Download NS 222 Example questions for first mid

ESCI 101 Study guide for the first mid-term exam
Updated: May 3, 2017
Know the following terms: Environment, ecology, biome, goods, marginal value,
opportunity cost, demand, supply, luxury goods, inferior goods, welfare economics,
ecosystem, habitat, niche, biome, population, species, community, interspecific and
intraspecific competition, predation, producers, consumers, herbivores, carnivores,
omnivores, decomposers, keystone species, detritus, food web, primary and secondary
succession.
Lecture 1
What caused mercury contamination in Bellingham Bay?
How is Lake Whatcom changing in response to development within the watershed?
Describe how environmental problems vary among regions in the US.
Lecture 2
How are worldviews (or theories of moral responsibility) related to environmental ethics?
Identify the main characters in dispute over the fate of Hetch Hetchy in the documentary
film “The Wilderness Idea” and describe their apparent environmental ethics.
How rapidly was 19th-century United States deforested?
What is the difference between the ethics of preservation and conservation?
Lecture 3
What would an environmental economist need to know to calculate the optimal level of
environmental quality for a particular ecosystem?
What processes can shift the marginal benefit curve for environmental quality?
What processes can shift the marginal cost curve?
How valuable is the environment? According to Costanza et al. (1997, Nature), what is
the annual marginal value of environmental goods and services? How does it compare to
the world’s gross national product?
What is the estimated range of value of ecosystem services in the Puget Sound region?
Why does this range underestimate the value of ecosystem services?
What methods can be used to estimate the value of environmental goods and services?
What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of command-and-control regulations
versus market-based incentives (such as tradable emissions permits or pollution taxes)?
What is an externality? How might externalities affect levels of pollution generated by
industries?
In one plot, draw hypothetical marginal costs and marginal benefits versus environmental
quality curves.
Imagine the plot represents the costs and benefits of a company that is discharging
contaminants into the environment. Assuming all costs and benefits are
accounted for, indicate on the plot the optimal environmental quality.
Redraw the plot under the following conditions:
1: Improved cleanup technology makes pollution cheaper to control.
2: It is discovered that the pollutants discharged are causing local
extinction of an endangered species.
How does the optimal pollution level change under scenarios 1 & 2?
Why would an environmental economist consider some non-zero level of environmental
degradation to be acceptable?
Describe why pollution is considered a negative externality to industry?
How would transferable pollution credits improve the efficiency of pollution control?
Lecture 4
Describe the differences between junk science and sound science.
Describe the steps in the scientific method.
How do burrow-dwelling marine animals affect the production and fate of methyl
mercury in Boston Harbor, MA?
Lecture 5
What is an ecosystem?
What are the primary components of ecosystems? Give examples from two ecosystems.
What are trophic levels? What are the primary trophic levels in ecosystems?
What are the main factors influencing the distributions of terrestrial (or marine) biomes?
Lecture 6
Describe the differences in biomass among trophic groups in an ecosystem.
Why is energy lost during transfer among trophic levels in an ecosystem? What are the
consequences of this energy loss?
What are the key observations and inferences that are central to the theory of evolution
by natural selection?
Describe the global carbon (or nitrogen, phosphorous) cycle. How have human activities
affected this cycle?
Describe the following biochemical reactions: photosynthesis, respiration. Write the
chemical reaction for the formation and destruction of glucose by these processes.
Describe the generally expected patterns of succession in terrestrial and aquatic systems.
What are the primary nutrients that can limit primary producers?
How can moderate levels of disturbance enhance biodiversity?
How does predation by sea otters affect kelp species in Washington State?
According to the fossil record, roughly how long do species survive before going extinct?
How does that rate compare to the current extinction rate?
Lectures 7 and 8
Definitions: Natality, birth rate, per-capita birthrate, population growth rate, per-capita
growth rate, mortality, death rate, per-capita mortality rate,
Why are population growth rates density-dependent?
What are the differences between exponential and logistic population growth models?
Describe the key difference between r-selected and K-selected species.
How do rates of extinction today compare with rates from the fossil record?
Describe three kinds of environmental resistance that can limit the growth of populations.
What factors influence the rate of human population growth?
Why are population growth rates higher in developing countries?
What is the most significant predictor of population growth rates in developing countries?
What caused the recent population explosion (last two centuries)?
How does the age structure of a population influence future population growth?
What are the environmental consequences of rapid human population growth?
Describe the four phases of the demographic transition.
What are the principles of sustainable development?
What is the role of the World Bank in sustainable development programs? What are
some difficulties countries have experience because of the actions of the World Bank?
How can sustainable development programs be designed to minimize these problems?
What is the connection between income, literacy and population growth rates?