What Is Environmental Science?

• The study of our planet’s natural systems and how humans and the environment affect one another

• The environment includes all living and nonliving things with which organisms interact.

• Understanding the interactions between humans and the environment is the first step to solving environmental problems.

Chapter 1: Our Island, Earth

National Marine Fisheries Service scientists studying whether commercial boats are harming endangered killer whales

Natural Resources

• Natural resources are materials and energy sources found in nature that humans need to survive.– Renewable resources: Naturally replenished over short periods– Nonrenewable resources: Naturally formed more slowly than we use them.– Renewable resources can become nonrenewable if used faster than they are

replenished.

Chapter 1: Our Island, Earth

Consumer and Corporate Responses

Chapter 2: Economics

• Changing consumer values can drive corporations to pursue sustainability.

• Ecolabeling is an example of a corporate response to the call for sustainable goods and services.

Did You Know? Organic farming is one of the fastest-growing segments of U.S. agriculture. Land devoted to growing organic has expanded by about 15% each year since 2002.

International Environmental Policy

Chapter 2: International Environmental Policy and Approaches

• Environmental issues often involve more than one nation.• International organizations

promote cooperation between nations:

• The United Nations • The European Union• The World Trade Organization• The World Bank

Tectonic Plates

• There are three major types of plate boundary: – Divergent

– Transform

– Convergent

Chapter 3: Earth’s Spheres

Divergent and Transform Plate Boundaries

• Divergent boundaries: Rising magma pushes plates apart.

• Transform boundaries: Plates slip and grind alongside one another.

Chapter 3: Earth’s Spheres

Divergent plate boundary

Transform plate boundary

Convergent Plate Boundaries

• Plates collide, causing one of two things to happen:– Subduction: One plate slides beneath another.

– Mountain-building: Both plates are uplifted.

Chapter 3: Earth’s Spheres

The Hydrosphere

• Consists of Earth’s water

• Most of Earth’s water (97.5%) is salt water.

• Only 0.5% of Earth’s water is unfrozen fresh water usable for drinking or irrigation.

• Earth’s available fresh water includes surface water and ground water.

Chapter 3: Earth’s Spheres

Did You Know? If it is depleted, groundwater can take hundreds or even thousands of years to recharge completely.

Greenlaw Brook, Limestone, Maine

The Water Cycle

Chapter 3: Earth’s Spheres

The Carbon Cycle

Chapter 3: Biogeochemical Cycles

The Nitrogen Cycle

Chapter 3: Biogeochemical Cycles

Biotic and Abiotic Factors• Biotic factors: Parts of an

ecosystem that are living or used to be living

• Abiotic factors: Parts of an ecosystem that have never been living

Chapter 4: Studying Ecology

Did You Know? Decaying organisms are biotic factors as long as their structure remains cellular.

Habitat• The specific environment in which an organism lives

• Habitats provide an organism with resources—anything an organism needs to survive and reproduce, including food, shelter, and mates.

Chapter 4: Studying Ecology

Population DistributionChapter 4: Describing Populations

• How organisms are arranged within an area:

• Random distribution: Organisms arranged in no particular pattern

• Uniform distribution: Organisms evenly spaced

• Clumped distribution: Organisms grouped near resources; most common distribution in nature

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Predation (+/–)

• The process by which a predator hunts, kills, and consumes prey

• Causes cycles in predatory and prey population sizes

• Defensive traits such as camouflage, mimicry, and warning coloration have evolved in response to predator-prey interactions.

• Some predator-prey relationships are examples of coevolution, the process by which two species evolve in response to changes in each other.

Chapter 5: Species Interactions

Did You Know? A single rough-skinned newt contains enough poison to kill 100 people. Unfortunately for the newt, its predator, the common garter snake, has coevolved resistance to the toxin.

Rough-Skinned Newt

Parasitism and Herbivory (+/–)Chapter 5: Species Interactions

Did You Know? One study of Pacific estuaries suggests that parasites play an important role in keeping these ecosystems healthy by controlling host populations.

Hookworm (a parasite)

• Parasitism: One organism (the parasite) relies on another (the host) for nourishment or for some other benefit

• Herbivory: An animal feeding on a plant

Mutualism (+/+) and Commensalism (+/0)Chapter 5: Species Interactions

Did You Know? Symbiosis describes a long-lasting and physically close relationship between species in which at least one species benefits.

• Mutualism: a relationship in which two or more species benefit

• Commensalism: a relationship in which one species benefits while the other is unaffected

Lichen: a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a photosynthetic partner, such as an alga

Numbers and Biomass in Communities

• A trophic level’s biomass is the mass of living tissue it contains.

• In general, there are more organisms and greater biomass at lower trophic levels than at higher ones.

Chapter 5: Ecological Communities

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Trophic Pyramid

Food Chains and Webs

•Food chain: Linear series of feeding relationships

•Food web: Shows the overlapping and interconnected food chains present in a community

Chapter 5: Ecological Communities