Biodiversity
What are the 4 ecosystem services?
Provisioning, supporting, regulating, cultural
What are the three pillars of sustainability?
Ecological/environmental, economic, social/sociocultural
State two greenhouse gasses
CO2, Methane, Water vapour, Nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide, sulfur hexafluoride, PFCs, CFCs
List 2 non renewables and 2 renewables.
non-renewable energy sources: oil, coal, natural gas, coal seam gas and nuclear
renewable energy sources: biomass, biofuels, solar, hydro-electric, wind, tidal and geothermal
What is the IV and DV in an experiment?
IV: Thing you change
DV: Thing you measure
The total genetic information contained in the genes of all the species on Earth. Genetic diversity also refers to the variation between and within species.
Define the user pays principle
Calls upon the user of a service or resource to pay directly for the amount they use, rather than the cost being shared by all the users or a community equally
What is the albedo affect?
A measure of the fraction of VL that is reflected from a surface.
State the formula for energy efficiency
(Total energy output/total energy input) X 100
What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative data?
Qualitative: Descriptive
Quantitative: Numerical
Name one short, one medium and one long term change that influence ecosystem diversity, species endemism, the formation of diversity hotspots, and rate of extinction
Short: volcano, fires
Medium: el nino
Long term: tectonic plate movement and evolution
What are the four major challenges to sustainability?
population, food, water, energy
What is one short term and one long term carbon sink?
Short term: Trees/plants, soil, ocean
Long term: Sediment and fossils, forests,
State the energy transformations required to make electricity from hydopower
Gravitational potential -> Kinetic -> Mechanical - > electrical
What one health and safety and one ethical considerationd during field work involving animals.
Health and safety: Hat and sunscreen, closed toe boots, approriate PPE when handling dangerous animals...
Ethical: If trapping, only leav traps set up for a short amount of time, handling animals correctly, not trapping unless really necessary....
What is biodiversity hotspot?
Area with high levels of endemism that is underthreat from human activity.
What is circular economy thinking?
Closed loop system where waste outputs from one activity become the inputs for a different activity
What is the warming potential of a GHG?
What are the first and second laws of thermodynamics?
1st: Energy can't be created or destroyed (but can be transformed or transferred)
2nd: The quality of energy going into a system will always be greated than the quality coming out, as energy is degraded/lost as heat and sound.
What is accuracy and what is precision?
Accuracy: How close data is to 'tru value'
Precision: How closely repeated measures agree.
What does the ni and N stand for in the simpsons diversity index?
ni: total number of organisms of each individual species (abundance of each species)
N: the total number of organisms of all species
What are three key steps in a qualitative risk assessment?
Identify risks, assess the likelihood of a specific risk event occurring during the project life cycle and the impact it will have (on the environment, society, economy).
What 2 factors will determine the level of confiedence in the IPPCs climate projections?
Robustness of data and the level of agreement.
What is peak oil?
The point at which global oil production will reach it's peak.
What two things would need to be considered to increase validity in a controlled experiment?
Having a control and Controlling exreanous variables.