The Green Revolution Quiz

Environmental degradation, including deforestation, soil erosion, and water management issues, along with political instability and invasion.

Fish catches are dropping due to habitat destruction from converting forest to rice paddies and overfishing.

The floodwaters bring nutrients that power the aquatic food chain and enrich wetlands and forests, which are home to diverse fish species.

The Anthropocene is the period during which human activity has become the major cause of global change.

The Great Acceleration is the period starting around the 1950s, during which the pace at which human activity affected Earth's resources skyrocketed.

The Understanding Global Change model is a model that shows how both human and nonhuman causes of change are affecting Earth systems.

The cryosphere is what some scientists call the 'frozen' sphere within the hydrosphere.

Interference with water and sediment flow, as well as blocking migrating fishes.

An era in which human activity has become the dominant influence on Earth's ecosystems and geology.

Because research has shown that human activity has caused significant changes in several global systems.

The total area of healthy­ land and water ecosystems needed to provide the resources used and absorb wastes produced by an individual or group.

Burning fossil fuels

It can affect growth of land plants or cause algal blooms.

Measurable long-term changes in averages of temperature, clouds, winds, precipitation, and frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, major storms, and heat waves.

Increasing temperatures can cause crops that grow well in a particular place now to not grow well there in the future.

The ecological footprint is the impact of human activities on the environment in terms of the land and water area needed to sustainably support them. It is calculated by assessing the resources used and waste generated by a typical citizen of a country and multiplying that by the population size.

The average ecological footprint of an American is roughly three times larger than the global average.

The Great Acceleration refers to the period of rapid growth in human impact on the environment that began in the 1950s.

Some examples of human activities that contributed to the Great Acceleration include burning more fossil fuels, farming more land with fertilizers, and catching more fish to feed a growing population.

Development and urbanization can lead to habitat loss and fragmentation, increased production of sewage and waste, and pollution of air, water, and soil resources.

Larger habitats can support more species than smaller habitats.

Humans have directly caused the extinction of some terrestrial animals through hunting, overfished both fresh and saltwater species, and introduced invasive species into new habitats.

Scientifically guided reforestation efforts can replace trees that have been cut, which can help restore degraded ecosystems and bring back lost ecosystem services.

The Green Revolution refers to changes in technology and farming techniques that enabled farmers to dramatically increase crop yields to feed the world's growing population. The use of chemical fertilizers containing nitrogen and other nutrients was a key part of the Green Revolution.

Monoculture involves planting large areas with a single highly productive crop year after year. Monoculture enables efficient sowing, tending, and harvesting using machines, which dramatically increases crop yields. However, large-scale monoculture requires lots of artificial fertilizers and pesticides, which can degrade soil and prevent secondary succession.

Deforestation, or cutting of forests, alters natural environments by affecting water quality in streams and rivers, increasing soil erosion in mountainous areas, and causing loss of biodiversity when natural ecosystems are divided into fragments. Deforestation also eliminates the ecosystem services provided by healthy forests, such as holding soil in place, protecting the quality of freshwater supplies, absorbing carbon dioxide, and moderating local climate.

Secondary succession refers to the regrowth of an ecosystem after a disturbance, such as logging or clearing, that leaves the soil intact. This regrowth is possible in areas with thin topsoil and rapid organic matter decomposition. Secondary succession can help restore biodiversity by allowing natural regrowth of forests, which provide important ecosystem services.

Ocean acidification is the process in which carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater to form carbonic acid, decreasing pH and carbonate ion concentration in the water. This poses serious problems for marine life, as many marine organisms build their skeletons from calcium carbonate and rely on seawater's pH and carbonate ion concentration to do so. As seawater becomes more acidic, these organisms expend more energy to build their skeletons, stressing many marine organisms and ecosystems.

Acid rain damages plant leaves and harms roots by releasing aluminum and other metals from some soils. Soil acidification can also interfere with bacterial decay, altering nutrient cycling.

As carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere increases, more and more of it dissolves in seawater. There, the extra dissolved carbon dioxide drives a chemical reaction that produces an acid, decreasing pH levels and carbonate ion concentration. This harms many marine organisms, including plankton, corals, marine snails and slugs, and shellfish, which build their skeletons from calcium carbonate.

Cattle farming and rice cultivation in flooded paddies release methane, a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Human activity has transformed roughly three-quarters of Earth's land surface, including agriculture, monoculture, deforestation, and development. These activities contribute to climate change and affect the atmosphere.

The UGC model is a framework used to classify causes of global change. It consists of three concentric rings, with the innermost ring representing measurable changes in Earth systems, the middle ring representing plant and animal populations, communities, ecosystems, and their interactions with global systems, and the outer ring representing causes of global change, with nonhuman causes in the lower portion and human causes in the upper portion.

The Anthropocene is a term used to describe the current time period, during which human activities have a significant impact on Earth's ecosystems and geology. Some scientists use this term to highlight the unprecedented scale and pace of human-driven changes to the planet.

One example of a nonhuman change that affects Earth's systems is the movement of tectonic plates, which can cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. One example of a human change that affects Earth's systems is the burning of fossil fuels, which contributes to climate change.

There is a significant body of scientific evidence that supports the argument that human activities are causing major changes to global systems. For example, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased significantly since the Industrial Revolution, and this increase is directly linked to human activities such as burning fossil fuels.