogen fixation

......found in the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe is composed of dense and relatively young rock.

Seafloor crust

What are the properties of toxicants that are likely to build up in animals through bioaccumulation?

They are nonbiodegradable and lipid soluble.

Why are insecticides such as DDT used in developing countries despite being banned in many developed countries?

They are used because the benefits to human health are believed to outweigh the environmental costs.

How do power utilities promote energy efficiency as a market incentive to their customers?

They offer discounts to customers who purchase and use energy efficient appliances and light bulbs.

Which of the following is true regarding marine reserves?

They tend to increase species diversity. (Marine reserves are "no-take" areas where fishing is prohibited.)

Which of the following statements best describes competition for a niche?

Two species could divide a niche through "resource partitioning."

How long have accurate measurements of Earth's climate been recorded?

a few hundred years at most (Direct measurements of temperature and precipitation go back to 1958 when scientist Charles Keeling began analyzing hourly air samples from a monitoring station at Hawaii's Mauna Loa Observatory. Accurate records of these types extend back, at most, a few hundred years.)

The greatest use of fresh water worldwide is __________.

agricultural

Nitrifying bacteria convert _____ to _____.

ammonium ... nitrites

Marine ecosystems that occur on the ocean floor are termed __________.

benthic

Which of these would be an example of mitigation rather than adaptation for global climate change?

building more wind turbines to generate energy from renewable sources rather than fossil fuels

Most of the indoor air pollution in developing countries comes from __________.

burning fuelwood (Burning fuelwood for cooking and heating homes kills 3.5 million people each year in developing countries.)

An element associated with all organic compounds is __________.

carbon (all organic compounds contain element carbon.)

Soil that is 50% clay, 20% silt, and 30% sand would be categorized as ________.

clay

Australia is composed of relatively old and thick.....

continental crust

A(n) ..... is an unmanipulated point of comparison for treatments in an experiment.

control

..... ecosystems are being affected by the process of ocean acidification, which threatens their long-term existence.

coral reef

A scientist measures the ..... in an experiment.

dependent variable

Salt can be removed from seawater by __________.

desalinization: mimicking the hydrologic cycle by taking ocean water and hastening evaporation with heat, and then condensing the vapor. (However, a desalinization plant in Yuma, Arizona, was too costly to operate; it had to be shut down after 6 months.)

What type of irrigation method wastes as little as 10% of the water applied to the plants?

drip irrigation (Drip irrigation could cut water use in half while raising crop yields, and could produce as much as $3 billion in extra annual income for farmers of the developing world.)

Which term is used to describe the conversion of natural resources into goods and services?

economy

Members of the __________ movement would be very concerned about the unequal exposure of members of a certain race to pollution.

environmental justice

..... ecosystems occur where fresh water from rivers mixes with saltier marine waters to produce a highly productive ecosystem with varying salinity levels.

estuary

A(n) ...... tests the validity of a hypothesis.

experiment

DDT is _____-soluble so it accumulates in _____.

fat ... milk (Fat-soluble DDT accumulates in the fats of milk and from there can be transferred to children.)

The earthquakes that occur in Southern California generally occur above a.....

fault

Because of the Green Revolution, the average U.S. cornfield increased its yields by __________ during the 20th century.

five fold

Which of the following have the ability to absorb energy from Earth's surface and then emit infrared radiation in all directions?

greenhouse gases

Precipitation that infiltrates Earth's surface and percolates downward becomes......

groundwater

A __________ is defined as the living and nonliving elements around an organism.

habitat

Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone National Park in the United States acquires its energy from a

hot spot

Water is renewed naturally by Earth as it moves through the __________.

hydrologic cycle

A(n) ....... is a testable statement that attempts to answer a scientific question.

hypothesis

The largest percentage of fresh water today is located in:

ice sheets and glaciers (Ice sheets and glaciers are the greatest single repository of fresh water: they contain 77.3% of all Earth's fresh water and 99.357% of all Earth's surface fresh water.)

A ..... meanders across land and structures the landscape.

river

Salt-tolerant grasses and shrubs dominate ..... ecosystems, which occur on the coast at temperate latitudes.

salt marsh

The slowly increasing distance between South America and Africa is due to

seafloor spreading

Layered ..... exposed by erosion can be seen when looking at the Grand Canyon in the United States.

sedimentary rock

Which is the largest source of oil input into the world's oceans?

seeps from naturally occurring seafloor deposits (While this is a large amount, it is a consistent source that ocean communities have adapted to over geologic time.)

Based on the information in the figure, you might decide to make changes in your diet to diminish your ecological footprint by ________.

shifting your protein intake from beef and pork to eggs and dairy products

Which of the following is an unhealthy mixture of pollutants that forms over cities?

smog (typically forms over cities as a result of burning fossil fuels.)

Point sources of air pollution are __________.

specific spots-such as a factory's smokestacks-where large quantities of pollution are discharged. (The exact location of the point pollution release is known.)

The extremely deep ocean Marianas Trench is a result of.....

subduction

.....refers to all liquid fresh water located above ground.

surface water