APES 2009 Semester One Review Sheet

CHAPTER 1
Logistic growth curve: the population follows a s-shape
-birthrate starts high and death rate is high
- Then as it transtions from developing to industrial the birth rate remains
constant and the death rate decreases.
-eventually the birth rate and death rate level out

Carrying capacity:
what is it? the maximum abundance of a population or species that can be maintained
by a habitat or ecosystem without degrading the ability of that habitat or ecosystem
to maintain that abundance in the future
Why is it difficult to apply to humans? Not all humans live under the same conditions.

Atmosphere/ Climate bonus material:

What is the Earth’s atmosphere composed of?
78% Nitrogen 21% Oxygen 1% Argon 385ppm CO2

What has happened to CO2 concentration since Industrial Revolution?

-Before the industrial revolution there was 300 parts per million.
-During the revolution it went down to 280 parts per million
-It has been growing
-It is currently at 385 parts per million
-It will be at 450 per million at 2050
-CO2 is found in glacier bubbles.

What is the second-leading greenhouse gas? The first CFC, then CH4, then O3

Chapter 2:
Steps of the scientific method
Observation, Develop a Hypothesis, Testing, Record Data/Observation, Conclusion
Design a controlled experiment: Design an experiment to test the hypothesis that plants grow
faster in a CO2-enriched environment. Make sure to identify your dependent and. independent
variables

Deductive reasoning vs. inductive reasoning

Deductive: drawing a conclusion from initial definitions and assumptions by means of logical
reasoning
Inductive reasoning: drawing a general conclusion from a limited set of specific observations

Accuracy vs. precision

accuracy: extent to which a measurement agrees with the accepted or correct value for that
quantity
precision: how closely a series of measurements agree with one another, measure of
reproducibility
Chapter 3:
Calculation: stock-flow, residence time: Could you, for example, calculate the amount of time
the average water molecule spends in the atmosphere?
ART = S/F Fin = Fout

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Feedback loops: positive & negative
--Remember that when you describe a loop your last step should either be equivalent to your
first step or it should negate it.
Positive: when an increase in output leads to a further increase in output (ex: forest fire)
Negative: an increase in output leads to a later decrease (ex: sweating)

Chapter 4:
Calculations: Pert and Rule of 70
– A = Pe rt
– TD = 70/r

Crude rates
-per 1000 people
-Crude Birth Rate minus crude death rate

Population and growth rate for U.S.

population: 308 million
growth rate: .98% per year

Population and growth rate for world

population: 6.8 billion
growth rate: 1.14% per year

Which grows faster, developing or industrialized nations? What is going on with urbanization?
Developing nations grow faster because of a high death and birth rate.
Urbanization causes everyone/everywhere to become more densely populated

What is a megacity? urban areas with at least 8 million inhabitants

What are the world’s most populous cities? Most populous nations?
Countries China (1.3 B) India (1.2 B) U.S. (308 M) Indonesia (240 M) Brazil (199 M)
Cities:
1. Tokyo, Japan - 28,025,000
2. Mexico City, Mexico - 18,131,000
3. Mumbai, India - 18,042,000
4. Sáo Paulo, Brazil - 17, 711,000
5. New York City, USA - 16,626,000

Thomas Malthus: what did he say? Provide some detail.

-Human population grows exponentially (grows by a fixed percentage each time period)
-food supply grows linearly (grows by a fixed amount each time period)
-inevitable fate of mankind is starvation and warfare

Crude birth/death rates -per 1000 people

The demographic transition: the pattern of change in birth and death rates as a country is
transformed from undeveloped to developed. THREE STAGES
1. in an undeveloped country, birth and death rates are high and the growth rate low
2. the death rate decrease, but the birth rate remains high and the growth rate is high
3. the birth rate drops toward the death rate and the growth rate therefore also decreases
Demographic momentum same thing as above?

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Predictions for future of population growth:
it becomes so large that the world would not be able to handle it

What caused population increase beginning about 10K years ago? Agricultural Revolution

What factors led to the population boom after the Industrial Revolution? medicine

Who is Malthus? Who is Paul Ehrlich? Malthus above

Ehrlich predicted that the world would experience famines sometime between 1970 and 1985 due to
population growth outstripping resources

Chapter 5:
What two traits allow elements to cycle quickly? ??????????

