AP Environmental Science Unit 6 - Land & Water Resource Use
What is smelting and what are its major harmful environmental effects?
Smelting is the process of heating ores to release metals. Some of the major harmful environmental effects of smelting, include: emissions of enormous quantities of air pollutants, and water pollution.
dam
a structure built across a river to control the river's flow or to create a reservoir.
desertification
conversion of rangeland, rain-fed cropland, or irrigated cropland to desert-like land, with a drop in agricultural productivity of 10% or more. It usually is caused by a combination of overgrazing, soil erosion, prolonged drought, and climate change.
low-grade ore
ore containing a small amount of a desired material.
organic fertilizer
organic material such as animal manure, green manure, and compost, applied to cropland as a source of plant nutrients.
aquifers
porous, water-saturated layers of sand, gravel, or bedrock that can yield an economically significant amount of water
zone of saturation
zone where all available pores in soil and rock in the earth's crust are filled by water.
What is a floodplain and why do people like to live on floodplains?
A flood happens when freshwater in a stream overflows its normal channel and spills into an adjacent area, called a floodplain. These areas, which usually include highly productive wetlands, help to provide natural flood and erosion control, maintain high water quality, and recharge groundwater.
Define mineral resource and list two major types of such resources.
A mineral resource is a concentration of naturally occurring material from the earth's crust that can be extracted and processed into useful products and raw materials at an affordable cost. Fossil fuels and metallic minerals are two major types of resources.
How many people in the world lack regular access to clean water today and how high might this number grow by 2025?
About 1.1 billion people in the world lack regular access to clean water today. In 2007, the United Nations estimated that by 2025, at least 3 billion of the world's projected 7.9 billion people will lack access to safe water.
Describe the conventional view of the relationship between the supply of a mineral resource and its market price.
According to standard economic theory, in a competitive market system, a plentiful mineral resource is cheap when its supply exceeds demand. When a resource becomes scarce, its price rises. According to some economists, this price effect may no longer apply very well in most developed countries. Industry and government in such countries often use subsidies, taxes, regulations, and import tariffs to control the supplies, demands, and prices of minerals to such an extent that a truly competitive market does not exist. Most mineral prices are kept artificially low because governments subsidize development of their domestic mineral resources to help promote economic growth and national security.
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using genetic engineering in food production.
Advantages of using genetic engineering in food production include: needing less fertilizer and less water; more resistant to insects, disease, frost, and drought; grow faster; can grow in slightly salty soils; may need less pesticides; tolerate higher levels of herbicides; higher yields; and less spoilage. Disadvantages of using genetic engineering in food production include: irreversible and unpredictable genetic and ecological effects, harmful toxins in food from possible plant cell mutations, new allergens in food, lower nutrition, increase in pesticide-resistant insects, herbicide-resistant weeds, and plant diseases, can harm beneficial insects, and lower genetic diversity.
Summarize agriculture's contribution to projected climate change.
Agricultural activities create a great deal of air pollution. They also account for more than a quarter of the human-generated emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, which are helping in warming the atmosphere.
What are the major harmful environmental impacts of agriculture?
Agriculture has several harmful effects to the environment. Examples are: biodiversity loss (loss and degradation of grasslands), soil erosion, water waste, air pollution, and contamination of drinking and swimming water from livestock wastes.
What percentage of available freshwater is unnecessarily wasted in the world and in the United States?
An estimated 66% of the freshwater used in the world is unnecessarily wasted.
How have governments used subsidies to influence food production and what have been some of their effects?
An example of a way governments used subsidies in influencing food production, was by adding genetically modified organisms in order to make better food. Some examples of effects that have resulted from the government's actions include more profits.
What are the major advantages and disadvantages of raising food hydroponically in greenhouses?
As for the advantages, food can grow anywhere, the process recycles water as well as fertilizer and soil erosion never happens.
Discuss the pros and cons of the U. S. General Mining Law of 1872.
