Environmental Science Midterm Reviewer

MODULE 1: The Human Populations - Categorized into three: pre-reproductive ages (0-14
years old), reproductive ages (15-44 years old), and
Environment post-reproductive (45 and older)
- Restricts or limits the growth of a population size Pre-reproductive
- The increase, decrease, or stability depends on the
environmental conditions and changes - Unlikely to bear children but their fertile years can still
be expected in the future
Carrying capacity
Reproductive
- Maximum populations of a given species that a
particular habitat can sustain indefinitely - Likely to bear children
- It is important to note that fertility naturally declines as
*The global population change if there are more births than you get older which makes it harder to conceive
deaths during a period of time. Three factors affecting human
population increase/decrease are: births (fertility rate), deaths Post-reproductive
(mortality rate), and migration (immigration/emigration).
- Female’s fertility declines and bearing children again
Equation would determine the population change: becomes unlikely

Population = (Births + Immigration) - (Deaths + Emigration) Age Structure Graphs

Total Fertility rate - Is a simple graph that conveys the complex social
narrative of a population through its shape
- It is the key factor affecting human population growth - Three basic shapes of human population pyramid:
and size expansive (pyramid), constrictive (beehives/inverted
- TFR is the average number of children that would be pyramid), stationary (rectangular).
born to a woman over her lifetime if: she were to
experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates Expansive
through her lifetime/she were to live from birth until
the end of her reproductive life - Used to describe populations that are young and
growing
Natality - Broad base and narrow top
- Larger percentage of the population in the younger age
- Number of individuals that are added to a population cohorts, usually with each age cohort smaller in size
over a period of time due to reproduction than the one below it
- Often used to describe reproductive rates over a variety - Representative of developing nations whose
of time periods populations often have high fertility rates and lower
- Differ from fertility rate which is uncountable; it is average life expectancies
demographically based
Constrictive
Mortality
- Used to describe populations that are elderly and
- Number of individual deaths in a population over a shrinking
period of time - Smaller percentage of people in younger age cohorts
Birth rate and are typically characteristic of countries with higher
levels of social and economic development
- Number of individuals born per 1,000 individuals per
year Stationary
- Often reported in percentage - Used to describe populations that are not growing
Death rate - Equal percentages across age cohorts that taper off
toward the top
- Number of individuals that die per 1,000 individuals per - Characteristic of developed nations which birth rates
year are low and overall quality of life is high
- Used to describe how many individuals die in a specific
age *The global population are growing exponentially. This growth
poses a threat to the carrying capacity of a country, city, or place.
Immigration

- Migration of an individual into a place

- When an individual immigrates to a new location, he MODULE 2: Climate and Biodiversity
increases the population within that area Factors why the climate varies in different parts of the earth:
Emigration - Patterns of global air circulations
- An individual leaves a place to reside in another - Ocean currents distributes heat
- When an individual emigrates, he decreases the - Uneven precipitation to other parts of the world
population within that area Climate varies because of:
Age structures - Latitude
- An important determining factor whether the - Elevation
population of a country increases or decreases
*Climate change really affects the biodiversity. It defines what Mild climate
organism (plants or animals) that could thrive in a specific
ecosystem. - 64 to 86 0 F
- Low humidity
* In an ecosystem, the key factors on determining the area’s
climate are through the following: incoming solar energy, earth’s Continental climate
rotation, global patterns of air and water movement, gasses in - Has annual variation in temperature
the atmosphere and the earth’s surface features. - Warm summers and cold winters
Weather - Tend to occur in middle latitudes 40 to 55 north

