Download 1 APES Benchmark Study Guide Chapter 1

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APES Benchmark Study Guide
Chapter 1: Environmental Problems, their Causes, and Sustainability
“What’s the use of a house if you don’t have a decent planet to put it on?” –Henry David Thoreau
Concept 1-1A: Our lives and economies depend on energy from the sun (solar capital) and on natural resources and
natural services (natural capital) provided by the earth.
Concept 1-1B: Living sustainably means living off the earth’s natural income without depleting or degrading the natural
capital that supplies it.
Concept 1-2: Societies can become more environmentally sustainable through economic development dedicated to
improving the quality of life for everyone without degrading the earth’s life-support systems.
Concept 1-3: As our ecological footprints grow, we are depleting and degrading more of the earth’s natural capital.
Concept 1-4: Preventing pollution is more effective and less costly than cleaning up pollution.
Concept 1-5A: Major causes of environmental problems are population growth, wasteful and unsustainable resource
use, poverty, exclusion of environmental costs of resource use from the market prices of goods and services, and
attempts to manage nature with insufficient knowledge.
Concept 1-5B: People with different environmental worldviews often disagree about the seriousness of environmental
problems and what we should do about them.
1-6: Nature has sustained itself for billions of years by using solar energy, biodiversity, population control, and nutrient
cycling- lessons from nature that we can apply to our lifestyles and economies.
Critical Thinking Review Questions:
1. List three ways in which you could apply concepts 1-5A and 1-6 to making your lifestyle more environmentally
sustainable.
2. Explain why you agree or disagree with the following propositions:
a. Stabilizing population growth is not desirable because, without more consumers, economic growth
would stop.
b. The world will never run out of resources because we can use technology to find substitutes and to help
us reduce resource waste.
3. Suppose the world’s population stopped growing today. What environmental problems might this help solve?
What environmental problems would remain? What economic problems might population stabilization make
worse?
Chapter 2: Science, Matter, Energy, and Systems
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” –Carl Sagan
Concept 2-1: Scientists collect data and develop theories, models, and laws about how nature works.
Concept 2-2: Matter consists of elements and compounds, which are in turn made up of atoms, ions, or molecules.
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Concept 2-3: When matter undergoes a physical or chemical change, no atoms are created or destroyed (the law of
conservation of matter).
Concept 2-4A: When energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is
created or destroyed (first law of thermodynamics)
Concept 2-4B: Whenever energy is changed from one form to another, we end up with lower-quality or less usable
energy than we started with (second law of thermodynamics)
Concept 2-5A: Systems have inputs, flows, and outputs of matter and energy, and their behavior can be affected by
feedback.
Concept 2-5B: Life, human systems, and the earth’s life support systems must conform to the law of conservation of
matter and the two laws of thermodynamics.
Critical Thinking Review Questions
1. Think of an area you have seen where some significant change has occurred to a natural system. What is a
question you might ask in order to start a scientific process to evaluate the effects of this change?
2. A tree grows and increases its mass. Explain why this phenomenon is not a violation of the law of conservation
of mass.
3. If there is no “away” where organisms can get rid of their wastes, why is the world not filled with waste matter?
4. Someone wants you to invest money in an automobile engine, claiming that it will produce more energy than
the energy in the fuel used to run it. What is your response? Explain.
5. Use the second law of thermodynamics to explain why a barrel of oil can be used only once as a fuel, or in other
words, why we cannot recycle high quality energy.
Chapter 3: Ecosystems: What are they and how do they work?
“All things come from earth, and to earth they all return.” -Menander
Concept 3-1: Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with one another and with their physical environment of
matter and energy.
Concept 3-2: Life is sustained by the flow of energy from the sun through the biosphere, the cycling of nutrients within
the biosphere, and gravity.
Concept 3-3A: Ecosystems contain living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components.
Concept 3-3B: Some organisms produce the nutrients they need, others get their nutrients by consuming other
organisms, and some recycle nutrients back to producers by decomposing the wastes and remains of organisms.
Concept 3-4 A: Energy flows through ecosystems in food chains and webs.
Concept 3-4B: As energy flows through ecosystems in food chains and webs, the amount of chemical energy available to
organisms at each succeeding feeding level decreases.