As for the pros of the U. S. General Mining Law of 1872, it eventually lead to low costs proving beneficial for buyers as U. S. initially wanted mineral expansion. As for the cons of the U. S. General Mining Law of 1872, the same land was used for other purposes and the environment was harmed because the mining law came to full use only in 1992.
Explain how industrialized food production systems reduce biodiversity in areas where crops are growing.
Biodiversity is threatened when forests are cleared and grasslands are plowed up and replaced with croplands.
What is desertification and what are its harmful environmental effects?
Desertification is the process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture. Some of its major harmful environmental impacts, include: reduction of soil fertility, pore space and organic matter content.
What ecological services do rivers provide?
Examples of ecological services that rivers provide, include: the delivering of nutrients into the sea which helps to sustain coastal fisheries, the deposition of silt that maintains deltas, purifies water, renews and nourishes wetlands, provides habitats for aquatic life, and conserves species diversity.
Describe ways to prevent and clean up soil salinization.
Examples of ways on how we can prevent and clean up soil salinization, are: reducing irrigation, flushing soil, halting plant growth for 2 to 5 years, and by switching to salt tolerant crops.
How can we reduce desertification?
Examples of ways on how we can reduce desertification, are by: reducing population growth, overgrazing, deforestation, and by stopping practices such as destructive forms of planting, irrigation and mining.
What is the biggest problem resulting from excessive use of water for irrigation in agriculture?
Excessive use of water for irrigation in agriculture will result in environmental problems such as: inhibition of the germination process, imperfect growth of roots, soil fertility damage and waterlogging of the crop.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of floods?
Floods provide several benefits. They have created some of the world's most productive farmland by depositing nutrient-rich silt on floodplains. They also help recharge groundwater and refill wetlands, thereby supporting biodiversity and aquatic ecological services. But floods also kill thousands of people each year and cost tens of billions of dollars in property damage.
Describe industrialized food production in the United States.
Industrialized food production uses heavy equipment along with large financial capital, fossil fuels, water, commercial inorganic fertilizers, and pesticides to produce single crops called monocultures.
Define integrated pest management (IPM) and discuss its advantages and disadvantages.
Integrated pest management is basically an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques such as biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices, and use of resistant varieties. Advantages include: reduced health risks to humans, reduced health risks to animals and less harm for the environment. Disadvantages include: more involved planning, more demand etc.
Describe the effects of diet deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine.
Iron deficiency can cause anemia which will result in fatigue, infection, and increases the chance that w woman will die of childbirth during delivery. Iodine deficiency can cause defunct thyroid gland, stunted growth, goiter, deafness, retardation. Vitamin A deficiency can cause blindness.
Summarize the use of energy in industrialized food production. Why does it result in an energy loss?
It takes 10 units of fossil fuels to produce one unit of food energy. Fishing is even worse 12.5:1. For crops unit energy has dropped by 50% because of the decreased cost of nitrogen synthetic fertilizer.
Describe the problems of land subsidence and contamination of freshwater aquifers near coastal areas resulting from the overdrawing of water from aquifers.
Land subsidence and contamination of freshwater aquifers near coastal areas cause problems such as an increase in the prices of pumping and limiting food production. These result from the overdrawing of water from aquifers.
Describe the use of laws and treaties to help protect us from the harmful effects of pesticides.
Laws and treaties are very helpful when it comes to protecting us from the harmful effects of pesticides. Laws and treaties such as the EPA, the USDA, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), regulate the sale and use of pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), first passed in 1947 and amended in 1972.
Why do many analysts view the likelihood of greatly increasing water shortages as one of the world's most serious environmental problems?
Many analysts view this as a serious problem because this may cause a vast amount of people to migrate to other places due to the arid southern California cities. There will be a scarcity of water in Cali. If the snowpacks in the High Sierra (store water seasonally as slow melting packed snow) melt faster because of projected atmospheric warming and receive less precipitation during drought years, there will be less water available for transferring the south.
Describe the growth of industrialized meat production.
Meat production produced through an energy intensive industrialized system in which animals are raised mostly in densely packed feedlots and confined animal feeding operations where they are fed grain or meal produced from fish. For example, large numbers of cattle are brought to feedlots where they are fattened up for about four months before slaughter. Between 1961 and 2007, world meat production increased more than fourfold and average meat consumption per person more than doubled.
