Environmental Science Quiz

Geography Study Notes

• Geography is the study of Earth and the relationship between people and the environment.
• Ecosystems are communities of living things and their physical environment.
• Maps must include a title, north arrow, scale, border, legend, and colors.
• Maps can be general-purpose or thematic, showing different kinds of information.
• Relative location describes where something is located in relation to other geographic features.
• Absolute location describes where something is located using latitude and longitude.
• Geographic concepts like spatial significance and patterns/trends help us understand where things are and why they matter.
• Key geographic questions include "What is where?", "Why there?", and "Why care?".
• Useful resources for geographical study include field studies, primary sources, secondary sources, and visuals.
• Geotechnology includes advanced technology used to study geography.
• GIS (Geographic Information Systems) are computer systems to manage and analyze geographic information.
• GPS (Global Positioning System) provides location data.
• Georeferencing links geographic data to a specific location.
• Telematics is a technology for long-distance digital information transmission often using satellites.
• Population density is a measure of the average number of people living in a specific area (population/km^2).
• CMAs (Census Metropolitan Areas) are urban areas in Canada with a population over 100,000.
• Communities are groups of people who share common characteristics.
• Continuous ecumene is where there is continuous settlement.
• Discontinuous ecumene is where there are significant settlement patches.
• Fields of geography include physical, urban, social, and environmental topics, and economic activities.
• Map projections are ways of showing a three-dimensional globe on a flat map. The Mercator projection is good for navigation, but distorts the size of landmasses. The Winkel Tripel and Equal-Area projections provide more accurate representations of the world's features.
• Tsunami is a set of large ocean waves caused by an earthquake.
• Plate tectonics explains that Earth's outer shell is made up of individual plates that move. These movements cause earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges, and variations in sea floor depth.
• Plate pieces that make up the earth's crust are known as plates.
• Continental drift is the theory that Earth's continents were once a single landmass but have separated over time.
• Igneous rocks form when magma or lava cools. Intrusive igneous rocks cool beneath the surface, and extrusive igneous rocks cool above the surface.
• Sedimentary rocks form from sediments—rock fragments, mineral grains, or organic matter that have been deposited and compacted over time.
• Metamorphic rocks are sedimentary or igneous rocks that have been changed by heat and pressure.
• Weathering is the breaking down of rocks.
• Erosion moves broken-down rocks downhill.
• Deposition is when eroded materials build up in a new location.

Soil and Natural Vegetation

• Soil is composed of minerals, bacteria, organic material, air, and moisture.
• Soil profiles show the different layers of soil—topsoil, subsoil, and parent material.
• Topsoil is the surface layer, often dark-colored because of humus, the product of organic decomposition.
• Subsoil is the layer below topsoil, often lighter colored, rich in iron and aluminum oxides.
• Parent material is the layer below the subsoil, consisting of rocks.
• Leaching is the removal of nutrients from the soil by water in areas with high precipitation.
• Calcification is the buildup of minerals in the soil in areas with low precipitation.
• Different types of soils exist across Canada (e.g., tundra, boreal, deciduous).
• Tundra soils are in far northern regions, while deciduous soils are found in warmer areas.

Natural Resources and Industries

• Resources are parts of Earth's total stock that are useful to humans.
• Renewable resources can be replenished by nature (e.g., trees, soil, fish).
• Non-renewable resources cannot be replenished by nature (e.g., minerals, fossil fuels).
• Flow resources are constantly replenished or renewed by natural processes (e.g., wind, sunlight, water currents).
• Reducing and reusing items reduces waste and uses of resources. Recycling helps create secondary products.
• Managing natural resources sustainably means minimizing depletion of resources.
• Mining and forestry are industries that use natural resources to create products or services.
• Sustained yield management is a method of managing renewable resources to ensure that the rate of harvesting does not exceed the rate of resource regeneration.

Population

• Demography is the study of human populations.
• Birth rate is the number of births per 1,000 people in a year.
• Death rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 people in a year.
• Natural increase rate = birth rate - death rate.
• Immigration rate is the number of immigrants per 1,000 people per year.
• Emigration rate is the number of emigrants per 1,000 people per year.
• Net migration rate = immigration rate- emigration rate
• Population growth rate = natural increase + net migration rate.
• The rule of 70 is used to estimate how long it will take for a population to double by dividing 70 by the annual percentage growth rate.
• Pull factors attract people to areas, while push factors cause people to leave. Intervening obstacles are barriers to relocation (e.g., distance, cost, or political boundaries).
• Immigrants choose to live in large cities because of economic opportunities, available jobs, and social networks.

Types of Land Use in Cities and Towns

• Commercial land use is for retail, services, and businesses. Land use is typically classified according to the types of goods or services provided.
• Residential density is the amount of housing per area. Higher density means more homes packed within less land area.
• Factors that affect residential density include cost, age of neighborhood, lifestyle considerations, and transportation.

Climate Processes

• Climate is the long-term weather patterns in a particular region.
• Latitude, ocean currents, wind, and air masses, elevation, and near water influence climate.
• Wind is air that moves from high pressure area to lower pressure areas. Near water conditions generally have a lower temperature variation than inland areas.
• Elevation affects temperature. Higher elevation areas are cooler.
• Relief, or the shape of the land, can affect precipitation; areas on the windward side (facing the wind) typically have higher precipitation than areas on the leeward side (sheltered from the wind).

Test your knowledge on sustainable resource management and its impact on various ecosystems. This quiz covers topics including soil health, climate change effects, and geological processes. Ideal for students studying environmental science or related fields.