Unit 1: Foundations of ESS

Unit 1: Foundations of ESS

• Biorights: All living things, regardless of their perceived value to humans, deserve to exist. This includes inherent value for both the environment and all organisms.

• Environmental Value Systems (EVS): Individual or group worldviews that shape how environmental issues are perceived and evaluated.

• Influencing Factors on EVSs: Education, experience, culture, media, and economics all influence an individual's or group's EVS.

• Ecocentric EVS: Nature-centered, prioritizing biorights. Emphasizes education, self-restraint, and ecological balance. Deep ecologists are extreme ecocentrists.

• Anthropocentric EVS: Human-centered, emphasizing sustainable human management of the global ecosystem. Views nature as something to utilize for human benefit.

• Technocentric EVS: Technology-driven, believing that technological advancements can solve environmental problems. Prioritizes economic development and scientific control of systems. Cornucopians are extreme technocentrists.

• Industrial Revolution: (1760-1840) Increased pollution and resource exploitation.

• Minamata Bay Disaster: (1956) Mercury pollution in Japan, causing severe health problems. Demonstrated the dangers of pollution.

• Silent Spring (Rachel Carson): (1962) Highlighted the dangers of pesticide use and bioaccumulation. Led to increased awareness, and 1970's confirmation of pesticide buildup.

• Bhopal Disaster: (1984) Chemical leak in India resulting in widespread deaths and injuries. Highlighted the dangers of chemical industries.

• Fridays for Future: (2018) Global youth-led climate strikes, spearheaded by Greta Thunberg.

Systems and Models

• System: Interrelated parts working together as a complex whole.

• Open System: Exchanges energy and matter with its surroundings (e.g., living organisms).

• Closed System: Exchanges energy but not matter with its surroundings (e.g., water cycle).

• Isolated System: Exchanges neither energy nor matter with its surroundings (e.g., the universe).

• Models of Systems: Simplified versions of reality used to understand and predict system behavior.

• Strengths of Models: Simplify complex systems. Allow rapid testing of change impacts. Easier understanding for others.

• Limitations of Models: Involve approximations and assumptions. May oversimplify complex interactions. Different models can produce differing results.

• Transfer: Energy or matter moving from one place to another without changing state (e.g., water flowing).

• Transformation: Energy or matter moving from one place to another and changing state (e.g., evaporation).

Energy and Equilibria

• Energy: The ability to do work. Governed by thermodynamics.

• First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. Total energy remains constant.

• Second Law of Thermodynamics: Entropy (disorder) increases over time, reducing available energy. Food chain efficiencies impacted by reduced energy availability.

• Energy Flow in Food Chains: Approximately 10% of energy transfers to the next trophic level.

• Complexity and Stability: More complex systems tend to be more stable.

• Equilibrium: The tendency of a system to return to its original state after disturbance.

• Dynamic Equilibrium: System is always changing but remains balanced (e.g., body temperature).

• Static Equilibrium: No change, no inputs or outputs (e.g., a bridge structure).

• Stable Equilibrium: Tends to return to original state after disturbance.

• Unstable Equilibrium: Easily disrupted balance.

• Feedback Loops: Systems' self-regulation through responses to outside information.

• Negative Feedback: Stabilizes the system, counteracts deviations from the original state (e.g., body temperature).

• Positive Feedback: Amplifies changes, moves the system away from equilibrium (e.g., ice-cap melting).

• Albedo Effect: Measure of how much light is reflected off a surface. White surfaces have high albedo; dark surfaces have low.

• Resilience: A system's ability to return to its original state after a disturbance. Higher resilience means greater ability to withstand disturbances.

• Factors affecting resilience: Primarily increased by complexity (and biodiversity).

• Tipping Point: A threshold where small changes cause dramatic, large-scale responses. Examples include species extinction and coral reef death (often related to climate change).

• Characteristics of Tipping Points: Fast shifts beyond threshold. Difficult to predict exact threshold. Changes are often long-lasting and reversed with difficulty.

Sustainability

• Sustainability: Meeting current needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet their needs. Balancing economic growth, environmental care, and social well-being.

