Acid rain - the generally understood name for the deposition of acids and acid forming compounds from the atmosphere to the earth's surface, including wet deposition (acid rain, cloud water deposition from fog and clouds), and dry deposition from dust and aerosols.

Adaptation - in an evolutionary sense is a change in gene frequencies

Agricultural revolution - the transformation of human civilization from one based largely on hunting and gathering to one based on the cultivation of crops and the raising of domesticated livestock

Air pollution - air is polluted when the concentrations and duration of chemicals exceed levels considered harmful to human health and to the environment

Anthropocentric - human centered, usually refers to an environmental ethic that views nature as a resource to be used by people

Aphotic zone - water below the photic zone where light levels are too low for net positive photosynthesis

Autotroph - an organism that fixes its own energy from inorganic sources, usually through the process of photosynthesis

Bioaccumulation - biological amplification, biological magnification, food chain concentration, or biological accumulation that occurs because an organism can not metabolize or excrete a substance at a rate equal to or greater than the rate at which it is ingested, and that results in increases in concentrations in the concentration of that substance in the organism, and may lead to even higher concentrations in the predators that eats the first organism that originally ingests the substance.

Biodiversity - the variety of life generally measured or observed in at least three levels of biological organization: biological diversity within a species (genetic diversity); biological diversity within communities, the number of species present (species diversity); the variety of different communities and habitats present in a landscape (ecological diversity)

Biomass - the standing stock of organic matter often subdivided into live biomass and dead biomass

Biomass fuels - combustible fuels made from products of current day photosynthesis

Budget (energy or nutrient) - a mathematical model of the inputs of energy or nutrients, the changes in storage, and the outputs from an ecosystem

Climate diagram - a type of diagram, or graphical model, of climate used by ecologists to describe the climate of a particular location, that represents mean monthly temperatures and mean monthly precipitation in relation to one another in such a way as to indicate the periods of relative drought and relative humid periods

Closed system - a system that does not exchange materials or energy with other systems

Commons - a resource to which a population has free and unmanaged access

Cultural revolution

Cycle (ecological) - any process, usually biologically mediated, that can account (at least theoretically) for the transformations of a substance through various forms and its ultimate return to its original form

Deep seepage - the transformation that changes ground water to deep aquifers, or can bring ground water back near the surface

Deforestation - the conversion of forested land to some other type of land use or vegetation, such as conversion of forest to cultivated land, pasture, or urban development

Demographic transition - the theoretical process of transformation of human population dynamics accompanying industrialization in which first, in the preindustrial stage, both mortality and birth rates are high, in the transitional stage of beginning industrialization mortality rates fall as a result of the introduction of sanitation and medicine. This is followed by reductions in birth rates in the industrial stage as the economic security of families increases, and the status of women is enhanced. Finally, birth rates and death rates are both small in the postindustrial stage, as at least theoretically, population stabilizes below carrying capacity where resources are comfortably abundant

Deposition - the processes resulting in sediments, colluvium, sand dunes, loess, and glacial moraines

Ecocentric - biologically centered or nature centered, usually refers to an environmental ethic that views humans as just another species, a part of nature

Environmental determinism - the environmental philosophy that describes the interaction between humans and the environment indicating that the environment determines what humans may accomplish

Erosion - technically, the processes of removing the products of weathering from the point of origin; generally, we use the word erosion to encompass the entire process that begins with weathering, and proceeds through erosion, to transportation (the carrying of the products of weathering by water, wind or gravity), to the point of deposition or sedimentation.

Evaporation - the transformation of liquid water to water vapor

Evapotranspiration - the combined processes of evaporation and transpiration when considered on a landscape or ecosystem level

First law of thermodynamics - the law of conservation of energy that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but may change form

Flow - in an ecological sense, a flow is an input or output of a material or substance to or from a component of a system to or from another component and may include transformations as well as translocations

Fossil fuel - products of partial decomposition and various stages of geologic metamorphosis of the organic remains of plants and animals by exposure to high pressure and heat through burial in the earth's crust

Functional component - a part of a system defined by its role and that can (at least theoretically) be measured in some way at a given point in time, often by counting the number of individuals (e.g. carnivores, herbivores, omnivores)

General circulation model - a model to describe the circulation of energy and moisture in the earth's atmosphere (GCM) sometimes also called a global climate model

Global climate change - although the earth's climate has undergone constant change since its origin, this term is usually used to describe the recent human influence on earth's climate through the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere

Greenhouse effect - the natural effect that traps heat in the atmosphere (particularly the troposphere) near the earth's surface. This begins when the earth's surface absorbs radiation from the sun (predominantly short wave), heats up, and radiates heat back to space (long wave, or infrared radiation). Some of the heat radiating back to space is absorbed by particular gases (called greenhouse gases) that absorb in the long wave lengths of infrared (like water droplets, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, CFCs, nitrous oxide). As these gas molecules heat up, they radiate some of their heat back to the surface of the earth warming it further.