Concept 3-5: Matter, in the form of nutrients, cycles within and among ecosystems and the biosphere, and human
activities are altering these chemical cycles.
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Concept 3-6: Scientists use field research, laboratory research, and mathematical and other models to learn about
ecosystems.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. How would you explain the importance of tropical rain forests to people who think that such forests have no
connection to their lives?
2. Explain why (a) the flow of energy through the biosphere depends on the cycling of nutrients, and (b) the cycling
of nutrients depends on gravity.
3. Make a list of food you ate for lunch or dinner today. Trace each type of food back to a particular producer
species.
4. Why do farmers not need to apply carbon to grow their crops but often need to add fertilizer containing
nitrogen or phosphorous?
5. What changes might take place in the hydrologic cycle if the earth’s climate becomes (a) hotter or (b) cooler? In
each case, what are two ways in which these changes might affect your lifestyle?
6. What would happen to an ecosystem if (a) all its decomposers and detritus feeders were eliminated (b) all its
producers were eliminated, or (c) all of its insects were eliminated? Could a balanced ecosystem exist with only
producers and decomposers and no consumers such as humans and other animals? Explain.
Chapter 4: Biodiversity and Evolution
“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” –Theodosius Dobzhansky
Concept 4-1: The biodiversity found in genes, species, ecosystems, and ecosystem processes is vital to sustaining life on
earth.
Concept 4-2A: The scientific theory of evolution explains how life on earth changes over time through changes in the
genes of populations.
Concept 4-2B: Populations evolve when genes mutate and give some individuals genetic traits that enhance their
abilities to survive and to produce offspring with these traits (natural selection).
Concept 4-3: Tectonic plate movements, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and climate change have shifted wildlife
habitats wiped out large numbers of species, and created opportunities for the evolution of new species.
Concept 4-4A: As environmental conditions change, the balance between formation of new species and extinction of
existing species determines the earth’s biodiversity.
Concept 4-4B: Human activities can decrease biodiversity by causing the premature extinction of species and by
destroying or degrading habitats needed for the development of new species.
Concept 4-5: Species diversity is a major component of biodiversity and tends to increase the sustainability of
ecosystems.
Concept 4-6A: Each species plays a specific ecological role called its niche.
Concept 4-6B: Any given species may play one or more of six important roles- native, nonnative, invasive, indicator,
keystone, or foundation roles- in a particular ecosystem.
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Critical Thinking Questions
1. Explain what could happen to the ecosystem where American alligators live if the alligators went extinct. Name
a plant species and an animal species that would be seriously affected, and describe how each might respond to
these changes in their environment.
2. Describe the major differences between the ecological niches of humans and cockroaches. Are these two
species in competition? If so, how do they manage to coexist?
3. How would you experimentally determine if an organism is a keystone species?
4. Is the human species a keystone species? Explain. If humans were to become extinct, what are three species
that might become extinct and three species whose populations would probably grow?
5. How would you respond to someone who tells you that we should not worry about air pollution because natural
selection will enable humans to develop lungs that can detoxify pollutants?
Chapter 5: Biodiversity, Species Interactions, and Population Control
“We cannot command nature except by obeying her.” –Sir Francis Bacon
Concept 5-1: Five types of species interactions- competition, predation, parasitism, mutualism, and commensalismaffect the resource use and population sizes of the species in an ecosystem.
Concept 5-2: Some species develop adaptations that allow them to reduce or avoid competition with other species for
resources.
Concept 5-3: No population can continue to grow indefinitely because of limitations on resources and because of
competition among species for those resources.
Concept 5-4: The structure and species composition of communities and ecosystems change in response to changing
environmental conditions through a process called ecological succession.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Use the second law of thermodynamics to explain why predators are generally less abundant than their prey.
2. Explain why most species with a high capacity for population growth (high biotic potential) tend to have small
individuals (such as bacteria and flies) while those with a low capacity for population growth tend to have large
individuals (such as humans, elephants, and whales).
3. List three factors that have limited human population in the past that we have overcome. Describe how we
overcame each of these factors. List two factors that may limit human population growth in the future.
4. Why are pest species likely to be extreme examples of r-selected species? Why are many endangered species
likely to be extreme examples of K-selected species?
5. Given current environmental conditions, if you had a choice, would you rather be an r-strategist or a Kstrategist? Explain your answer.