Describe three harmful environmental effects of mining.
Mining can harm the environment in several ways. Examples are: scarring and disruption of the land surface, subsidence and acid mine drainage.
List three human activities that increase the risk of flooding.
One such human activity is the removal of water-absorbing vegetation, especially on hillsides. Draining and building on wetlands, which naturally absorb floodwater, is a second human activity that increases the severity of flooding. Another human-related factor that will increase flooding is a rise in sea levels during this century from projected climate change caused primarily by human activities that have led to the warming of the atmosphere.
List three ways to reduce the risks of flooding.
Preserve forests on watersheds, preserve and restore wetlands in floodplains, tax development on floodplains, and use floodplains primarily for recharging aquifers, sustainable agriculture and forestry.
Compare the advantages and disadvantages of industrialized meat production.
Producing meat by using feedlots and other confined animal production facilities increases meat production, reduces overgrazing, and yields higher profits. However, such systems use large amounts of energy and water and produce huge amounts of animal waste that sometimes pollutes surface water and groundwater and saturates the air with their odor.
Describe Rachel Carson's contribution to environmental science.
Rachel Carson, a former biologist, has greatly increased our understanding of the importance of nature and the harmful effects of widespread use of pesticides.
Describe the benefits of recycling and reusing valuable metals. List five ways to use nonrenewable mineral resources more sustainably.
Recycling also has a much lower environmental impact than that of mining and processing metals from ores. For example, recycling aluminum beverage cans and scrap aluminum produces 95% less air pollution and 97% less water pollution and uses 95% less energy than mining and processing aluminum ore.
What is soil erosion and what are its two major harmful environmental effects?
Soil erosion is when the soil components such as topsoil are moved due to deforestation or lack of plants holding them down. This can cause two main things: water pollution from sediment runoff and loss of soil fertility.
Describe the opportunities and limitations of finding substitutes for scarce mineral resources.
Some analysts believe that even if supplies of key minerals become too expensive or scarce due to unsustainable use, human ingenuity will find substitutes. They point to the current materials revolution in which silicon and new materials, particularly ceramics and plastics, are being used as replacements for metals. And nanotechnology may also lead to the development of materials that can serve as substitutes for various minerals. Substitution is not a cure-all. For example, currently, platinum is unrivaled as an industrial catalyst, and chromium is an essential ingredient of stainless steel. We can try to find substitutes for scarce resources but this may not always be possible.
Define strip mining and distinguish among area strip mining, contour strip mining, and mountaintop removal mining.
Strip mining is a type of mining technique where coal is obtained by open-pit mining. Area strip mining is used where the terrain is fairly flat, gigantic earthmovers strip away the overburden, and power shovels—some as tall as a 20-story building—remove the mineral deposit. Contour strip mining is used mostly to mine coal on hilly or mountainous terrain.
What is subsurface mining?
Subsurface mining is a type of mining technique which involves the removal of coal and metal ores that are too deep to be extracted by surface mining.
What is surface mining?
Surface mining is a type of mining technique which involves the removal of soil and rock that overly the overburden.
Discuss the importance of the Colorado River basin in the United States and how human activities are stressing this system.
The Colorado River basin is very important for the United States. The main reason on why the Colorado River basin is important, is because it provides water and electricity from hydroelectric plants at the major dams for many people. This has saved many people who live in dry, arid areas. Unfortunately, we are harming this system by human activities such as withdrawing of water from the river basin for vegetation.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of China's Three Gorges Dam?
The advantages of China's Three Gorges Dam, are: the generation of 10% of China's electricity, no dependence on coal, air pollution reduction and reduction of C02 emissions. The disadvantages of China's Three Gorges Dam, are: flooding of large areas of cropland and forests, water pollution etc.
Compare the advantages and disadvantages of aquaculture.
The advantages of aquaculture, include: high efficiency, high profits, high yield. The disadvantages of aquaculture, include: release of large wastes and diseases.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using large dams and reservoirs?