Composition of
--Earth’s crust Oxygen 45% Silicon 29% Aluminum 8% Iron 6% Calcium 6% Magnesium 6%
--Earth’s core Iron and Nickel; Inner is solid; Outer is liquid; Asthenosphere-part between mantle and
crust; lithosphere is the crust

Special focus on the nitrogen cycle

--Ammonification: When a plant or animal dies, or an animal excretes, the initial form of
nitrogen is organic. Bacteria, or in some cases, fungi, convert the organic
nitrogen within the remains back into ammonia
--Nitrogen fixation: The process by which atmospheric nitrogen is converted to ammonia,
nitrate, ion, or amino acids. Microorganisms perform most of the
converstion, but a small amount is also converted by lightning.
--Nitrification: the chemical process of combining ammonium with oxygen to get nitrates
--Denitrification: the conversion of nitrate to molecular nitrogen by the action of bacteria
What form of nitrogen can be assimilated by plants? Nitrates

Familiarity with: carbon, phosphorous, and hydrologic cycles

carbon: carbon enters the atmosphere through living things and is removed by photosynthesis
phosphorous: it exists as dust in the atmosphere (does not mix, very slow)
enters the biota through plants, returns when plants die, bird poop has phosphorous
upwelling: water rises to ocean’s surface from depth, caused by wind patterns.
Cold, deep water contains nutrients and dissolved gases. add sunlight to create
favorable conditions for phytoplankton.
hydrologic: circulation of water from the oceans to the atmosphere and back to the oceans by
way of evaporation, runoff from streams and rivers, and groundwater flow.

Carbon cycle: know major stocks and flows between atmosphere, biota, ocean.
STOCKS
Soil 1580 tons of carbon
Fossil fuels 4000 tons of carbon
Land 560 tons of carbon
Ocean 38000 tons of carbon
Marine sediments 100,000,000 tons of carbon

FLOWS

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Fossil Fuels 6.3 tons a year
Volcanoes .1 tons a year
Land use 2.2 tons per year
Photosynthesis is 120 tons per year
Ocean is 107 tons per year
Weathering is .6 tons per year
Atmosphere .5 tons per year

How has life altered the composition of the atmosphere?

Through the burning of fossil fuels we have increase carbon, which caused a slight increase in
percentage of carbon in the atmosphere, which caused the temperature change.

Limiting factor: the single requirement for growth available in the least supply in comparison to the
need of an organism.

Plate tectonics:
# of plates in lithosphere 13
3 types of plate boundaries
Divergent: production of new lithosphere;; found along oceanic ridges, when plates pull apart
Convergent: one plates descends below the other, comes together
Transform: when they rub against each other quickly
Here's a link to the water unit

I. Water pollution and water quality testing--

A. Chemical--possible tests
pH Testing for the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+).
• What is pH of unpolluted rainwater? For an unpolluted lake? Why are they different?
Rainwater: 5.6 unpolluted lake: 6.5-8.5
different because there is carbon and soil when the water hits the lakes
• What are consequences for lowered pH? The water is more acidic
Dissolved Oxygen (DO)
• 2 ways oxygen gets in the water 1) photosynthesis of water plants 2) turbulence
• What is biological oxygen demand (BOD)? The amount of oxygen required for biochemical
decomposition processes
• Be able to graph what happens to DO with the addition of BOD
-low BOD there is high DO -high BOD low DO
Nitrates (one of 2 nutrients of concern--these are the forms that Nitrogen takes)
• What are sources of nitrates? Fertilizers, feedlots, sewage, detergents, agriculture
• Nitrates cause eutrophication--outline the seven steps
1. Nitrogen or phosphorus added
2. Algal bloom
3. Sunlight blocked
4. Plants die
5. Aerobic bacteria breakdown detritus
6. Dissolved Oxygen drops
7. Fish die
Phosphates (the other nutrient of concern--these are the forms that Phosphorous takes)
See above
B. Physical--possible tests
Turbidity--measures suspended solids in water
• What things alongside of a river might increase turbidity levels?
- Mud, sewage, waste, feces