Hazard - something that has the potential to cause harm particularly to human health (like injury, disease, or death), but also to environmental quality or to other living creatures

Heterotroph - an organism that consumes other organisms, and obtains energy by metabolizing that organic matter

Human determinism - the environmental philosophy that describes the interaction between humans and the environment indicating that human ingenuity and persistence can overcome any and all environmental barriers to human endeavors

Hunter-gatherer society - a human culture based on food production through the process of hunting and fishing, or gathering plant materials for sustenance. Although a hunter-gatherer culture is generally assumed to not include technologies associated with cultivation of crops or domestication of livestock, these cultures may have actively managed landscapes through the use of fire.

Industrial revolution - the transformation of human culture and civilization through the early development and use of energy sources from fossil fuels, and later from nuclear, to increase agricultural production and to enhance the fabrication of the products of material culture (manufacturing)

Infiltration - the transformation that changes surface water to ground water

Latent heat - heat required to change the state of a one gram of a substance from a solid to a liquid or from a liquid to a gas that is stored in the chemical and physical state of the substance, and that can be released when the conversion is reversed (condensation or solidification)

Mass wasting - movement of regolith down-slope by means of gravity without aid of water, wind, ice, etc.

Model - any abstraction or mental simplification of a system

NAAQS - National Ambient Air Quality Standards set by the Clean Air Acts of the US Congress of 1970, 1977 and 1990, that set standards for concentration and duration of seven pollutants: suspended particulate matter, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, volatile organic compounds and lead.

Net ecosystem production - the difference between the gross primary production and the total ecosystem respiration (respiration of the autotrophs and the heterotrophs)

Open system - a system that readily exchanges materials or energy with other systems

Ozone - a molecule made up of three atoms of oxygen, formed through the reversible atmospheric chemical processes involving the interaction of ultraviolet radiation with diatomic oxygen molecules in the presence of catalysts and appropriate surfaces (dust or ice)

Photic zone - same as euphotic zone - the surface layers of open water that provides sufficient light penetration for net photosynthesis to be positive

Photosynthesis - the process in which green plants fix light energy by transforming carbon dioxide and water into organic molecules made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (often in the form of glucose, C6H12O6), and diatomic oxygen.

Plate tectonics - the theory that states that the earth's lithosphere is made up of plates sliding on the asthenosphere, and is used to explain the movement of continents that once were connected in a single continent, and have separated into the continental structure we see today

Pre-agricultural society - a human population dependent on hunting and gathering for sustenance in which landscape management through the use of fire and other possible mechanisms may have occurred extensively

Precipitation - the transformation from water droplets (or ice particles) in the atmosphere to water (snow or ice) on the ground

Primary production - the production of the autotrophs ("self-feeders" or photosynthetic organisms in most ecosystems), considered in either net or gross terms. Gross primary production is gross photosynthesis without deducting for respiration of the plants doing the photosynthesis. Net primary production in gross primary production (gross photosynthesis) reduced by the amount that the photosynthesizers respire.

Renewable - a characteristic of a resource that is capable of being restored or replenished to a former state. Synonyms include regenerate, recreate, restore, replenish, rejuvenate, regenerate, reinstate and mend.

Respiration - The process which takes place in all living organisms in which the energy bound in organic molecules is released as the organic molecules are broken down to form carbon dioxide and water.

Risk - the possibility of suffering harm from a hazard that can cause injury, disease, economic loss, or environmental damage, normally expressed as a probability

Runoff - the transformation that changes surface water on land to water in streams, lakes and oceans

Scale - in ecology, the level of resolution or the relative proportion or size or extent of a phenomenon that may be measured in either time (temporal scale) or space (spatial scale). While a particular spatial or temporal scale may be more appropriate for a certain phenomenon, some phenomena may be observed and measured at several different scales (or levels of resolution)

Second law of thermodynamics - the law governing transformations of energy that energy may be transformed from one form to another form, but that the transformation will never be 100% efficient, unless the ultimate product desired is heat, because heat is lost at each transformation

Secondary production - the production of biomass by the consumers of the primary producers

