Chapter 1
Core Case Study
1. What is sustainability? What is
biomimicry?
Explain why learning from the earth is a key
to learning how to live more sustainably.
Section 1.1
2. What are the three key concepts for this
section? Define environment. Distinguish
among environmental science, ecology, and
environmentalism. What is an ecosystem?
What are three scientific principles of
sustainability derived from how the natural
world works? Define solar energy,
biodiversity, and chemical cycling (or
nutrient cycling) and explain why they are
important to life on the earth.
3. Define natural capital. Define natural
resources and ecosystem services, and give
two examples of each. Give three examples
of how we are degrading natural capital.
Explain how finding solutions to
environmental problems involves making
trade-offs. Explain why individuals matter in
dealing with the environmental problems we
face. What are three economic, political, and
ethical principles of sustainability? What is
full-cost pricing and why is it important?
Describe the role of Janine Benyus in
promoting the important and growing field
of biomimicry.
4. What is a resource? Distinguish between
an inexhaustible resource and a renewable
resource and give an example of each. What
is the sustainable yield of a renewable
resource? Define and give an example of a
nonrenewable or exhaustible resource.
Distinguish between more-developed
countries and less-developed countries and
give one example each of a high-income,
middle-income, and low-income country.
Section 1.2
5. What is the key concept for this section?
How have humans improved the quality of
life for many people? How are humans
living unsustainably? Define and give three
examples of environmental degradation (or
natural capital degradation). About what
percentage of the earth’s natural or
ecosystem services have been degraded by
human activities? What is the tragedy of the
commons? What are two ways to deal with
this effect?
6. What is an ecological footprint? What is a
per capita ecological footprint? Define
biocapacity. Use the ecological footprint
concept to explain how we are living
unsustainably. What is the IPAT model for
estimating our environmental impact?
Explain how three major cultural changes
taking place over
Section 1.3
7. What are the two key concepts for this
section? Identify six basic causes of the
environmental problems that we face. What
is exponential growth? What is the rule of
70? What is the current size of the human
population? About how many people are
added each year? How big is the world’s
population projected to be in 2050? How do
Americans, Indians, and the average people
in the poorest countries compare in terms of
average resource consumption per person?
Summarize the potentially harmful and
beneficial environmental effects of
affluence.
8. What is poverty and what are three of its
harmful environmental and health effects?
About what percentage of the world’s
people struggle to live on the equivalent of
$1.25 a day? About what percentage have to
live on $2.25 a day? How are poverty and
population growth connected? List three
major health problems faced by many of the
poor.
9. Explain how excluding the harmful
environmental and health costs of
production from the prices of goods and
services affects the environmental problems
we face. What is the connection between
government subsidies, resource use, and
environmental degradation? What are two
ways to include the harmful environmental
and health costs of the goods and services in
their market prices? Explain how a lack of
knowledge about nature and the importance
of natural capital, along with our increasing
isolation from nature, can intensify the
environmental problems we face. What is an
environmental worldview? What is
environmental ethics? What are five
important ethical questions relating to the
environment? Distinguish among the
human-centered, life-centered, and earthcentered environmental worldviews. What
are three levels of biomimicry? List eight
key biomimicry principles.
Section 1.4
10. What is the key concept for this section?
What is an environmentally sustainable
society? What is natural income and how is
it related to sustainability? Describe Tuy
Sereivathana’s efforts to prevent elephants
from becoming extinct in Cambodia and to
reduce the country’s poverty. List nine
principles for living more sustainably. What
are two pieces of good news about making
the transition to a more sustainable society?
What are this chapter’s three big ideas?
Chapter 2
Core Case Study
1. Describe the controlled scientific
experiment carried out in the Hubbard
Brook Experimental Forest.
Section 2.1
2. What is the key concept for this section?
What is science? List the steps involved in a
scientific process. What are data?
Distinguish between a scientific hypothesis
and a scientific theory. What is peer review
and why is it important? What is a model?
