Be warned that the stuff in the book on the issues mentioned here may not be comprehensive. There is a lot of stuff that we discussed in class that I think may be more important than what the book says. Your notes are very important!
Also look to the weekly notes for important concepts and terms.
Thermodynamics. Laws of Thermodynamics. Conservation of Energy/Mass. Different types of energy. Heat/temperature. Steady-state.
Cycles. Trophic relationships and their importance. Relationship between Second Law of Thermodynamics and life on Earth. Nutrient recycling. Biomass pyramid, and how energy is partitioned. Carbon and Nitrogen cycles. Relationship between soil's apparent charge and the mobility of nitrogen and other compounds in the soil. Effects of nutrient pollution on aquatic ecosystems. Nitrogen fixation. Place of humans in these cycles. Bioshpere II: what was it, what happened, why do we care?
Ecosystems and "Natural" Populations. J-curve, S-curve, what gives rise to each. Carrying capacity. Density dependence. Dynamics of succession. Biodiversity (what is it, why is it important, what are we doing about it). Gene pool. Different ways that humans affect biodiversity. Endangered Spcecies Act, and issues discussed in debate. What is known about current extinction rates and how they compare with those in the past. What is the theory of Island Biogeography, and how does it help us to think about land for conservation. Be able to use the extinction/immigration figure to reason out questions of how island biodiversity may change based upon changes in physical conditions on an island or with respect to the mainland (distance from mainland, island size, those sorts of things).
Human Population. How human population has changed since the Industrial Revolution. Changes in absolute growth versus changes in growth rate. Population projections and reasons for them. Demographic transition, and reasons for it. Environmental and social impacts of rapid population growth (pros and cons). Differences between developed and developing world (both in population growth and in effects of population). Factors influencing family size. Population momentum and age structure of a population.
Food Production and Farming. How food supply and population are related. What has been happening to per capita food production globally and in important regions. Potential to increase production through increased land area in agriculture. Factors that degrade land. Factors that have increased productivity in the past and their prospects in the future. Differences between agriculture in US and elsewhere. Reasons for increased fluctuations in food production, and the effects of these in developing and developed world. Green Revolution. Pesticide treadmill/pest resistance. Integrated Pest Management. Organic farming. Economic effects of consolidation. Contour farming, buffer strips, no-till. Issues discussed in the Green Revolution debate
Some things that are well-discussed in your book, and you should know about. Understanding the entire chapter will help you to understand some of the concepts that we discussed in class, but these are some things that I'd like you to understand even though we didn't cover them much in class.
Ch. 1: Easter Island, global environmental trends, sustainability, critiques of environmental movement.See, and you thought there was going to be a lot to know!
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