Sedimentation - the process of settling of particulates from water

Smog - once used to refer to air pollution that originated as smoke and fog, now more generally understood to apply to various mixtures of air pollutants from natural and human produced sources. Industrial smog is a mixture of primary pollutants directly from industry and transportation sources. Photochemical smog is the result of the interaction of warm temperatures, sunlight, water vapor, and primary pollutants to produce secondary pollutants

Soil - the product of the interaction between substrate, climate and organisms that is influenced by topographic position of the substrate, and develops through time

Solar-hydrogen fuel economy - a proposal to transform the world's fuels use from petroleum-based fuels to hydrogen fuel generated

Solar-hydrogen fuel economy - a proposed system for providing transportation and other fuel to substitute for fossil fuels, that is based on solar energy generating electricity in photovoltaic cells (or from wind, or hydropower) being used to split water to produce hydrogen gas fuel

Spatial scale - a mode of measuring or observing a phenomenon in length, width, and/or height, in which its relative magnitude relative to other phenomenon is useful to increase understanding. For example, the spatial scale appropriate for the consideration of acid rain is regional; the spatial scale appropriate for the consideration of the application of a pesticide is usually highly local, depending on the persistence of the pesticide. The more persistent the pesticide is, the wider the region in which it must be considered ( and the longer the temporal scale)

Specific heat - the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance one degree centigrade

Stratosphere - the layer of the atmosphere immediately above the troposphere (the bottom layer). The stratosphere is a stable layer with little overturning, in which UV forms ozone from diatomic oxygen and the resulting ozone concentrations protect the earth's surface from the harmful effects of UV radiation

Structural component - a part of a system defined by its form and that can (at least theoretically) be measured as to its mass or volume

Substrate - any material upon which soil may develop, including rock, colluvium, alluvium, clay, sand, silt or mixed water deposited sediments, wind-blown silt or sand deposits, volcanic ash or other materials

Succession - the process of biological community change in which a series of organisms occupy a single site in a temporal progression whereby, theoretically, the earliest organisms present prepare the way for the later organisms

Surficial processes - in geology, processes that occur at the earth's surface, including weathering, erosion, transportation, and deposition

Sustainable - a characteristic of a human resource use system with long term stability in which the use rates do not exceed the rates of renewal

System - any structural or functional phenomenon having at least two separable components and some interaction between them

Temporal scale - a mode of measuring a phenomenon in time in which its relative duration or persistence is important to understand. For example, acid rain is a relatively short-lived phenomenon because acid forming compounds are readily washed out of the atmosphere by rain and do not persist for very long. Stratospheric ozone destruction is a long-lived phenomenon, and must be considered over decades to centuries, because CFCs have a very long residence time in the atmosphere.

Theory of isostacy - The theory of isostacy is the geologic theory that blocks of the earth's crust are set in motion by the solar driven hydrologic cycle through the weathering, erosion, transportation, and deposition of materials originating at high topographic positions and terminating in relatively lower topographic positions. The displacement of mass by the solar-driven hydrologic cycle results in disequilibrium of the positions of the crustal blocks floating in the mantle. As the blocks rise or sink to regain their gravimetric equilibrium, they may rub against each other and against the mantle, dissipating the original solar energy as geothermal energy.

Tool-making revolution - the transformation of human civilization (or simply of the human species) resulting from the use and manipulation of natural objects to form tools to enhance the ability of humans to extract resources for the landscape

Tragedy of the commons - the theory that any resource to which a population has free and unmanaged access will end in ruin through overexploitation even if the people using the resource understand in advance what will happen

Transpiration - the transformation of liquid water to water vapor that occurs in the stomates of plants

Transportation - in a geologic sense, transportation is the movement of the products of weathering and erosion from their point of origin to their point of deposition

Troposphere - the bottom layer of earth's atmosphere, about 15 km thick, in which most of the weather occurs

Weathering - chemical and mechanical alteration of rock materials during exposure to air, moisture, and organic matter

 See also the Glossary in the appendix of your text book (A46)