• Measuring Sustainability: Ecological footprint (EF) helps estimate resource demand and the Earth's ability to meet that demand.

• Ecological Footprint (EF): Measures the area of land and water needed to sustainably provide resources at current rates of consumption. Units: global hectares (gha).

• Factors in Calculating EF: Carbon sequestration, grazing land, forest products, fisheries, cropland, and built-up land.

• Biocapacity: The Earth's capacity to generate biological materials and absorb waste. EF compared to biocapacity indicates if a resource reserve or deficit exists.

• Overshoot Day: The point in a year when humanity's demands exceed Earth's capacity to regenerate resources.

• Natural Capital: Natural resources and services that generate a sustainable income (e.g., forests, fisheries, pollination).

• Natural Income: Sustainable yield of natural resources and services.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

• EIA: Assessment of the environmental, economic, and social impacts of development projects.

• Key Steps in EIA: Screening, scoping, impact assessment, mitigation strategies, report, decision, monitoring.

• Strengths of EIA: Avoiding environmental impacts. Increasing awareness and public input.

• Weaknesses of EIA: Lack of precise system boundaries. Varying standards between countries. Potential for corruption.

Humans and Pollution

• Pollution: Substances or energy introduced into the environment causing harm to humans, resources, or ecosystems.

• Types of Pollutants: Matter (organic/inorganic), energy (light, sound, heat), and organisms (biological agents, invasive species).

• Major Sources of Pollution: Combustion of fossil fuels, domestic/industrial waste, and agricultural runoff.

• Primary Pollutants: Directly emitted from a source (e.g., fossil fuel combustion).

• Secondary Pollutants: Formed from chemical reactions of primary pollutants (e.g., tropospheric ozone).

• Point Source Pollution: From a single, identifiable source (e.g., factory discharge). Often regulated or controlled.

• Non-Point Source Pollution: From diffuse sources across a large area (e.g., agricultural runoff). Challenging to track and control.

• Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs): Resist breakdown and accumulate in the environment.

• Biodegradable Pollutants: Break down easily.

• Bioaccumulation: Pollutants build up in an organism over time.

• Biomagnification: Pollutants become more concentrated at higher trophic levels.

• Acute Pollution: High concentrations from a rapid event.

• Chronic Pollution: Long-term, gradual effects.

• Pollution Monitoring: Direct (measuring pollutants) and indirect (observing changes in abiotic / biotic factors) methods.

Ecosystems and Ecology

• Ecosystem: A community of organisms interacting with their physical environment.

• Ecology: The study of the interrelationships of organisms with their environment and each other.

Species and Populations

• Species: A group of organisms with shared characteristics that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring.

• Population: A group of the same species living in the same area at the same time.

• Population Density: Average number of individuals in a given area.

• Factors Affecting Population Size: Mortality, natality, and migration (immigration/emigration).

• Habitat: The environment in which a species normally lives.

• Abiotic Factors: Non-living physical factors affecting organisms (temperature, sunlight, pollutants).

• Biotic Factors: Living components of an ecosystem, including organisms and interactions.

• Niche: The set of biotic and abiotic factors a species requires.

• Fundamental Niche: The full range of conditions a species could occupy to survive and reproduce.

• Realized Niche: The actual conditions a species does occupy due to biotic interactions.

• Carrying Capacity: The maximum sustainable population size for a given area.

• Population Interactions: Competition, predation, herbivory, parasitism, and mutualism influence population dynamics and carrying capacities.

• Competition: Individuals competing for limited resources (intraspecific or interspecific).

• Predation: One animal hunts and eats another.

• Herbivory: Animals feed on plants.

• Parasitism: One organism benefits at the expense of another.

• Mutualism: Both organisms benefit from the interaction.

• Logistic Growth (S curve): Population increases rapidly, then slows, reaching a stable carrying capacity.

• Exponential Growth (J curve): Rapid, exponential growth followed by a collapse, due to exceeding carrying capacity.

• Dieback: Population collapse due to exceeding carrying capacity.

• Limiting Factors: Environmental conditions limiting processes, population growth, in particular.

• Density-Dependent Limiting Factors: Influenced by population size (predation, disease, resources).