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AP Environmental Science

Introduction & History
1. Environment
  1. The environment is everything around us.
    1. This includes living and non-living things such as air water and energy.
2. Ecology
  1. Ecology is the biological science that studies how living things ineract
    1. These things are called organisms.
3. Ecosystems
  1. A set of organisms within a defined area or volume that interact with one another.
    1. EX. A forest consisting of plants.
4. Three principles of sustainability.
  1. dependence on solar energy
    1. Provides energy that plants use to create energy, energy needed to sustain other animals.
  2. Biodiversity.
    1. Variety of genes, organisms, species, and ecosystems in which organisms exist and interact.
  3. Chemical cycling.
    1. The circulation of chemicals nessesary for life from the environment through organisms and back to the environment.
Earth Systems and Resources
1. Weather
  1. Weather is a set of physical conditions of the lower atmosphere
  2. climate is the general pattern of atmospheric conditions in a given area over periods ranging from at least three decades to thousands of years
    1. In other words it is the sum of weather conditions.
2. The atmosphere.
  1. The atmosphere is a thin spherical envelope of gases surrounding the earths surface
    1. The atmosphere consists of 21% oxygen 78% nitrogen and 1% water vapor.
      1. There are many parts to the atmosphere. 1. troposphere 2.stratosphere 3.hydrosphere 4.geosphere 5.biosphere
3. Global water resources and use
  1. Salt water.
    1. salt water covers about 71% of earths surface, and is about 98% of all of earths water.
    2. The oceans are becoming contaminated with CO2 and are killing of coral reefs and warming the oceans
  2. Fresh water
    1. Surface and groundwater flow into lakes or other bodies of water.
    2. Fresh water makes up about 2.2% of earths water.
    3. Ecosystem and Economic services: Food, drinking water, irrigation water, hydroelectricity, transportation corridors, recreations, employment, climate moderation, nutrient cycling, waste treatment, flood control, groundwater recharge, habitats, biodiversity, and scientific info.
    4. Some global problems are pollutants, over use.
4. Soil & soil dynamics
  1. Rock cycle.
    1. The rock cycle is the physical and chemical processes that change Earth's rocks into another type of rock.
  2. Formation of rocks.
    1. Heat, pressure, and stress turn sedimentary rock into metamorphic rock. Then that rock can take two different routes 1: It can be weathered or 2: it can turn into magma at extreme heat. That magma then cools into igneous rock and is then weathered back down into sedimentary rock.
  3. chemical and physical properties.
    1. Every rock or mineral has a different chemical and physical composition. Some are maluable, some ductile, and others harder or stronger. For example: Copper is ductile and can be stretched into wire.
  4. Problems
    1. Soil is very easy to erode and displace. With this property if soil gets wet it can wet and cause major landslides.
The living world
1. Ecosystem structure
  1. At the moment humans are the supieor population of organisms. There are many communities on earth
    1. A community is a bunch of different species living in a certain place.
  2. Key stone species and species diversity
    1. Keystone species are species whose roles have a large effect on the types and abundance of other species in an ecosystem. E.X. American Alligator keeps the fish population in check. Without them the fish pop. will become uncontrolable.
    2. Species diversity is the amount of species a community holds. This is important because if one species goes extinct it could ruin the whole ecosystem and collapse.
  3. Ecological niche.
    1. This is a species way of life in a community and includes everything that affects its survival and reproduction, such as how much water and sunlight it needs, how much space it requires, what it feeds on, what feeds on it, and the tempuratures and other conditions it can tolerate.
  4. Major terrestrial and aquatic biomes
    1. Some major terrestrial biomes are tropical rainforest, temperate deciduous forest, evergreen coniferous forest, arctic tundra, cold desert. chaparral, temperate grassland, temperate desert, savanna, and tropical desert. Some aquatic biomes are fresh and salt waters.