Summarize scientist Jane Goodall’s
achievements. Summarize the scientific
lessons learned from research on the fall of
the ancient civilization on Easter Island.
3. Explain why scientific theories and laws
are the most important and most certain
results of science and why people often use
the term theory incorrectly. What is a
scientific law (law of nature)? Explain why
we cannot break such laws. Distinguish
among reliable science, unreliable science,
and tentative science. What are four
limitations of science?
Section 2.2
4. What are the two key concepts for this
section? What is matter? Distinguish
between an element and a compound and
give an example of each. What is the
periodic table of elements? Define atom,
molecule, and ion and give an example of
each. What is the atomic theory? Distinguish
among protons, neutrons, and electrons.
What is the nucleus of an atom? Distinguish
between the atomic number and the mass
number of an element. What are isotopes?
What is acidity? What is pH? Define
chemical formula and give two examples. In
the controlled experiment discussed in this
chapter’s Core Case Study, the clearing of a
mature forest degraded some of its natural
capital. Specifically, the loss of trees and
vegetation altered the ability of the forest to
retain and recycle water and other critical
plant nutrients—a crucial ecological
function based on the chemical cycling
principle of sustainability. This clearing of
vegetation also violated the solar energy and
biodiversity principles of sustainability. For
example, the cleared forest lost most of its
plants that had used solar energy to produce
food for the forest’s animals, which supplied
nutrients to the soil when they died. Thus,
the forest lost many of its key nutrients that
would normally have been recycled. It also
lost much of its life-sustaining biodiversity.
Many of the results of environmental
science are based on this sort of
experimentation. Throughout this textbook,
we explore other examples of how scientists
learn about nature and use these results to
understand how our actions affect the
environment and how we can solve some of
our environmental problems.
5. Define and give two examples of an
organic compound. What are three types of
organic polymers that are important to life?
What is a cell? What is the cell theory?
Define gene, trait, and chromosome.
6. Define and distinguish between a physical
change and a chemical change (chemical
reaction) in matter and give an example of
each. What is the law of conservation of
matter?
Section 2.3
7. What are the two key concepts for this
section? What is energy? Define and
distinguish between kinetic energy and
potential energy and give an example of
each. What is electric power? Define and
give two examples of electromagnetic
radiation. What is heat (thermal energy)?
Explain how heat is transferred from one
place to another by radiation, conduction,
and convection. Define and give two
examples of electromagnetic radiation.
Distinguish between renewable energy and
nonrenewable energy and give two examples
of each. What percentage of the commercial
energy used in the world and what
percentage used in the United States is
provided by fossil fuels?
8. What is energy quality? Distinguish
between high-quality energy and low-quality
energy and give an example of each. What is
the first law of thermodynamics (law of
conservation of energy) and why is it
important? What is the second law of
thermodynamics and why is it important?
Explain why the second law means that we
can never recycle or reuse high-quality
energy. What is energy efficiency? What
percentage of the commercial energy used in
the United States is unnecessarily wasted?
Why is it important to reduce this waste and
how can we do this?
Section 2.4
9. What is the key concept for this section?
Define and give an example of a system.
Distinguish among the inputs, flows
(throughputs), and outputs of a system.
What is feedback? What is feedback loop?
Distinguish between positive feedback loop
and a negative (corrective) feedback loop in
a system, and give an example of each.
What is an ecological tipping point?
10. What are this chapter’s three big ideas?
Explain how the Hubbard Brook
Experimental Forest controlled experiments
illustrated the three scientific principles of
sustainability.
Chapter 3
We
1. What are three harmful effects of the
clearing and degradation of tropical rain
forests?
Section 3.1
2. What are the two key concepts for this
section? Define and distinguish among the
atmosphere, troposphere, stratosphere,
hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere.
What three interconnected factors sustain
life on the earth? Describe the flow of
energy to and from the earth. What is the
greenhouse effect and why is it important?
Section 3.2
3. What are the two key concepts for this
section? Define ecology. Define organism,
population, community, and ecosystem, and
give an example of each. Distinguish
between the living and nonliving
components in ecosystems and give two
examples of each.
