Environmental Science: Waste and Conservation

Waste Management

• Methods for dealing with waste are categorized by their environmental impact, from least to most desirable: Avoid, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Dispose, Litter.
• Landfill: Convenient and cheap, but causes pollution and takes up space.
• Incineration: Deals with large amounts of waste but poses a risk of harmful fumes.
• Recycling: Saves money and energy, reduces pollution, but not all items can be recycled and it requires effort.

Invasive Species

• Invasive species are those introduced by human activity that threaten existing wildlife.
• Examples include rhododendron, and the grey squirrel, and Japanese knotweed.

Conservation and Biodiversity

• Conservation: Protecting and wise management of natural resources and their habitats.
• Biodiversity: A variety of organisms on Earth is important for many reasons, including maintaining the balance of an ecosystem.
• Threats to biodiversity: Climate change, habitat destruction, and pollution.
• Ways to conserve biodiversity: Avoiding climate change impact, reducing pesticide use, and establishing protected areas (e.g., National Parks).

Pollution

• Pollution harms the environment by introducing harmful substances.
• Categories of pollution: Air, water, and soil pollution.
• Causes of pollution: Burning fossil fuels (air), dumping substances into water bodies (water), or excess fertilizer use in the soil.

Adaptation & Interdependence

• Adaptation: Beneficial characteristics for an organism in its environment.
• Interdependence: Organisms rely on each other. For example, bees rely on dandelions for food, and dandelions on bees for pollination.

Predation

• Predation: One organism preys on and eats another.
• Predator adaptations: Sharp claws, teeth, good eyesight, camouflage.
• Prey adaptations: Side-facing eyes, good hearing, camouflage, stings, spikes.

Niche

• Niche: Describes a species' role within an ecosystem.
• Includes aspects like habitat, diet, activity time, competitors, and predators (all aspects relevant for survival).

Energy in Habitats

• The sun is the primary source of energy for all Earth's habitats.
• Energy flows through food chains and webs.

Food Webs

• Food webs are interconnected food chains.
• Grassland/Woodland food web examples (involving plants such as buttercup and trees, and animals like hedgehogs, spiders, and hawks).

Competition

• Competition: Individuals in a habitat struggle for limited resources (example given, resources like light, water, space, and minerals in plants, and territory, food, and mates in animals).

Producers, Consumers, Decomposers

• Classifying living organisms in an ecosystem as producers (make their own food), consumers (feed on other organisms), and decomposers (break down dead organisms).
• Producers example (includes plants like grasses, dandelions, clovers).
• Consumers example (includes herbivores, carnivores, omnivores - details about animals who feed on plants or other animals or a combination of both).
• Decomposers example (include earthworms, and fungi, and bacteria, that break down dead organisms).

Food Chains

• Food chains are a connected sequence of organisms where one is eaten by another (Example: Grass - Rabbit - Fox)

Ecology

• Ecology is the study of how living organisms interact with each other and their environment.
• Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
• Population: Organisms of the same species in a habitat.
• Community: All populations in a habitat.
• Ecosystem: Habitat + community.
• Factors affecting organisms in ecosystems (examples given of Tropical rainforest factors)