Unit 9 APES
The drop in stratospheric ozone levels in the Southern Hemisphere (the "ozone hole") is most evident during which season?
Antarctic spring (october)
What is the impact of climate change on polar regions?
Atmosphere over polar regions becomes warmer, an ice-albedo feedback occurs, causing warmer oceans and land, frozen water melts and increases ocean or lake volume, Increased evaporation rates create greenhouse gasses over polar regions, Atmosphere continuously warms and frozen water melts.
What compounds is NOT involved in the depletion of stratospheric ozone?
CO2
Describe an advantage of constructing habitat corridors.
Corridors connect habitats separated by fragmentation and connect wildlife populations.
Describe 3 sources of methane in the atmosphere?
Cow farts, oil and gas, landfills
Large quantities of methane hydrates are located in this region and if released will contribute significantly to global climate change. Where is it?
D- Alaska
What are the two factors thought to be the most harmful to biodiversity?
Destruction of habitat and invasion by nonnative species
What human activities is most closely associated with depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer?
Disposing of refrigerators that release CFCs
Stratospheric ozone depletion is most likely to result in what?
Disruption of photosynthesis in plants
Characteristics that tend to increase the risk of a species becoming endangered include which of the following? 1. Having a very limited distribution 2. Being a specialist at the end of a long food chain 3. Having a small population size
I, II, and III
Reasons that the population size of an exotic species often grows rapidly when the species is introduced in a new environment include which of the following? 1. The exotic species is resistant to pesticides. 2. There is a large, underutilized food source in the new environment. 3. The exotic species has few natural predators in the new environment.
II and III only
What is a possible effect of global climate change as illustrated in Scenario 1 ?
Increased sea level would reduce the size of the habitat patches.
Describe the mechanism of the greenhouse effect in Earth's atmosphere?
Infrared radiation from Earth's surface is absorbed by gasses in the atmosphere, gasses in Earth's atmosphere trap the heat.
Describe the effect of temperature on the chemical reactions that result in ozone layer depletion.
Low temperatures create polar stratospheric clouds that lead to the production of free radicals of chlorine, which result in the breakdown of ozone at the beginning of the antarctic spring.
Sixty-five percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are made up of carbon dioxide, while only sixteen percent are made up of methane gas.Why are scientists increasingly concerned about the effect of methane as emissions on global climate if they are a relatively small percent of greenhouse gasses released?
Methane gas has a higher global warming potential (GWP) than carbon dioxide does, so it can trap more heat in the atmosphere.
Road construction, logging, and mining are banned in which federal lands?
National wilderness preservation areas
How would an increase in greenhouse gasses affect the ocean?
Ocean water expansion, disease vectors spreading from the tropics to the poles, and rising sea levels.
Describe a disadvantage of creating a series of protected habitats in an effort to maintain biodiversity in an area.
Protected habitats often separate species inside the habitat from other populations of the same species living outside the habitat.
In general, which of the following is the best long-term method of preventing extinctions?
Protecting the habitats of endangered species
Red pine trees are currently found growing in only the cool northernmost areas of the central and eastern United States. Climate change is expected to have an impact on the distribution of the species. What is the most likely change to the distribution of red pine over the next 200 years?
Red Pine distribution will shift northward into Canada
What is the best example of reclamation of disturbed lands?
Restoring vegetation to an area that has been mined
What are the effects of global warming?
Rising temperatures, melting permafrost and sea ice, rising sea levels, and displacement of coastal populations.
Silver carp were introduced in the southeastern United States in the 1970s from their native habitat of China to control algal blooms that were occurring at aquaculture facilities and sewage lagoons. Silver carp escaped from captivity shortly after their introduction and are currently found as far north as North Dakota and Minnesota. What is an unintended, negative consequence of the introduction of silver carp into the United States?
Silver carp became invasive species in the United States because their numbers were not being controlled by natural predators.
Describe a negative effect of substituting hydrofluorocarbons (HCFC's) forchlorofluorocarbons (CFC's ) in an effort to reduce ozone depletion.
Some type of hydrofluorocarbons are greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.
What would most likely have the greatest positive impact on the quality of the natural environment worldwide?