4. What is a trophic level? Distinguish
among producers (autotrophs), consumers
(heterotrophs), decomposers, and detritus
feeders (detritivores), and give an example
of each. Summarize the process of
photosynthesis and explain how it provides
us with food and the oxygen in the air that
we breathe. Distinguish among primary
consumers (herbivores), carnivores,
secondary consumers, tertiary consumers,
and omnivores, and give an example of
each.
5. Explain the importance of microbes. What
is aerobic respiration? What two processes
sustain ecosystems and the biosphere and
how are they linked?
6. What is soil? Explain how a mature soil
forms. What is weathering? Why is soil such
an important resource? What is a soil
profile? Describe the four horizons in a
mature soil. What does the color of topsoil
tell us about its ability to grow crops? What
three types of particles are found in soils?
Section 3.3
7. What is the key concept for this section?
Define and distinguish between a food chain
and a food web. Explain what happens to
energy as it flows through food chains and
food webs. What is a pyramid of energy
flow? Distinguish between gross primary
productivity (GPP) and net primary
productivity (NPP), and explain their
importance. What are the two most
productive land ecosystems and the two
most productive aquatic ecosystems? What
percentage of the world’s NPP do humans
use?
Section 3.4
8. What is the key concept for this section?
What happens to matter in an ecosystem?
What is a nutrient cycle? Explain how
nutrient cycles connect past, present, and
future life. Describe the hydrologic cycle, or
water cycle. What three major processes are
involved in the water cycle? What is surface
runoff? Define groundwater. What is an
aquifer? What percentage of the earth’s
water supply is available to humans and
other species as liquid freshwater?
Summarize the unique properties of water.
List three ways that humans are altering the
water cycle. Explain how clearing a rain
forest can affect local weather and climate.
9. Describe the carbon, nitrogen, and
phosphorus cycles, and explain how human
activities are affecting each cycle.
Summarize Thomas Lovejoy’s role in
protecting the world’s tropical forests and
protecting biodiversity.
Section 3.5
10. What is the key concept for this section?
List three ways in which scientists study
ecosystems. Explain why we need much
more basic data about the condition of the
world’s ecosystems. Distinguish between the
Holocene era and the proposed
Anthropocene era. What is a planetary
boundary (ecological tipping point) and why
are such boundaries important? List four
boundaries that we may have exceeded.
What are this chapter’s three big ideas?
Explain how tropical rain forests (Core Case
Study) showcase the functioning of the three
scientific principles of sustainability.
Chapter 4
Core Case Study
1. Describe the threats to many of the
world’s amphibian species and explain why
we should avoid hastening the extinction of
amphibian species through our activities.
Section 4.1
2. What is the key concept for this section?
Distinguish between eukaryotic and
prokaryotic organisms in terms of their cell
structures. What are the six kingdoms of
life? Distinguish between annual and
perennial plants and between invertebrate
and vertebrate animals. 3. What is a species?
About how many species exist on the earth?
How many of these species have we
identified? Why are insects such important
species?
Section 4.2
4. What is the key concept for this section?
Define biodiversity (biological diversity)
and list and describe its four major
components. Why is biodiversity important?
What is species diversity? Distinguish
between species richness and species
evenness. What is genetic diversity? What is
ecosystem diversity? Define and give three
examples of biomes. What are edge effects?
What is an ecotone? What is functional
diversity? Summarize the scientific
contributions of Edward O. Wilson.
Section 4.3
5. What are the two key concepts for this
section? Define and distinguish between
ecological niche and a habitat. Distinguish
between generalist species and specialist
species and give an example of each.
6. Define and distinguish among native,
nonnative, indicator, and keystone species
and give an example of each. List six factors
that threaten many species of frogs and other
amphibians with extinction. Describe the
role of the American alligator as a keystone
species.
