Sustainability and Resources
A community harvests fish at a rate that allows the population to reproduce and recover. What concept does this best demonstrate?
Sustainable resource use.
Which is a biotic factor: temperature, soil pH, water availability, or bacteria?
Bacteria
DOUBLE POINTS: What is carrying capacity?
The largest population of a species that an environment can sustainably support under current conditions.
Double or nothing: Why is carrying capacity different from biocapacity?
What is an ecological footprint?
An estimate of the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to support a person's or population's resource use and absorb their waste.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING: A lake's dissolved oxygen decreases from 9.2 mg/L to 5.9 mg/L while its fish population decreases from 520 to 360. What general relationship does the data show?
As dissolved oxygen decreased, the fish population generally decreased.
A resource can be replaced within a relatively short period of time. Is it renewable or nonrenewable?
Renewable resource.
CANDY: Which is an abiotic factor: sunlight, deer, fungi, or bacteria?
Sunlight
Give one example of a limiting factor for a deer population.
Available food, water or other resources that restrict population growth.
CANDY: A town has a biocapacity of 5.0 hectares/person and an ecological footprint of 7.4 hectares/person. Is the town using resources at a sustainable level?
No. Its ecological footprint is greater than its biocapacity, indicating that its resource use may not be sustainable.
In Month 1 there were 520 fish and 9.2 mg/L dissolved oxygen. In Month 6 there were 360 fish and 5.9 mg/L dissolved oxygen. Did both measurements increase or decrease?
Both decreased.
CANDY: A town's population doubles, but the amount of freshwater available stays the same. What happens to resource demand?
Resource demand increases.
DOUBLE POINTS: After a severe storm damages a forest, the forest returns to a condition similar to its original state several years later. What ecosystem characteristic does this show?
High ecosystem resilience.
A pond can support about 300 fish. A drought reduces available water and food. What will most likely happen to carrying capacity?
It will decrease.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING: A town is trying to become more sustainable. A new factory would provide many jobs for the community, but it could also increase pollution in the area.
(Use two sustainable decision factors in your response)
The town would need to weigh the economic benefit of creating jobs against the environmental cost of increased pollution.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING:
If pollution changes environmental conditions and makes a lake less suitable for fish, what could happen to the lake's carrying capacity for fish?
It could decrease.
A renewable resource is being used faster than it can be replaced. What problem can result?
The resource can become unsustainable because it is being used faster than it can be replaced.
A forest is cleared to build houses. Several species lose places to find food and shelter. What is the most likely effect on some populations?
Some populations may decrease because of habitat loss.
CANDY: Explain why a decrease in an important resource can cause a population's carrying capacity to decrease.
Less resource availability means the environment can sustainably support fewer organisms.
A town chooses a factory because it provides jobs but may increase pollution. What concept describes having to accept a cost or give up another benefit?
Trade-off.
CANDY: The energy-efficiency program reduces the ecological footprint by 0.8 hectares/person. The original footprint is 7.4 hectares/person. What is the new footprint?
6.6 hectares/person.
DOUBLE POINTS: What is the difference between resource availability and resource demand?
Resource availability is how much of a resource is available to use. Resource demand is how much of a resource people or organisms need or want to use.
Which term means the variety of living organisms in an area or ecosystem?
Biodiversity
DOUBLE OR NOTHING: A lake's fish population drops as dissolved oxygen drops. What could dissolved oxygen be acting as?
A limiting factor.
Name TWO stakeholders who could be affected by a town decision to build a new factory.
Community members, Workers, Business owners, Local government, Construction Workers, etc.
Scientists observe this pattern in a lake:
Dissolved oxygen ↓ → Fish population ↓
As dissolved oxygen decreased, the fish population generally decreased.