Chapter 3 Notes for Test 1 PDF

CHAPTER 3: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE - for thousands of years the ecology of the prairies remained the same; it was only Western expansion of Europeans that cause widespread environmental change most of these immigrants were farmers and so cleared the land to farm, cutting down...

CHAPTER 3: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE - for thousands of years the ecology of the prairies remained the same; it was only Western expansion of Europeans that cause widespread environmental change most of these immigrants were farmers and so cleared the land to farm, cutting down and clearing away the native flora; this had the effect of changing the environment - no study of Canada would be complete without studying the geography of the nation and its impact upon the development of Canada THE IMPORTANCE OF PLACE - the most basic definition of geography involved the definition and analysis of “place” - place has five elements: 1] a location: this means simply the longitudinal and latitudinal co-ordinates of a place 2] places have physical and cultural characteristics: this means that the topography/ the features present in a specific location is important and it determines the activities and flora and fauna present in an area 🡪 the flora and fauna present will also determine what type of human habitation will also be there and so this impacts the environment as well 3] places change: from an analysis of the geological structures present in an area, the fact that  places undergo change over time is clearly evident 🡪 change can be caused either through catastrophic upheaval or through the actions of flora and fauna; in particular, man can have a significant impact on the environment 🡪 as was mentioned in Science 10, knowing how and why things have changed can help us manage our existing ecosystems and biomes more effectively 4] places interact with other places: initially, the size and location of a place determined its level of contact with the rest of the world  🡪 with the advent of new technology and methods of transportation all formerly inaccessible regions are now open to the rest of the world and the rapid development of the formerly mentioned, has also led to a very rapid pace of change 5] places are in regions: even though no two places in a particular geographic area are exactly alike; all specific locations in a biome share general characteristics 🡪 areas with similar characteristics have similar climates, landforms, vegetation, and soil 🡪 geographically separate but similar regions will often have the same  resources and so develop the same industries THE PHYSICAL REGIONS OF WESTERN CANADA - there are three major divisions to the landscape of Western Canada: the Canadian Shield, Interior Plains, and the Western Mountains THE CANADIAN SHIELD - so called because of the massive, and old, masses of rock that underlie the area these form the basis for the younger continental rock - it stretches from the Arctic islands, around Hudson’s Bay, south to the Adirondack Mountains of America and east to Labrador - it is all that remains of a volcanic mountain range that was once as high as the  Himalayas through weathering and erosion these mountains have been reduced to their current state - initially the rock was igneous (= rock formed by the solidification of molten matter), but much has been changed through heat and/or pressure into metamorphic rock because of the source of this rock, this area is rich in minerals: ie copper, gold, lead and nickel, but it is not good for farming and thus large scale settlement THE INTERIOR PLAINS - these stretch west from the Canadian Shield and covers most of Alberta  - formed from deposited material eroded from the Canadian shield - most of the rock is sedimentary (= formed from sediment that has been laid down in layers over time) - in the past the area had a tropical climate and was covered in water - area was rich in flora and fauna and the deposited remains have developed into fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas and evaporates, such as potash THE WESTERN MOUNTAINS - much of the area, from western Alberta to the coast of B.C., is made up of parallel mountain ranges that are divided by a series of plateaus and valleys ( = mountain ranges of this type are known as cordillera) - this area was created by the collision of  tectonic plates; these plates buckled upwards and formed the mountains, plateaus and valleys the erosive effects of rivers and glaciers finished off the formation of this area 🡪 the alluvium (= eroded material) was carried by rivers and deposited to form fertile river valleys, which are also rich in minerals such as copper, gold, molybdenum and coal it is also because of the forces that created this landscape that this area suffers from earthquakes THE CLIMATES OF WESTERN CANADA - since Canada lies beyond 49O N what  determines the climate of the various regions is temperature and precipitation FACTORS AFFECTING TEMPERATURE Latitude: - AKA distance from the equator; it determines the duration and intensity of sunlight this has an impact on what can live in a location altitude: - this is simply the measure of the elevation (= distance above sea level) - generally, the higher the altitude the colder the temperature, a general rule is that temperature drops by one degree for every 150 m positive change in elevation distance from the sea: - the surface of the land heats and cools more quickly than the surface of the water;  therefore the presence of large bodies of water moderate the temperature of an area the further from large bodies of water an area is, the wider the temperature range wind direction: - the direction of the movement of air can increase or decrease the effect of other factors on temperature wind blowing from the sea, helps to spread the moderating influence of the sea; wind blowing from the land will have the opposite effect 🡪 this will also have the effect of increasing or decreasing the amount of precipitation ocean currents: - hot or cold ocean currents can affect the temperature of the land, in particular if the winds blow from sea to land - a “switch” in currents can have the effect of changing the climate of an area for the duration of this switch precipitation: - the amount of this is determined by the distance from the sea and by the prevailing winds - it determines the abundance and type of life that exists in an area - there are three main sources of precipitation: orographic, convectional and frontal A. OROGRAPHIC RAINFALL - caused by clouds rising over a mountain range and releasing water as they rise - this is usually the type of rainfall that falls on coastal areas c B. CONVECTIONAL PRECIPITATION - the type of rainfall that usually falls in the interior of continents - air warmed during the day rises, mixes and warms cold air, forms air, continues to rise until water condenses out and falls as rain - 🡪 this type of precipitation, though important, is unreliable and sometimes in an inappropriate form, ie heavy rain or hail, for farmers FRONTAL PRECIPITATION - results from the meeting of a cold air mass and a warm air mass - cold air is more dense than hot air and so the hot air rises over the colder air; the hot air cools down & water precipitates out and falls as rain - there is more frontal activity during the winter as the polar front extends further south at this time WATER RESOURCES OF WESTERN CANADA - the source of most rivers in Western Canada is  the cordillera high precipitation levels and melting snow packs provide a constant flow of water; in years of little or no snow, snow packs can be very low and so lead to water restrictions - it is very difficult to get Canadians to restrict their water usage as climatic conditions would seem to indicate an abundance of water 🡪 as with many things distribution is the key problem and quality of the available resource; REMEMBER, clean water is fundamentally important to life - an additional problem is the runoff ( = water containing pesticides, herbicides and other materials that drain off from farm land) from agricultural land and raw (= untreated) sewage (= biological and industrial waste from municipal and industrial sources) being dumped into rivers the Annacis Island sewage treatment plant is relatively new; before it was in operation the GVRD/Metro Vancouver was dumping raw sewage into the river; Victoria still dumps raw sewage into the Strait of Georgia