Questions and Answers of Environment

During mating season, male giraffes slam their necks together in fighting bouts to determine which male is stronger and can mate with females. Explain how long necks may have evolved under this
Charles Darwin once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” How does this statement relate to the definition
Where are earthquakes and volcanoes commonly located, and why?
What are tectonic plates and plate boundaries?
Distinguish between tornadoes and tropical cyclones.
How do you distinguish between weather and climate? What are the two most important climate factors?
What is the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)? What are some of its global effects?
How are the sun’s energy, prevailing winds, and surface-ocean currents related?
What basic forces determine the circulation of the atmosphere?
How does the sun affect temperature at different latitudes? Why?
Suppose a valley contains a small city surrounded by agricultural land. The valley is encircled by mountain wilderness. Explain why the preservation of the mountain ecosystem would support both urban
What are the main types of federally owned land in the United States? What uses are permitted on each type of land? What are current issues of concern for each type?
Name at least four ecosystem services provided by non-urban lands. Why is it difficult to assign economic values to many of these benefits?
What is wildlife management? How do the goals of wildlife management and conservation biology differ?
What is the Endangered Species Act?
Is restoration ecology an important aspect of in situ or ex situ conservation?
How can an invasive species endanger native species?
What is the most significant cause of species endangerment and extinction?
What are biodiversity hotspots? Where are most biodiversity hotspots located?
What are endangered species? Threatened species?
How do you distinguish between background extinction and mass extinction events?
What are three examples of ecosystem services provided by biological diversity?
What is biological diversity?
When people discuss the impact of global climate change, they usually mention polar bears or other charismatic animals. However, according to scientists at Botanic Gardens Conservation International,
Why is the Arctic snow goose such a challenge for U.S. wildlife managers? For Canadian wildlife managers?
What U.S. law provides legal protection to species to reduce their danger of extinction? Are species listed based on scientific reasons or on their economic value? Explain your answer.
What are two advantages of using the principle of restoration ecology to return a degraded environment to a more functional one? How can these be applied to small, local sites?
The following graph shows the effects of predation over a four week period on young bay scallops in three different marine seagrass environments. How does habitat fragmentation (patchiness) affect
Give examples of in situ and ex situ conservation.
According to the cartoon, what is one of the main causes of habitat loss in terrestrial ecosystems? WORLD WILPLIFE HABITATS HUMAN EAHNENT OSteve Greenberg
What are biodiversity hotspots?
Review the following table and calculate the percent of change in number of U.S. threatened or endangered species listed between 2005 and 2014, both total and for each group. What is the total
List four characteristics common to many endangered species.
How is the current period of mass extinction different from all previous periods of mass extinction?
What is sustainable manufacturing?
Explain the difference between reuse and recycling.
What is a problem that limits mining known mineral deposits in Indonesia? In Siberia?
How do mining experts differentiate between mineral reserves and mineral resources?
How does mineral consumption differ between industrialized and developing countries?
Are mining lands usually restored when the mine is no longer profitable to operate? Why or why not?
How are mineral deposits discovered?
How does magmatic concentration form mineral deposits?
Which type of mining–surface mining or subsurface mining – is more harmful to the environment? Which type is more expensive to do?
What is the difference between high-grade and low-grade ores?
Examine the graph, which shows the increase in world use of electricity for mining and refining virgin aluminum has increased since the 1950s. Given that the production of aluminum has become more
How does the industrial ecosystem at Kalundborg, Denmark, resemble a natural ecosystem? Would this approach produce more, or fewer, greenhouse gases than if the same energy and products were produced
Have mineral deposits been mined in Antarctica? Why or why not?
What are manganese nodules? Why have these known deposits not been mines?
Why do we have to distinguish between mineral resources and mineral reserves when making projections about how long a specific mineral will be available? Why it is difficult to obtain an accurate
Compare mineral consumption in the United States, China, and a poorer country such as Nigeria. Which of these countries has experienced the most rapid increase in mineral consumption in recent years?