2. Energy flow
  1. The flow of energy through a food web.
    1. Plants absorb chemical nutrients and the suns rays for energy through photosynthesis, the consumers eat the nutrient rich plants to gain energy themselves, once the consumers die decomposers break down the animal carcus to return nutrients to the ground and atmosphere.
  2. Ecosystem pyramids.
    1. The more trophic levels there are in a food chain or web, the greater is the cumulative loss of usable chemical energy as it flows through the trophic levels.
3. Ecosystem diversity
  1. The variety of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems found in an area or on the earth.
    1. Each of these systems is a storehouse of genetic and species diversity
4. Natural ecosystem change
  1. Climate shifts
    1. Climate has been changing over thousands of years. The most recent change is the warming of the atmosphere.
  2. Species movements
    1. many species move to different places, mainly seasonally. This is called migration.
5. Natural biochemical cycles.
  1. Carbon cycle.
    1. Terrestrial producers remove CO2 from the atmosphere, then decomposers carry out aerobic resperation. This breaks down glucose and other complex compounds into CO2
  2. Nitrogen cycle.
    1. Nitrogen in the atmosphere becomes ammonia in the soil through electrical storms, Then it either goes directly to plants or becomes a nitrate in the soil. Then the plants uptake the nitrogen, the nitrogen is then going into animals. After the animals die decomposers turn the nitrogen back into ammonia
  3. Phosphorus cycle.
    1. Phophates start in the deep ocean, do the the movement to tectonic plates they find their way to the rocks on shore. Erosion then dissolves the phosphates back into the water which will either go into ocean food webs or get absorbed by plants then animals then released by decomposers.
  4. Sulfer cycle.
    1. Sulfer starts int he rocks and then is either uptaken by plants or dissolves in the ocean. When it dissolves into the ocean bacteria creates a by-product called dimethyl sulfide and is released into the atmosphere. Then sulfur is deposited by acid rain.
  5. water cycle.
    1. Water in oceans, surface, lakes, runoff, rivers, and plants evaporates into the atmosphere. The water then codinsates in the atmosphere and falls back to earth as precipitation.
  6. Conservation of matter
    1. Matter cant be created nor destroyed.
population.
1. population biology concepts.
  1. Population ecology
    1. Every organism has a population of its species with some more than others. E.X. the human population is about 8 million.
  2. Carrying capacity.
    1. The carrying capacity is the maximum amount of species an ecosystem can sustain.
  3. Reproductive strategy.
    1. If there are more births than deaths during a given period of time, the Earths population increases, and when the opposite is true, it decreases.
  4. survivorship.
    1. The only way to survive is to have a greater crude birth rate and crude death rate to increase the population and thrive.
2. Human population
  1. The human population is about 8 million and is expected to achieve about 10.8 billion in 2050.
    1. The average fetility rate is 2.5
3. population
  1. Strategy for sustainibility.
    1. First of all the human population is over the carrying capacity and is threatening the sustainibility of other organisms. To try and combat this could help countries develope. If we can do this then the population will shrink to a more reasonable size.
  2. Case studies.
    1. During the time between 1900 and 2012 the us population increased from 76 million to 314 million. How did this happen? Between 1946 and 1964 the baby boom added 79 million people to the U.S. population. In 1957 the average TFR was 3.7 children then decresed to 2.1, but the population is still growing.
    2. The american baby boom added 79 million to the U.S. population. This generation has greatly influenced the economy because they make up 36% of all adults.
4. Impacts on population growth.
  1. Hunger and disease.
    1. People mainly in LDCs suffer from either malnutrition or undernutrition. This increases the infant mortality rate and the likely hood of catching a deadly disease.
  2. Economic effects.
    1. The strength of the economy can either cause death or survival. If the economy of a country is strong then it is able to feed its people and thrive as a community. If the country has a poor economy then it struggles to feed its people and causes famine and death.
  3. Resource use and habitat destruction
    1. With the growing population of the human population more and more resources are being consumed faster than they can be replenished. This can lead to the destruction of one or many different ecosystems.

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	Created by Colin McGee over 9 years ago