- Day-to-day state of the atmosphere in a region and its Polar

short-term (minutes to weeks) variations - Lack of warm summer but with varying winters
- State of the atmosphere including temperature, - Has an average temperature of less than 100 C or 500 F
atmospheric pressure, wind, humidity, precipitation,
and cloud cover at a particular time and place Greenhouse gasses
- Primary types: sunny, rainy, windy, stormy, cloudy
- Any gas that has the properties to trap heat in the
- Weather systems: high pressure system, low pressure
atmosphere and warm the planet
system
- Main kinds of greenhouse gasses: water vapor, carbon
Sunny dioxide, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide,
chlorofluorocarbons
- Little to no clouds - Positive effect: it contributes to the survival of life on
- Experienced during summer Earth. Without the greenhouse effect, the temperature
Rainy of the planet would be similar to conditions
experienced on the moon
- Full of rainfall - Negative effect: an elevated greenhouse effect can be
- Occur in the Philippines during monsoon season dangerous. Since the Industrial Revolution, the
widespread adaptation of fossil fuels has increased the
Windy amount of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other
- Fun to go outside where you can fly a kite or simply greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere
walk while feeling the breeze touch your skin - Extreme effect: One of the chief concerns about an
increase in the greenhouse effect is that the changes
Stormy can become self-sustaining. As more greenhouse gases
enter the atmosphere, its ability to trap heat increases.
- Intense rain with strong gust of wind partnered with
As the warmth of the atmosphere increases, the
thunder and lightning
amount of water vapor it can hold increases as well,
Cloudy further boosting the effect.

- Sky is full of cloud that blocks the sunlight from passing * Increase of global greenhouse gas levels coincides with a
period of increasing global warmth and other observed changes
High pressure system to the climate.
- Air is sinking down in the atmosphere * The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
- Air pressure is higher on the ground thus we see clear concluded that it is extremely likely that human influence has
skies with sunshine been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the
mid-20th century.
Low pressure system
* The carbon cycle’s sinks and sources help regulate the amount
- Air is rising up in the atmosphere
of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
- Air pressure is lower on the ground thus forming
clouds and storms with high winds Sinks
Climate - Parts of the cycle that remove carbon from the
atmosphere
- Long-term pattern of weather in a particular area
- A region’s weather patterns are usually tracked for at Sources
least 30 years and is considered climate
- Climate systems: tropical, dry, mild, continental, polar - Parts of the cycle that add carbon to the atmosphere
- 5 major components: atmosphere (air), hydrosphere
How to keep the right balance of greenhouse gasses in our
(water), biosphere (life), cryosphere (snow), lithosphere
atmosphere?
(land)
- Keep fossil fuels in the ground
Tropical climate
- Reduce emissions from industry
- Warm temperatures with greater than 180 C - Be energy-efficient citizens
- Use renewables to power the world
Dry climate - Change our diets
- Stop funding fossil fuels overseas
- There is regular evaporation; water molecules escape
- Double the area of forests and restore habitats
the surface of the Earth and enter the atmosphere, and
- Create an equal world
transpiration, where water vapor escapes, and these
two processes are more than the level of rain, snow or
even hail. Because of this, the area becomes dry
Biodiversity - Its most important characteristic is that it receives very
little rainfall
- Refers to the natural world around us as well as the - Types: subtropical, semiarid, coastal, cold
variety of all different types of organisms
Subtropical
Biome
- Hot and dry
- A major ecological community of organisms adapted to - It is normally warm all year but is very hot and dry
a particular climatic or environmental condition in a during summer, while winter is cooler but is still dry as
large geographic area in which they occur well
- It is the largest geographic biotic unit that is
characterized by its organisms and climate Semiarid
- Major types: aquatic, grassland, forest, desert, tundra
- There is a moderately long and dry summer, and the
Aquatic biomes winters usually have low concentrations of rainfall or
snowfall
- Are the living and the non-living entities of water
bodies constituting diverse ecosystems Coastal
- Include both freshwater and marine biomes
- The seasons have warm and long summers and are cool
Freshwater biomes during winters

