Unit 3 Blog

Vocabulary- 

Ecosystem - the interrelating biotic and abiotic factors of an environment

Gross primary Productivity - the amount of energy from sunlight that autotrophs capture

Net Primary Productivity - the amount of energy from sunlight that autotrophs capture minus the energy the autotrophs use to respire

      

Biomass - the total mass of organic matter (living organisms)

Standing Crop - the amount of biomass in an ecosystem at a given time

Ecological Efficiency - how much of the consumed energy can be passed on to the next trophic level

Trophic Pyramid - shows the distribution of energy or biomass among trophic levels

Biogeochemical Cycles - the movement of matter between and in different ecosystems

Macronutrients - 6 elements key to living things (N, K, P, Ca, S, Mg)

Limiting Nutrient - its availability constrains growth

Leaching - nutrients moving from place to place with water

Disturbance - an event that causes a shift in ecosystem in population or composition

Resistance - how much an ecosystem is affected by a disturbance

Resilience - how long it takes more an ecosystem to recover from a disturbance

Instrumental Value - ecosystem services; ways nature is useful to humans

Intrinsic Value - value distinct from any benefit that might be provided to humans

Current Event- post the link to your event along with a summary.  

Note- If you connect your BIG picture ideas to your article only, I will take off points!

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2014/09/30/new-realities-needed-for-water-sustainability/

This article talks about the new approaches companies are taking in response to the decreased sustainability of water after recognizing its instrumental value in helping their companies run. The author goes on to talk about how intrinsically valuable water is and how it has been taken for granted since it has been so efficiently provided by water companies. The conclusion posits that in order to maintain water sustainability, new information must be gathered and respectful appreciation must be maintained.

Environmental Quote-

I agree with this statement because of the bee's instrumental value to humans. Bees pollinate flowers, crops and other autotrophs that are extremely necessary to human survival. First, they are very necessary to agriculture and growing food because it would be near impossible, or at the very least extremely tedious, to pollinate each and every blossom ourselves. Without the pollination accomplished by bees, there would be no crop. The subsequent food shortage would be enough to eradicate large portions of the human population, but the resource wars likely to result from the shortage would have the ability to wipe out humans completely. Second, pollination is necessary for many autotrophs to reproduce. The plant population is key to having adequate amounts of oxygen to support all forms of life, including human life. If there were no bees, there would be likely be a severe decrease in plant population and ergo, the oxygen supply. Third, plants help manage carbon dioxide emissions by using them in photosynthesis. The decrease in the plant population would mitigate this regulatory cycle and global warming would be exacerbated since the carbon normally stored in plant tissues would be in the atmosphere as the plants wouldn't exist.

Big Picture Reflection-  This is where you will make the four BIG PICTURE connections to the ENTIRE UNIT.  Please tie in information you learned in your reading, from completing your mini-project and from your current event.  There is not an exact length that I am expecting other than it should definitely be at least a paragraph for each section, should be thorough and show understanding of the topic.  

Human Impact- Human activity has altered many biogeochemical cycles; increased nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations from fertilizer and detergents have resulted in the crowding out of low nitrogen plants and hypoxic-zone-inducing algal blooms respectively. The carbon cycle has been accelerated because of the combustion of fossil fuels leading to global warming. The creation of human settlements has also eradicated or unbalanced many ecosystems such as the Everglades resulting in a new branch of ecology known as restoration ecology. As these anthropogenic imbalances are observed, humans are taking steps to try to mitigate the effects of their actions.

Environmental Impact-  The algal blooms result in hypoxic zones that cause dead zones and the perpetually nitrogen rich fertilizer causes a decrease in biodiversity, which is harmful to an ecosystem's resilience as biodiversity is key to resilience. Global warming as a result of carbon emissions is also thought to be causing a global climate change for the warmer which is throwing many ecosystems out of whack. The chain effect of losing a species is very influential as organisms depend on each other for food sources among other things which means losing one species can cause its prey to overpopulate or its predators to decrease in population which would lead to a whole other slew of effects. 

Economic Impact- Ecosystems provide a lot of services to humans for free that would be costly and/or impossible to replace, like making carbon dioxide into oxygen, turning sunlight into forms that humans can process, pollination etc. The loss of these services would have a huge economic impact as some companies are already noticing and trying to fix, though too many aren't. Algal blooms would also hurt the fishing economy. The loss of environment would harm the ecotourism economy, though it would create more jobs for restoration ecologists.

Government Legislation- Teddy Roosevelt set up many conservation policies during his presidency to preserve ecosystems, ranging from the creation of five national parks to preserve their unique ecosystems to the establishing of many game and forest reserves. More recently, the Clean Air Act of 1970 and Clean Water Act of 1972 were passed to manage pollutant levels that had resulted because of anthropogenic activities.