Section 4.4
7. What are the two key concepts for this
section? Define biological evolution
(evolution) and natural selection and explain
how they are related. What is the scientific
theory of biological evolution through
natural selection? What are fossils and how
do scientists use them to understand
evolution? What is a mutation and what role
do mutations play in evolution through
natural selection? What is genetic
variability? What is an adaptation, or
adaptive trait? Explain how harmful bacteria
can become genetically resistant to
antibiotics. What three genetic adaptations
have helped humans to become such a
dominant species? What is an evolutionary
tree or phylogenetic tree? How does it help
describe evolution? What are two limitations
on evolution through natural selection?
What are five common myths about
evolution through natural selection?
Section 4.5
8. What are the two key concepts for this
section? Define speciation. Distinguish
between geographic isolation and
reproductive isolation and explain how they
can lead to the formation of a new species.
Explain how geological processes can affect
biodiversity. Define and distinguish between
artificial selection and genetic engineering,
give an example of each, and explain how
they differ from evolution by natural
selection. What is a genetically modified
organism (GMO)? Define synthetic biology
or biological engineering, explain how it
differs from evolution by natural selection,
and point out some of its potential benefits
and dangers.
9. What is extinction? What is an endemic
species and why are such species vulnerable
to extinction? Define and distinguish
between the background extinction rate and
a mass extinction. How many mass
extinctions have the earth experienced?
What is one of the leading causes of the
rising rate of extinction? Explain why the
monarch butterfly is threatened with
extinction.
10. What are this chapter’s three big ideas?
How are ecosystems where amphibians and
other species live functioning examples of
the three scientific principles of
sustainability?
Chapter 5
Core Case Study
1. Explain how southern sea otters act as a
keystone species in their environment.
Explain why we should care about
protecting this species from extinction.
Section 5.1
2. What is the key concept for this section?
Define and give an example of interspecific
competition. How is it different from
intraspecific competition? Define and give
an example of resource partitioning and
explain how it can increase species diversity.
Define predation. Distinguish between a
predator species and a prey species and give
an example of each. What is a predator–prey
relationship and why is it important?
3. Describe three threats to kelp forests and
explain why they should be preserved. List
three ways in which predators can increase
their chances of feeding on their prey and
three ways in which prey species can avoid
their predators. Define and give an example
of coevolution.
4. Define parasitism, mutualism, and
commensalism and give an example of each.
Explain how each of these species
interactions, along with predation, can affect
the population sizes of species in
ecosystems.
Section 5.2
5. What is the key concept for this section?
What is ecological succession? Distinguish
between primary ecological succession and
secondary ecological succession and give an
example of each. Define and give an
example of a pioneer species. Describe three
factors that affect how and at what rate
succession occurs.
6. Explain why ecological succession does
not follow a predictable path and does not
necessarily end with a stable climax
community. What is the current thinking
among ecologists on the concept of a
balance of nature? In terms of the stability of
ecosystems, distinguish between inertia
(persistence) and resilience and give an
example of each.
Section 5.3
7. What is the key concept for this section?
Define population. Define population size
and explain how it is estimated. Why do
most populations live in clumps? List four
variables that govern changes in population
size. Write an equation showing how
these variables interact. Define range of
tolerance. Define limiting factor and give
three examples. Define population density
and explain how some limiting factors can
become more important as a population’s
density increases.
8. Distinguish between the exponential and
logistic growth of a population and describe
the nature of their growth curves. Define
environmental resistance. What is the
carrying capacity of an environment? Define
and give an example of a population crash.
9. Describe two different reproductive
strategies for species. Distinguish between rselected species and K-selected species and
give an example of each. What factors have
hindered the recovery of the southern sea
otter? Describe the effects of the exploding
population of white-tailed deer in the United
States and list some possible solutions to
this problem. Define survivorship curve,
describe three types of curves, and for each,
give an example of a species that fits that
pattern. Explain why humans are not exempt
from nature’s population controls.
10. What are this chapter’s three big ideas?
Explain how the interactions among plant
and animal species in any ecosystem are
related to the three scientific principles of
sustainability.