- Bodies of water that are characterized by being Cold

surrounded by land and having a low salt concentration
amounting to less than 1% - Throughout the winter there are cold winters with
- Examples: ponds, rivers, lakes snowfall and high overall rainfall, and it also occurs
occasionally during summer
Marine biomes
Tundra biomes
- Includes the five great oceans in various parts of the
planet - Tundra ecosystems are treeless regions found in the
- Is the largest biome on earth Arctic and on the tops of mountains, where the climate
- The normal range of ocean salinity ranges between 33- is cold and windy, and rainfall is scant
37 grams per liter - Types: arctic, alpine
- Examples: ocean, coral reefs, estuaries Arctic
Grassland biomes - Located in the northern hemisphere or high-latitude
- Are open regions that are dominated by grass and have landmasses, above Arctic Circle
a warm, dry climate Alpine
- Types: savannas, temperate grassland
- Located on mountains at high altitudes where trees
Savannas cannot grow and overnight temperatures fall below
- Have a warm climate with rainy and dry seasons freezing
- It is found closer to the equator

Temperate grasslands MODULE 3: Sustaining Biodiversity

- are known to have richer soils and have 4 seasons: Biological extinction
summer, spring, fall, and winter
- It is found far from the equator - Happens if a species can no longer be located anywhere

Forest biomes Extinction

- Are biomes that are characterized by having high - Forever and irreversible loss of natural resources
biodiversity, large populations of plant species, and a - One of the natural processes of the earth
variety of animals that inhabit the ecosystems
Background extinction
- Types: temperate, tropical, boreal
- Normal extinction rate of one species
Temperate forest
Mass extinction
- These forests endure all four seasons because they are
located at higher latitudes - Widespread event that wiped out majority (more than
50%) of the species on earth
Tropical forest
Philippine eagle
- These forests have warm temperatures as they are
found near the equator - One of the rarest eagles in the world; largest and most
powerful among forest raptors
Boreal forest
- 7ft wingspan, has one of the broadest among forest
- Also referred to as Taiga, Boreal forests are the largest raptors in the world; blue-gray eyes, it can also see 8x
terrestrial biome clearer than human beings; powerful talons, they can
cut through their prey easily using their sharp and
Desert biomes powerful talons; 3ft height from the tip of its crown
- Are the driest of all the biomes feathers to its tail
 - Is a giant bird of prey that can only be seen in 4 islands - Carbon cycle
in the Philippines: Luzon, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao - Nitrogen cycle
- Critically endangered, 400 pairs left in the wild - Oxygen cycle

Polar bear and Orangutan Water

- Vulnerable/threatened - Are replenished through water cycle or hydrologic cycle

- One of the important chemicals to sustain life on earth
White rhinoceros and we are using the available fresh water resources
- Critically endangered unsustainably by wasting, polluting and charging too
little for this irreplaceable natural resources
Extinct - Largest part of the earth’s surface which covers 71%;
most of it are saltwater
- When the last representative of it has died
Lake
Extinct in the Wild
- A body of water that is surrounded by land
- Living members kept in captivity or as a naturalized
population outside its historic range due to massive Ocean
habitat loss
- A body of saline water that contains 97% of the earth’s
Critically endangered water
- Major divisions: pacific, atlantic, indian, southern, arctic
- Facing extremely high risk of extinction in the wild
River
Endangered
- A natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater,
- Facing very high risk of extinction in the wild
flowing towards an ocean, sea, or another river
Vulnerable
Ground water
- Facing high risk of extinction in the wild
- Is the water present beneath the earth’s surface in rock
Near Threatened and soil pore spaces and in fractures of rock formations

- Close to qualifying or likely to qualify for a threatened Streams

category in the near future
- Any body of running water that occupies a channel,
Least Concern normally above the ground, eroding the land that it
flows over and depositing sediment as it travels
- Population is stable enough and it is unlikely to face
extinction in the near future Ice caps

