Environmental Science Principles Quiz

Environment

• Surrounds an organism and includes the social and cultural conditions that may affect them
• Includes both biotic and abiotic factors
  • Biotic - Living factors
  • Abiotic - Non-living factors
• Everything affecting an organism throughout its lifetime

Environmental Science

• Systematized body of knowledge on a subject
• Chronologically arranged, rationalized in order
• Systematic study of our environment and our place in it
• Explains how species interact with one another
• An interdisciplinary field relating one branch of knowledge to another.
• Includes both scientific and social aspects of human impact on the world

7 Environmental Principles

• Nature Knows Best - Humans need to appreciate and recognize the importance of nature and follow its rules
• All forms of life are important - Each organism plays a vital role in nature
• Everything is connected to everything else. - Food Chain
• Everything Changes
  • Linear
  • Random
  • Cyclical
• Everything must go somewhere
• Ours is a finite earth
• Nature is beautiful, and we are stewards of God’s creation

Philosophical Approaches to Environmental Ethics

• Anthropocentrism (Human-centered Ethics)
  • Human beings are the central, most important species in the universe.
  • The world focuses on people and their needs
• Biocentrism (Life-centered Ethics)
  • All life has a standpoint, regardless of its value to humans
  • Some people believe that all living organisms have the right to exist.
  • All life is interdependent.
• Eco-centrism
  • The essence of the system, rather than individuals, or species, holds moral weight.
  • 2. All forms of life are important.
  • The environment itself has moral worth.

Environmental Attitudes

• Developmental Approach
  • Tends to be the most anthropocentric.
  • Assumes humanity is above all.
  • Assumes that the human race is and should be the master of nature
  • Supports industrialization and modernization.
• Conservationists Approach
  • Concerned with using natural areas and wildlife to benefit present and future generations of human races and other forms of life.
• Preservationist Approach
  • Tends to be the most eco-centric towards the environment.
  • Concerned with the preservation of natural areas.

Ecology

• Study of the ways organisms interact with each other and with their non-living surroundings
• Yields to industrialization and modernization

Ecological Hierarchy

• Community Interactions
  • Three types of interactions:
    • Competition
    • Predation
    • Symbiosis

Organisms Interaction

• Obtaining food and energy

  • Producers - Make their own food
  • Consumers - Obtain food by eating other organisms
  • Decomposers - Unable to make their own food and decompose waste products and dead organisms.
  • Scavengers - Feed on the soft tissues of dead animals.

• Generalist vs. Specialist

  • Generalist - Eat many different types of foods
  • Specialist - Consume only a specific type of food.

• Competition

  • Arises when more than one organism struggles to obtain the same essential resources in the same habitat.

Types of Competition

• Interspecific Competition

  • Happens between members of two or more different species over resources.
  • Often leads to extinction.

• Intraspecific Competition

  • Arises between members of the same species
  • Individuals may compete over mates, water, sunlight, territory, or food energy sources.

• Mimicry

  • Organism resembles other species.
  • Batesian Mimicry - A harmless species imitates a harmful one.
  • Mullerian Mimicry - Various species share warning coloration but have their own defenses and resemble each other.

• Predation

  • Flow of energy between two organisms, predator and prey.
  • Latin word "praedari" - meaning 'to plunder'.

Types of Predation

• Carnivory - Predator kills and eats their prey.

• Herbivory - Predation involves consumption of autotrophs, such as plants or photosynthetic algae.

• Symbiosis

  • Close and long-term relationship between two or more different organisms
  • Mutualism - Both species benefit
  • Commensalism - One benefits, other is unaffected
  • Parasitism - One benefits, other is harmed.

Population Ecology

• Population - Group of individuals of the same species inhabiting the same area.
• Total numbers of individuals and the space they occupy per unit area.

Properties of a Population

• Population Size

  • Precise number of individuals in an area.
  • Sampling method - Used to make inferences about the population as a whole.
    • Quadrat - Square structure placed at random locations within the habitat
    • Mark and recapture - Animals are captured, marked, and released back into the environment to mix with the rest of the population.

• Population Density

  • Indicates how crowded the population is.

• Dispersion

  • Distribution of individuals throughout their range in an area.
  • Clumped - Aggregate in patches (like a wolf pack attacking prey)
  • Uniform - Evenly distributed (seen in territorial animal species)
  • Random - Unique pattern where each individual's position is independent of others

Population Growth

• Exponential Growth
  • Population increases in numbers without any limits to their resources or encounters some other limitation.
• Logistic Growth
  • As population size increases, resources will be depleted, and the growth rate will slow down due to limited resources.

Mortality Rate

• Measure of the number of deaths.
• Depending on various factors, like age and gender distribution.

Life Table

• Statistical tool summarizing the number of deaths of the population.
• Longevity and life expectancy (age of survival).

Migration/Immigration

• Movement of people from one place to another.
• Push - Where people leave the area due to problems.
• Pull - Where people go to a certain area for their own good/interest

Density-independent factors

• Growth is not dependent on the density of the population.
• Population increases at a rate determined by its biotic potential.

Density-dependent factors

• Growth influenced by the density of the population.

Demographic Data

• Important data sources
  • PSA and Census
• Age-sex structure - Population parameter that refers to the age and sex distribution of a population.

Test your knowledge on the core principles of Environmental Science. This quiz covers the relationships between biotic and abiotic factors, as well as fundamental concepts that emphasize the importance of nature and interconnectedness. Explore how various species interact and the implications of human impact on the environment.