1. Describe specific ways in which the tool-making revolution, the agricultural revolution, and the industrial revolution increased the efficiency of humans to extract resources from our environment. Describe how this increase in efficiency increased the carrying capacity for human population. Describe how a solar hydrogen revolution might create a similar effect. Describe the impact of a demographic transition in reducing human population growth rates and stabilizing human population below the carrying capacity.
2. Rank the most urgent five environmental problems in order of urgency from most urgent to least urgent. Describe the problems in terms of causes and effects. Justify why your have chosen your specific five and justify the order you have ranked them in.
3. Use a system model developed according to the conventions described in lecture to describe what you believe to be the most urgent environmental problem today, and tell what insight a system model approach gives in understanding and addressing the problem.
4. How does the theory of the tragedy of the commons apply to current and historic trends in marine fisheries? Describe what the current and historic trends have been. Tell how this follows the pattern of the tragedy of the commons. Suggest a possible solution(s) that might prevent or reverse this pattern.
5. Describe the sources of energy that are used by humans today. Which of these originate(s) from solar radiation (and how) and which do not? For those that are not solar in origin, what is their source?
6. Describe how solar radiation, photosynthesis, respiration, and long term storage of biomass are connected to the concentration of gases in the atmosphere. What temporal scale(s) is appropriate for thinking about oxygen concentrations in the atmosphere? Why? What temporal scale(s) is appropriate for thinking about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? Why?
7. How was the emergence of life on land related to the chemistry of the atmosphere? Describe the biological and chemical processes, as well as the chronology.
8. Tell why some of the same processes that are important in soil depletion are important in soil formation. Address the issue of the sustainability of soils, and tell how human activity influences both soil formation and soil depletion processes.
9. Compare and contrast the troposphere with the stratosphere.
10. Describe the development of a climate cell in terms of the transformations of energy, and the changes of state of water and the temperature of air masses. Tell why the theoretical ideal climate cell is generally not exemplified by actual climate cells.
11. Describe the greenhouse effect, and tell why scientists believe that human activities are enhancing it.
12. Pick any location that you are familiar with (not used as an example in the lecture), and describe its climate through the use of a climate diagram and a paragraph that summarizes the data you show in your climate diagram.
13. What is the difference between the stratospheric ozone problem and the tropospheric ozone problem. Describe the causes and potential effects of each. Describe the appropriate scales at which each should be addressed in terms of solutions.
14. Describe the immediate and long term effects of acid rain.
15. List and define the National Ambient Air Quality Standards and the Secondary Ambient Air Quality Standards. Tell which of these has experienced improvements since their establishment, and which have not.
16. How is the hydrologic cycle connected with the following kinds of air pollution: stratospheric ozone depletion; acid rain; photochemical smog. Tell how interactions with ice, water, and water vapor influence the chemical transformations and the residence times of the pollutants in the atmosphere.
17. Describe the global hydrologic cycle and suggest all of those points where human influence may be having increasing influence on the hydrologic cycle. Tell why. Tell what the potential impact of the human influence may be.
18. Compare and contrast the principal human health risks of developed nations and developing nations. Discuss how the demographic transition changes the principal health risks of a population.
19. Define bioaccumulation. Give a specific example of biological accumulation in an ecological food web. Give another example of a harmful substance that does not bioaccumulate, and describe its ecological effects.
20. Compare and contrast the ideas of renewability and sustainability. Using an example, tell why renewability alone is not a very useful concept in resource management, and tell what the advantages are of approaching the management of resources through the analysis of sustainability.
21. Terrestrial ecosystems differ from aquatic and marine ecosystems with regard to energetics in at least one important way. To illustrate this difference, draw energy pyramids for the two kinds of systems, and tell why an energy pyramid is not always pyramid shaped.
22. Describe the importance of upwelling in marine ecosystems in terms of the photic and aphotic layers. Describe how the occurrence of an ENSO (El Nino - Southern Oscillation) might decrease ocean productivity.
23. Define the environmental philosophies of human determinism and environmental determinism, and tell if they are directly correlated with the environmental ethics of anthropocentrism and ecocentrism. In other words, define anthropocentrism (for example) and tell if one must believe in human determinism to be anthropocentric?
24. Is science objective? What human characteristics would contribute to the failure of science to be objective? What characteristics of science as a specifically defined discipline might enable it to be scientific?
25. Using the logistic growth curve show and tell how a demographic transition might prevent human population from reaching its carrying capacity. Tell why this might be a good thing. Tell why this phenomenon does not occur in animal populations.
26. Describe the usual assumptions of a population projection, and tell what the strengths and weaknesses of each assumption might be. Tell how changing the assumptions might change the population projection.
27. State the five tenets of Darwin's hypothesis of speciation by means of natural selection. Tell how each tenet of the hypothesis relates to current trends in global climate warming. It might be easier to answer this question using an example of a specific organism.
28. Some scientists predict that human induced environmental change will cause mass extinctions. Comment on mass extinctions that have occurred in the past. Did biodiversity recover? Over what time frame? Compare this time frame with human time frames.