Data Deficient - Are masses of ice that are less than 50,000 sq.km. in
size
- There is inadequate information or population status - Are essentially domes that spread out laterally in all
- Not enough information on abundance or distribution directions
to estimate its risk of extinction
Glaciers
Rare
- A persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving
- Rare species have small world population that are not under its own weight
at present endangered or vulnerable, but are at risk
- Are localized within restricted geographical areas or Sea
habitat or are thinly scattered over a more extensive
- A smaller body of water than ocean that is partially
range
enclosed by land
Conservation Dependent
Water pollutants
- Animal Species that at present do not qualify as criti-
- Pathogens, plant nutrients, heavy metals
cally endangered, endangered, or vulnerable
- 4 main categories: pathogens, inorganic compounds,
Low Risk organic material, macroscopic pollutants

- A species is at low risk when it does not qualify for any Pathogens
of the above categories
- can be bacteria, protozoa or viruses
Not Evaluated - most common pathogenic bacteria are coliform
and E. coli
- When an animal species has not been assessed against - when they start to increase in numbers that are
any criteria above safe levels, water contamination occurs

Inorganic compounds
MODULE 4: Water Environment - heavy metals like arsenic, mercury, copper,
chromium, zinc and barium
Biogeochemical cycles:
- harmless in very small concentrations, act as
- Water cycle or hydrologic cycle pollutants when they end up concentrated in water
 - can cause severe health problems in humans and Volcano
other organisms, up to and including death
- can be due to leaching from waste disposal, increased - Is an opening on the surface f the earth that allows the
human activity or industrial accidents material warmer than its surrounding to escape from its
interior
Organic material
Earthquake
- materials containing molecules that have carbon in
their makeup - Is the shaking of the surface of the earth resulting from
- most frequently detected volatile organic chemicals is a sudden release of energy in the earth’s lithosphere
methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) that creates seismic waves
- Water contaminated with this organic chemical can Fault
cause leukemia, lymphoma and tumors in the
testicles, thyroid glands and kidneys - Is a fracture in the earth’s crust that allows the shaking
of the earth’s mantle and its plates
Macroscopic pollutants
How can we prevent loss of human life and property damage
- are large, visible items in waterways or bodies of caused by volcano?
water
- first common pollutant is trash: especially plastic - Use of historical records and geologic measurements to
waste identify high-risk areas, so that people can avoid living
- This form of water pollution is arguably the most in those areas
manageable, however it is an urgent environmental - Use of monitoring devices that warn us when volcanoes
issue that these larger pollutants be removed in order are likely to erupt
to avoid disruption of aquatic ecosystems and - Developed evacuation plans for areas prone to volcanic
contamination upon the chemical breakdown of activity
these objects
Rocks
Solution for water pollution:
- Is a solid mineral substance on the surface or under the
- Prevent groundwater contamination soil, forming part of the earth surface
- Find substitute for toxic pollutants - formed by the combination of one or more minerals
- Reduce air pollution - types: igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic

Igneous rocks

MODULE5: Geology and Non-renewable Resources - Formed by cooling molten material known as magma
- Can occur at or near the surface, at shallow depths in
*Geological process of the earth had shaped the earth’s surface the earth’s crust, or deep in the crust
and also the life on it. It created opportunities for evolution of
new species. Sedimentary rocks

Geological process: - Are rocks formed from the accumulation of sediment

on the earth’s surface or the chemical precipitation of
- Tectonic plates minerals on or near the surface
- Volcanic eruption
- Earthquakes Metamorphic rocks

Geology - formed by the alteration of pre-existing rocks by

pressure and or heat in the crust
- Is a science that study the dynamic processes of the
earth’s surface and its interior Minerals
- 3 layers: core, mantle, crust
- Naturally occurring homogenous solid with definite
Tectonic plates chemical composition and a highly ordered atomic
arrangement
- These plates move and interact with one another - Formed by inorganic processes
driven by convectional forces within the earth - composed of a single solid substance of uniform
Volcanic eruption composition that cannot be physically separated into
simpler chemical compounds
- Is the expulsion of gases, rock fragments, and/or
molten lava from within the Earth through a vent onto * Some of the minerals in the earth’s crust can be turned into a
the earth’s surface or into the atmosphere useful products, but extracting and using these resources
disturbs the land, erode soils and produce a toxic waste that can
pollute air, water and soil.