Unit 5.1 Study Guide Summer 2009: Human Impact On The Environment

Unit 5.1 Study Guide Summer 2009 Questions and Answers Human Impact on the Environment

What and How to Study Study the PowerPoint lectures and their review questions. Read the chapters assigned in the text. Know the key vocabulary terms (lists at the end of each chapter and/or the glossaries). Prepare frequently prior to the test. Review the film study questions where applicable. These statements apply to all of the unit tests and exam.

Please Note • The study guide question project is a work in progress, and accordingly, it is incomplete. Therefore none of the study question sets should be considered a “substitute” for a complete and exhaustive test preparation. This applies to all four of the study guide question sets.

Human Impact on the Biosphere

Please Note • This portion of the study guide is incomplete. Be sure to carefully review the PPP for “Human Impact on the Environment”. • Use your text index to find supporting material in the text. This lecture covers several topics found through out the text.

Human Impact on the Environment • Open the file: Human Impact on the Environment Glossary and study these terms.

Question 1 1. Define: pollutant.

Answer 1  Define: pollutant. •

Substances with which an ecosystem has  had no prior evolutionary experience

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No adaptive mechanisms are in place to  deal with them

Question 2 2. List 4 air pollutants.

Question 2 2. List 4 air pollutants.

Question 3 3. What is a thermal inversion?

Answer 3 3. What is a thermal inversion? • Weather pattern in which a layer of cool, dense air is trapped beneath a layer of warm air.

Question 4 4. Complete the following “acid rain” equation: Nitric acid + limestone yields ? +? +?

Answer 4 4. Complete the following “acid rain” equation: Nitric acid + limestone yields ? +? +? 2 HNO3 + CaCO3  Ca(NO3)2 + H2O +CO2

Nitric acid + limestone yields calcium nitrate + water + carbon dioxide

Q5 • What chemicals are major components of acid rain?

A5 • sulfur and nitrogen oxides. These react with water to product acids.

Q6 • What are major sources of these components?

A6 • Coal-burning power plants and motor vehicles are major sources of sulfur and nitrogen oxides.

Q7 • What is (are) the effect(s) of ozone thinning?

A7 • Increased amount of UV radiation reaches Earth’s surface • UV damages DNA and negatively affects human health • UV also affects plants, lowers primary productivity

Q8 • What is the recipe for ozone loss?

A8 •

“The polar winter leads to the formation of the polar vortex which

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Cold temperatures form inside the vortex; cold enough for the formation of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs). As the vortex air is isolated, the cold temperatures and the PSCs persist. Once the PSCs form, heterogeneous reactions take place and

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•

isolates the air within it.

convert the inactive chlorine and bromine reservoirs to more active forms of chlorine and bromine. No ozone loss occurs until sunlight returns to the air inside the polar vortex and allows the production of active chlorine and initiates the catalytic ozone destruction cycles. Ozone loss is rapid. The ozone hole currently covers a geographic region a little bigger than Antarctica and extends nearly 10km in altitude in the lower stratosphere”

Q9 • How can the ozone layer be protected?

A9 • CFC production has been halted in developed countries, will be phased out in developing countries • Methyl bromide will be phased out • Even with bans it will take more than 50 years for ozone levels to recover

Q 10 • About ______ of the garbage produced is ______.

A 10 • ½; paper

Q 11 • Introduction of mechanized agriculture and practices requires ……..

A 11 • Introduction of mechanized agriculture and practices requires inputs of pesticides, fertilizer, fossil fuel

Q 12 • What is happening to the water tables in India? Why?

A 12 • The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) estimates that withdrawals of underground water are double the rate of aquifer recharge. • As a result, water tables are falling almost everywhere.

Q 13 • What is the effect of these changes?

A 13 • Falling water tables are now also threatening India's food production.

Q 14 • Define deforestation.

A 14 • Removal of all trees from large tracts of  land.

Q 15 • What are some effects of deforestation?

A 15 • Increased leaching and soil erosion • Increased flooding and sedimentation of downstream rivers • Regional precipitation declines • Possible amplification of the greenhouse effect

Q 16 • Where are major regions of deforestation?

A 16 • Rates of forest loss are greatest in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Columbia • Highly mechanized logging is proceeding in temperate forests of the United States and Canada

Q 17 • Who is Wangari Maathai ? Why is she famous?

A 17 • She is a Kenyan Nobel peace laureate; her tree-planting campaign

Q 18 • What is biodiversity? Who is it affected by deforestation?

A 18 • American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source bi·o·di·ver·si·ty (bī'ō-dĭ-vûr'sĭ-tē) n. • The number and variety of organisms found within a specified geographic region. • The variability among living organisms on the earth, including the variability within and between species and within and between ecosystems. • Deforestation lowers biodiversity.

Q 19 • What is desertification?

A 19 • Conversion of large tracts of grassland to  desert­like conditions. 

The End of the “Human Impact” Study Guide Questions • Please be sure to master the entire lecture!