How did Copper Basin, Tennessee become an environmental disaster?
Explain why it is more environmentally damaging to obtain minerals from low-grade ores than to extract them from high-grade ores.
What is overburden? A Spoil bank? Smelting? Tailings?
How does the cartoon below relate to the General Mining Law of 1872? How does it reflect the environmental effects of strip mining versus surface mining? STRIP MINE ESTATES MINERAL RIGHTS? THEY'RE
Distinguish between surface and subsurface mining, between open-pit and strip mines, between shaft and slope mines.
What is the difference between rocks and minerals? Between metals and nonmetallic minerals?
How can degraded soils be reclaimed? What is the Conservation Reserve Program?
What is crop rotation? Strip cropping?
What was the American Dust Bowl?
How would you distinguish between soil erosion and nutrient mineral depletion?
What is sustainable soil use?
Which of the five soil orders (spodosols, alfisols, mollisols, aridosols, and oxisols) is associated with deserts? With tropical forests? With semiarid grasslands?
What is the optimum pH of most soils? What happens if the soil pH falls out of this range?
What is soil texture?
Name two ecosystem services that soil organisms perform.
What are soil horizons? Distinguish between the O-horizon and A-horizon.
What are the four components of soil, and how is each important?
Does conversion of undisturbed land to farmland impact the global carbon cycle and climate change? Explain your answer.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt once sent a letter to the state governors in which he said, “A nation that destroys its soils, destroys itself.” Would he have supported the Conservation Reserve
Distinguish among conservation tillage, crop rotation, contour plowing, strip cropping, terracing, shelterbelts, and agroforestry as methods of sustainable soil use.
The American Dust Bowl is sometimes portrayed as a “natural” disaster brought on by drought and high winds. Present a case for the view that this disaster was not caused by nature as much as by
How is human overpopulation related to world soil problems?
Where does eroded soil go after it is transported by water, wind, or ice?
Describe two ways in which nutrient minerals are lost from the soil.
How does sustainable soil use protect the agricultural soil system?
Which two of these soil orders are best suited for agriculture: spodosol, alfisoil, mollisol, aridosol, and oxisol? Why?
Give an example of how plants affect soil pH. Give an example of how soil pH affects plants.
How does the presence of various-sized particles (sand, silt, and clay) affect soil characteristics?
How do organisms contribute to nutrient cycling in the soil system?
Which soil horizons are most prone to erosion? How might your answer be significant to farmers?
What are the four distinct parts of the soil system?
Why do we consider soil to be a system?
How would you describe the world you want your children to live in? How does the future world you envision differ from the realities of today?
How does unsustainable consumption affect environmental sustainability?
What are two serious problems in megacities in the developing world?
What is the global extent of food insecurity?
What are two ecosystem services that natural resources such as forests and biological diversity provide?
How is the natural environment – Earth’s living organisms and ecosystems – an essential part of sustainable development?
What is a biome? What climate and soil factors produce each of the major terrestrial biomes?
Briefly discuss two major human-caused problems in the ocean.
Explain how coral reefs are vulnerable to human activities.
What would happen to the organisms in a river, with a fast current, if a dam were built? Explain your answer.
Which of the ocean zones shown would be home to each of the following organisms: lobster, coral, mussel, porpoise, and dragonfish? For those organisms you identify as living in the pelagic
What is the largest marine environment, and what are some of its features?
Which aquatic ecosystem is often compared to a tropical rain forest? Why?
Explain the role of freshwater wetlands in water purification.
What are two important abiotic factors that affect aquatic ecosystems?
As you walk from the bottom to the top of a mountain, what changes in vegetation would you expect to see?
In biomes less suited for agriculture, what natural food sources are available for humans?
Which biomes are best suited for agriculture? Explain why each of the biomes you did not specify is less suitable for agriculture.

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