The advantages of using large dams and reservoirs, are: irrigation, flood control, recreational value, and hydropower. The disadvantages of using large dams and reservoirs, are: evaporation loss, ecological damage, and sediment collects.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of withdrawing groundwater?
The advantages of withdrawing groundwater, are that it is useful for drinking and irrigation, it is cheaper, renewable and is ubiquitous. The disadvantages of withdrawing groundwater, are that it depletes aquifers, sinking of land, pollution and its deeper wells make it nonrenewable.
Describe three major harmful environmental effects of extracting, processing, and using nonrenewable mineral resources.
The extraction, processing, and use of mineral resources has a large environmental impact. Examples of how it can impact the environment, are: soil erosion, land disturbance, and release of solid waste as well as water and air pollution.
What are five effects of a mineral becoming scarce?
The five effects of a mineral becoming scarce, include: higher prices, encouragement of new exploration, encouragement of substitutes or resource conservation, making of profitable lower-grade ores, and stimulation of development of new technologies.
List four ways to reduce water waste in industry and homes, and three ways to use less water to remove wastes.
The four ways to reduce water waste in industry and homes, include: recycling water in industry, using drip irrigation, using water meters and raising water prices. The three ways to use less water to remove wastes, include: rely more on waterless composting toilets; use systems that mimic the way nature deals with wastes by recycling them; chemical cycling and use the nutrient-rich sludge produced by waste treatment plants as a soil fertilizer.
List four ways to use water more sustainably and four ways in which you can reduce your use and waste of water.
The four ways to use water more sustainably, include: preserve water quality, raise water prices, slow population growth, and do not deplete aquifers. The four ways in which we can reduce our use and waste of water, include: use water saving toilets, repair water leaks, short showers and conserve water.
Describe the life cycle of a metal resource.
The life cycle of a metal resource goes like this: Surface mining → Metal ore → Separation of ore from gangue → Smelting → Melting Metal → Conversion to product → Discarding of product (scattered in environment).
Describe the connection between water shortages, grain imports, food prices, and malnutrition.
The main reason on how water shortages, grain imports, food prices and malnutrition are connected, is because water shortages can cause grain imports, food prices and malnutrition to increase, as water needs to be kept at a lower level.
Explain why access to water is a health issue, an economic issue, a women's and children's issue, a national and global security issue, and an environmental issue.
The main reason on why access to water is a health issue, is because, according to the World Health Organization, an average of 3900 children younger than 5 years of age, die daily from waterborne infectious diseases due to lack of safe drinking water. The main reason on why access to water is a economic issue, is because, in developing countries, women and girls often are responsible for finding and carrying daily supplies of water from distant wells and other sources to their homes. They do not have water piped to to their homes. The main reason on why access to water is a global security issue, is because, of increasing tensions both within and between nations over access to limited water resources that they share. The main reason on why access to water is an environmental issue, is because, excessive withdrawal of water from rivers and aquifers results in falling water tables, decreasing river flows, shrinking lakes, and disappearing wetlands. - loss of water in combination with water pollution result in declining water quality, lower fish populations, species extinctions, and degradation of aquatic ecosystems.
Describe the problem of groundwater depletion in the world and in the United States, especially over the Ogallala aquifer.
The problem of groundwater depletion in the world as well as in the United States, especially over the Ogallala aquifer, is basically the fact that there is very slow recharge and the constant dropping of the water table causes a huge increase in prices.
Describe three uses of rock as a resource.
The three uses of rock as a resource, include: packaging, making beverage cans and construction.
What are two major causes of water waste?
The two major causes of water waste, are: water's low cost to users and the lack of government subsidies for improving the efficiency of water use.
Distinguish between distillation and reverse osmosis as methods for desalinating water.
The two most widely used methods for desalinating water are distillation and reverse osmosis. Distillation involves heating saltwater until it evaporates (leaving behind salts in solid form) and condenses as freshwater. Reverse osmosis (or micro filtration) uses high pressure to force saltwater through a membrane filter with pores small enough to remove the salt and other impurities.
