Week 6 Reading
Green resilient infrastructure siting corresponds to ______ of census tracts with the highest ____ and _____ populations.
gentrification, Black, Hispanic
What is a reciprocal relationship?
A reciprocal relationship is one in which both parties, in this case, the ecosystems and humans, both provide benefits or services that help the other.
Ecosystems provide crucial services to human well-being, and in turn, humans help to maintain and protect the health of these ecosystems to ensure they can continue providing the services.
What is the CBD definition of biodiversity?
Diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.
What are the four categories of ecosystem services? Name one example of each.
Supporting, Regulating, Provisioning, Cultural
Name one example of a large-scale project and a small-scale project.
Large: Restoring floodplains/wetlands, sand dunes
Small: Green roofs, rain gardens, bioswales
Why might biodiversity not represent ecosystem health?
It is just a number/measurement, and does not indicate the “quality” of the ecosystem. Some ecosystems may be very healthy and productive, but have less biodiversity than ecosystems that are not healthy and may be heavily degraded by human activity.
A system of abiotic, biotic, and social components (and their interactions) that, by virtue of human influence, differ from those that prevailed historically, having a tendency to self-organize and manifest novel qualities without intensive human management
What is SOM (soil organic matter) and why is it important?
SOM is the fraction of the soil made of decomposed living organisms.
1. Contains carbon (large sink) and other nutrients and microbes
2. Holds water
3. Can hold onto pollutants
4. Supports plant growth
What is a "nature-based solution"?
Development focused on conservation, human livelihoods, and community-based development
Cultural: Indigenous communities have connections with rivers
Supporting: Water cycle
Provisioning: Provide clean water sources for drinking and agricultural use
Regulating: Maintaining water quality
What is the difference between biological decomposition and photodegradation?
Biological decomposition is the break down of organic material by organisms.
Photodegradation is the break down of organic material by light (physical, not biological).
Give an example of structural, compositional, and functional diversity.
Structural: tree height, tree diameter, etc
Compositional:plant species evenness
Functional:leaf thickness, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content
What is the main issue with scaling up GI-FRR projects?
Can have regressive impacts on frontline communities, can lead to higher property values, and gentrification
How is indigenous knowledge similar and different from western scientific knowledge?
IK: generational focus, preserving land for future generations, more holistic
Western: reduces and compartmentalizes work into different disciplines
Both focus on biodiversity and biological enhancement, education, and conservation
What are some of the issues surrounding the term "invasive" species?
Assumption is that non-native always means "bad", can be harmful to view ecosystems this way, can harm conservation, reinforce militaristic patterns of thought, contribute to social misunderstanding, and loss of scientific credibility
Describe each type of photosynthetic strategy. Name some benefits and tradeoffs of each.
C4: newest, processes separated in space, bright and hot environments, stomata closed at night, most CO2 efficient, slightly more water efficient, more energetically costly
CAM: processes separated in time, stomata closed during the day, creates a limited supply of CO2, helps prevent major water loss, more energetically costly
What are the contradictions associated with GI-FRR and other neoliberal modes of governance?
They simultaneously expect cities to deliver landscape-scale benefits while requiring them to compete for funding and development.
What is environmental deprivation theory?
Environmental deprivation theory describes how communities of color experience greater environmental burdens, which subsequently increases their environmental concern.
What is the insurance hypothesis?
You are more likely to have species that can cope with environmental changes and "key" species with higher biodiversity
What is the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning?
Linear, Redundancy, Idiosyncratic
Context dependent!