Stabilization or reduction of the size of the human population.
What best exemplifies global collaboration for a sustainable environment?
The Montreal protocol
How does the biosphere affect global climate change?
The biosphere influences the amounts of some of the major greenhouse gasses such as methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide.
Scientists want to investigate whether the increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the ocean affects fish survival. Scientists suspect immature fish larvae may be most affected by increased carbon dioxide concentrations. Identify a testable hypothesis for the investigation. What solutions can best reduce an anthropogenic cause of ocean acidification?
The decreasing pH of the ocean water will decrease the survivorship of fish.
Describe how ocean acidification affects coral formation.
The increase in hydrogen ions dissolved in the ocean water sequesters available carbonate ions, preventing the use of calcium carbonate for coral skeleton formation.
What will occur if the trend of global temperature increase continues?
The troposphere will contain more water vapor
Although levels of CFCs in the atmosphere are much lower than those of CO2 , CFCs are still potent greenhouse gas. Why?
They are much more efficient at absorbing thermal radiation
Brown marmorated stink bugs are native to China and Japan. They were identified in Pennsylvania for the first time in 1998 and have since spread across North America, feeding on agricultural crops.What characteristics of the brown marmorated stink bug has led to them being an invasive species in North America?
They are tolerant of a wide range of environmental conditions.
Why do introduced species often become pests?
They displace native species
Global climate change occurs because increasing concentrations of greenhouse gasses in what area of the atmosphere and what type of radiation?
Troposphere absorbs outgoing infrared radiation
Explain why water vapor, a greenhouse gas, is not considered a significant contributor to global climate change.
Water vapor has a short resistance time in the atmosphere
If Earth had no atmosphere, the mean surface temperature would be approximately -15°C. With our present atmosphere, Earth's mean surface temperature is approximately +15°C. Why?
absorption of infrared radiation by atmospheric gasses
Many organisms, such as honeybees and livestock, have been domesticated for economic reasons. Describe an unintended consequence of this practice.
as humans tamed wild organisms to amplify desired traits, genetic diversity decreased in the organism's population
In the stratosphere, what increases Earth's albedo by reflecting solar energy back into space?
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide and particulates are emitted by volcanoes. Particulates form stratospheric aerosols that reflect sunlight. What is the impact of atmospheric carbon dioxide and stratospheric aerosols?
carbon dioxide contributes to global warming and aerosols cause cooling
What substance is released by CFC's and catalyzes a chain reaction that breaks down ozone in the upper atmosphere?
chlorine
Which greenhouse gas has the greatest heat-trapping ability per molecule?
chlorofluorocarbon gas
What is a greenhouse gas that comes only from human sources?
chlorofluorocarbons
What environmental problem is most directly linked to ocean warming?
coral bleaching
What results from greenhouse warming but also contributes to additional warming of Earth (i.e., is a positive feedback process)?
decreased size of the arctic snowpack
What was a major goal of the program that begun in 1995 to reintroduce the gray wolf into Yellowstone National Park?
enable the removal of the gray wolf from the endangered species list
Which law contains an amendment that allows private landowners to modify their property under a habitat conservation plan?
endangered species
What are the main environmental effects of ozone depletion?
lower food crop production, Disruption of marine food chains, increased incidence of skin cancer, reduction of primary productivity in the oceans. Not decreased concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere
What is a positive feedback mechanism associated with global climate change?
melting of arctic sea ice
Why is it predicted that ozone depletion over the poles will be at its worst between 2010 and 2019?
ozone depleting chemicals produced before their use was banned will take that long to reach peak concentrations in the stratosphere
This layer of Earth's atmosphere contains the ozone layer that absorbs the sun's ultraviolet rays.
stratosphere
Population biologists are concerned about introduced species such as the zebra mussel in North America. Why?
the introduced species compete for resources more effectively than native species
In models of global warming, the most important factor contributing to an increase in sea level rise is what?
the thermal expansion of the oceans
The polar regions radiate away more heat energy than they receive from the Sun in the course of a year.However, they are prevented from becoming progressively colder each year primarily by what?
transport of heat through the ocean
What is the most abundant nonanthropogenic greenhouse gas?
water vapor