Describe how water is recycled by the hydrologic cycle and how human activities can overload and altered this cycle.
The world's freshwater supply is continually collected, purified, recycled, and distributed in the earth's hydrologic cycle and the movement of water in aquatic systems, in the air, and on land, which is driven by solar energy and gravity. This irreplaceable water recycling and purification system works well, unless we overload it with pollutants or withdraw freshwater from underground and surface water supplies faster than it is replenished. We can also alter long-term precipitation rates and distribution patterns of freshwater through our influence on projected climate change.
What are three major limitations on the widespread use of desalination?
There are three major limitations on the widespread use of desalination. First is the high cost, because it takes a lot of increasingly expensive energy to remove salt from seawater. A second problem is that pumping large volumes of seawater through pipes and using chemicals to sterilize the water and keep down algae growth kills many marine organisms and also requires large inputs of energy (and thus money) to run the pumps. A third problem is that desalination produces huge quantities of salty wastewater that must go somewhere.
Describe the availability and use of freshwater resources in the United States.
Unfortunately, we are using whatever freshwater is available, unsustainably, by practices such as wasting, polluting and underpricing.
What percentage of the world's reliable runoff are we using and what percentage are we likely to be using by 2025?
We are using 0.024% of the world's reliable runoff. By 2025, we may be using about 90% of the world's reliable runoff.
irrigation
a way of supplying water to an area of land.
salinization
accumulation of salts in soil that can eventually make the soil unable to support plant growth.
pesticides
any chemical designed to kill or inhibit the growth of an organism that people consider undesirable.
mineral
any naturally occurring inorganic substance found in the earths crust as a crystalline solid.
reservoir
artificial lake created when a stream is dammed.
chronic malnutrition
caused by long-term food deprivation; people as short height and underweight.
integrated pest management (IPM)
combined use of biological, chemical, and cultivation methods in proper sequence and timing to keep the size of a pest population below the size that causes economically unacceptable loss of a crop or livestock animal.
polyculture
complex form of intercropping in which a large number of different plants maturing at different times are planted together.
mineral resource
concentration of naturally occurring solid, liquid or gaseous material in or on the earths crust in a form and amount such that extracting and converting it into useful materials or items is currently or potentially profitable. mineral resources are classified as metallic.
fishery
concentration of particular aquatic species suitable for commercial harvesting in a given ocean area or inland body of water.
drought
condition in which an area does not get enough water because of lower-than-normal precipitation or higher-than-normal temperatures that increase evaporation.
chronic undernutrition
condition suffered by people who cannot grow or buy enough food to meet their basic energy needs. Most chronically undernourished children live in developing countries and are likely to suffer from mental retardation and stunted growth and to die from infectious diseases.
food security
condition under which every person in a given area has daily access to enough nutritious food to have an active and healthy life.
food insecurity
condition under which people live with chronic hunger and malnutrition that threatens their ability to lead healthy and productive lives.
overnutrition
diet so high in calories, saturated (animal) fats, salt, sugar, and processed foods and so low in vegetables and fruits that the consumer runs a high risk of developing diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and other health hazards.
animal manure
dung and urine of animals used as a form of organic fertilizer.
subsurface mining
extraction of a metal ore or fuel resource such as coal from a deep underground deposit.
flood plain
flat valley floor next to a stream channel. For legal purposes, the term often applies to any low area that has the potential for flooding, including certain coastal areas.
strip mining
form of surface mining in which bulldozers, power shovels, or stripping wheels remove large chunks of the earths surface in strips.
contour strip mining
form of surface mining used on hilly or mountainous terrain. a power shovel cuts a series of terraces into the side of a hill. an earthmover removes the overburden and a power shovel extracts the coal. the overburden from each new terrace is dumped onto the one below.
green manure
freshly cut or still-growing green vegetation that is plowed into the soil to increase the organic matter and humus available to support crop growth.
aquaculture
growing and harvesting of fish and shellfish for human use in freshwater ponds, irrigation ditches, and lakes, or in cages, or fenced-in areas, of coastal lagoons and estuaries or in the open ocean.