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 • What is a Secchi disk? Used for testing turbidity…circle with black and white fourths
• What impact does turbidity have on aquatic food chains? If turbidity is higher, then
the water is more unhealthy, and thus larger organisms cannot survive
• What impact does it have on water temperature? it raises temperature
Temperature
• What is thermal pollution?
when heat is released into water and produces undesirable effects on the environment
• Give two ways that deforestation affects temperature. 1) trees provide shade…w/o them,
water is warmer 2) sediment holds and absorbs it…heats it up
C. Biological
Biological Indicators
• What is a biological indicator? A species that can be used to determine the condition of the
particular water (lake, river, stream, etc.) you are dealing with
• Name two species that would indicate a healthy stream. Mayfly, caddisfly
• Name two species that would indicate an unhealthy stream mosquito, midge larva
Fecal coliform bacteria
• Are fecal coliform bacteria harmful? no
• What are we testing for when we test fecal coliform bacteria? Diseases in the water
• What are some pathogens we might be concerned about if we have high colony counts for
fecal coliform bacteria? Typhoid, hepatitis, giardia, cholera

II. General
• How much of world's water is fresh and available? 3% is fresh, 1% is available to us
• How much of Earth's surface is covered by water? 70%
• What chemical characteristics make water such an important substance?
-Liquid over a wide temperature range (0˚-100˚C)
-high heat capacity (take in a lot w/o increasing temp)
-takes a lot of heat to evaporate liquid water
-can dissolve a variety of compounds
-polar molecule-strong attractive forces to contract
-capillary action: (tendency of liquid to rise in narrow tubes)
-water expands when it freezes
• What is a watershed? Why are they considered important? An area
of land that forms the drainage of a stream or river; they are important to help pollution
(sediment and algae) with utrification

III. Wetlands areas

• What are wetlands? What types of wetlands are there?
–lands where saturation with water occurs during some period of the year
-marsh, bog, fen, swamps (non-coastal and coastal)
• What is an estuary? Where freshwater river/streams mix with saltwater (at the ocean)
• What has happened to wetlands in the U.S.? more than half have been destroyed
• Name 3 reasons why wetlands are ecologically beneficial
1) natural water treatment plants/filters
2) storm/flood barrier
3) productive ecosystem, lots of life; 1/3 of endangered species live in wetlands
• Name 3 reasons why wetlands are economically beneficial
1) provide products/resources like agriculture, fish/shellfish, and pelts
2)provide recreation and aesthetics ($59.5 billion annually)
3) cranberries!

IV. Water treatment and use

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 • What are the three phases of water treatment? What does each phase do?
1) Primary treatment: getting the solids out with grit chamber/filter. Then it goes to the
sedimentation tank, where coagulation occurs (to get things to rest at bottom)
2) Secondary treatment: uses the activated sludge (throw in microbes to seek out organic
materials); aeration tanks add oxygen; disinfection (kill microbes)
3) Advanced Treatment (specific to region); get rid of nutrients, organic chemicals and heavy
metals
• Name something that might be dealt with in advanced (tertiary) treatment
eutrophication
• Name the leading users of water in the nation. In the household. AGRICULTURE,
personal use, irrigation, hydropower, navigation, recreation Toilets, Faucet, Showers
V. Miscellaneous
• What is channelization? What are the environmental consequences?
Straightening/deepening of a stream; causes lots of sedimentation
• What can accumulate in soils after an extended period of irrigation?
salt
• Give an example of point source water pollution. An area source of water pollution?
point source: distinct, confined, controlled (industrial pipes)….run off
• Understand why farmed fish are considered a threat to fishery stocks.
they can easily contaminate the normal fish supply

VI. Groundwater
• What is the difference between an influent stream and an effluent stream? Influent:
indirect response to precipitation effluent: maintained by groundwater seepage
• What is an aquifer? Underground zone where groundwater can be obtained
• How significant is groundwater as a water source in the U.S.? VERY. 22% of all
freshwater withdrawals, 37% of agricultural use as well as of public water supply, 51% of all
drinking water, 99% of drinking water for rural population
• What are some consequences of groundwater use? 25% is
contaminated. Surface runoff (soil is saturated); sink holes
VI. The Law
• What is the Clean Water Act? What does it say? Primary federal law dealing with water
pollution, effluent limits for industry, established water quality standards for surface waters:
Those applying for construction permits must have:
- taken steps to avoid wetland impacts where practicable
- provided compensation for any remaining, unavoidable impacts through
activities to restore or create wetlands.
• Name a piece of legislation that might come into play if someone wants to develop a
wetland area. The Clean Water Act