plantation agriculture
growing specialized crops such as bananas, coffee, and cacao in tropical developing countries, primarily for sale to developed countries.
watershed
land area that delivers water, sediment, and dissolved substances via small streams to a major stream (river).
overburden
layer of soil and rock over lying a mineral deposit. surface mining removes this layer.
soil conservation
methods used to reduce soil erosion, prevent depletion of soil nutrients, and restore nutrients previously lost by erosion, leaching, and excessive crop harvesting.
soil erosion
movement of soil components, especially topsoil, from one place to another, usually by wind, flowing water, or both. This natural process can be greatly accelerated by human activities that remove vegetation from soil.
slash-and-burn agriculture
of a method of agriculture used in the tropics, in which forest vegetation is felled and burned, the land is cropped for a few years, then the forest is allowed to reinvade.
high-grade ore
ore containing a large amount of a desired material.
ore
part of a metal-yielding material that can be economically extracted from a mineral; typically containing two parts: the ore mineral, which contains the desired metal, and waste mineral material.
compost
partially decomposed organic plant and animal matter used as a soil conditioner or fertilizer.
green revolution
popular term for the introduction of scientifically bred or selected varieties of grain (rice, wheat, maize) that, with adequate inputs of fertilizer and water, can greatly increase crop yields.
surface water
precipitation that does not infiltrate the ground or return to the atmosphere by evaporation or transportation.
smelting
process in which a desired metal is separated from the other elements in an ore mineral.
traditional subsistence agriculture
production of enough crops or livestock for a farm family's survival and, in good years, a surplus to sell or put aside for hard times.
traditional intensive agriculture
production of enough food for a farm family's survival and perhaps a surplus that can be sold. This type of agriculture uses higher inputs of labor, fertilizer, and water than traditional subsistence agriculture.
high-input agriculture
production of large quantities of crops and livestock for domestic and foreign sale; involves use of large inputs of energy from fossil fuels (especially oil and natural gas), water, fertilizer, and pesticides.
industrialized agriculture
production of large quantities of crops and livestock for domestic and foreign sale; involves use of large inputs of energy from fossil fuels (especially oil and natural gas), water, fertilizer, and pesticides.
desalination
purification of salt water or brackish (slightly salty) water by removal of dissolved salts.
open-pit mining
removing minerals such as gravel, sand and metal ores by digging them out of the earths surface and leaving an open pit behind.
surface mining
removing soil, subsoil and other strata and then extracting a mineral deposit found fairly close to the earths surface.
reserves
resources that have been identified and from which a usable mineral can be extracted profitably at present prices with current mining or extraction technology.
waterlogging
saturation of soil with irrigation water or excessive precipitation so that the water table rises close to the surface.
reliable surface runoff
surface runoff of water that generally can be counted on as a stable source of water from year to year.
drainage basin
the area from which a single stream or river and its tributaries drains all of the water.
hydroponics
the method of growing plants in a solution of nutrients instead of in soil.
hunger
the natural physical drive to eat, prompted by the body's need for food.
mountaintop removal
type of surface mining that uses explosives, massive power shovels and large machines called draglines to remove the top of a mountain and expose seams of coal underneath a mountain.
area strip mining
type of surface mining used where the terrain is flat. an earthmover strips away the overburden, and a power shovel digs a cut to remove the mineral deposit. The trench is then filed with overburden and a new cut is made parallel to the previous one.
pest
unwanted organism that directly or indirectly interferes with human activities.
water table
upper surface of the zone of saturation, in which all available pores in the soil and rock in the earth's crust are filled with water.
surface runoff
water flowing off the land into bodies of surface water.
groundwater
water that sinks into the soil and is stored in slowly flowing and slowly renewed underground reservoirs called aquifers; underground water in the zone of saturation, below the water table.
famine
widespread malnutrition and starvation in a particular area because of a shortage of food, usually caused by drought, war, flood, earthquake, or other catastrophic events that disrupt food production and distribution.
