Midterm Study Guide
Chapter 1
Case Study: Living in an Exponential
1. Environment, Ecology, environmentalism
2. Solar Capital to Natural Capital
3. What is environmental sustainable society
4. Economic growth: GDP, per capita GDP
5. Characteristics of developed and developing countries
6. Resources: renewable, non renewable, and perpetual
7. Sustainable yield vs environmental degradation
8. Concept behind Tragedy of the Commons
9. Major Environmental Problems
10. Causes of environmental problems
11. Environmental Impact
12. Types of worldviews
Chapter 2
Case Study: Near Extinction of the American Bison
13. Agricultural Revolution: when and the good and bad
14. Industrial Revolution: when and the good and bad
15. Globalization Revolution: when and the good and bad
16. Frontier Era: major events and important people
17. Early Conservation Era: major events and important people
18. Environmental Era: major events and important people
19. Important people against the environmental movement
Chapter 3
Case Study: An Environmental Lesson from Easter Island
20. Differences between positive feedback loop and negative feedback loop
21. Laws of thermodynamics
22. Nuclear Changes
23. Nuclear Fusion and Fission
Chapter 4
Case Study: Have You Thanked the Insects Today?
24. Ecological Organization
25. Percentages of organisms
26. Earth’s Life Support Systems
27. One flow energy, cycling of matter, and gravity
28. Abiotic vs biotic
29. Range of tolerance, law of tolerance, limiting factor principle
30. Food web and food chain with all its components (trophic levels)
31. Photosynthesis description and formula
32. Aerobic respiration and formula
33. Different types of diversity
34. Soil horizons, soil triangle, soil composition, 4 P’s of soil
35. Earth Environmental Cycles
Chapter 5
Case Study: Earth: The Just-Right Resilient Planet
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Theory of Evolution
Natural Selection: adaptations, mutations, coevolution
Niche: fundamental niche and realized niche
Generalist species vs specialized species
Geographic Isolation, reproductive isolation, and extinction
Future of Evolution:
a. Artificial selection, genetic engineering, GMO’s, biopharming
Chapter 6
Case Study: Blowing in the Wind: A Story of Connections
42. Biomes: descriptions, differences, elevation change
Chapter 8
Case Study: Flying Foxes: Keystone Species in Tropical Forests
43. Forestry Biodiversity
44. Theory of Island Biogeography
45. Native, nonnative, invasive species
46. Indicator Species
47. Keystone Species
48. Competition: interspecific, intraspecific, resource overlap
49. Resource Partitioning
50. Symbiosis (types, description, and example)
51. Ecological Succession
52. Persistence, constancy, and resilience: environmental sustainability
Chapter 9
Case Study: Sea Otters: Are They Back from the Brink of Extinction?
53. Population Dynamics
54. Population Dispersion
55. Biotic potential and environmental resistant factors
56. Carrying capacity, logistic growth, exponential growth
57. Population change equation
58. Population age structures
59. Intrinsic rate of increase
60. Density dependent and independent controls
61. Population change curves
62. Up down control predation and bottom up control predation
63. K and r selected species (characteristics and examples)
64. Survivorship curves (description and examples)
65. Founder effect, demographic bottleneck, genetic drift, metapopulations
66. Ways of destroying/reducing biodiversity (human impact)
Chapter 10
Case Study: Slowing Population Growth in Thailand: A success story
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Calculating population growth rate
Doubling calculation
Fertility , replacement level fertility, and total fertility rate
Change in United States based on birth rates
Factors affecting birth rates
Population Pyramids and population trends
United States, India, China (policy, trends, pyramids)
Demographic Transition Model
Problems we will face with growing population
Solutions for population problem
Chapter 11
Case Study: Reintroducing Wolves to Yellowstone
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Old growth, new growth, tree plantations
Ecological and economical benefits for forestry
Even age management and uneven aged manegment
Life cycle of cutting and growth
Types of cutting techniques
Pros and cons of clear cutting
Deforestation effects
Solutions for sustainable forestry
Harmful effects on insects and disease on our forests (examples)
Crown, surface, and ground fires
Tropical deforestation (why so important and top 5 causes
Wasting trees (pg 210)
Logging in the US National Forest (pros cons)
Chapter 14
Case Study: Growing Perennial Crops on the Kansas Prairie by Copying Nature
90. 3 systems of food supply and percentages
91. Net primary productivity
92. Types of food production: industrialized, high input, plantation traditional
subsistence, traditional intensive
93. Both Green revolutions (what countries and what did it do)
94. Growing techniques: interplanting, polyvarietal cultivation, intercropping,
agroforestry, alley cropping, polyculture
95. Causes of soil erosion and degradation
96. Historic soil erosion problems
97. Desertification: areas of concern and causes
98. Water logging and salinization of soil
99. Soil conservation techniques
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Chronic undernutrition, malnutrition (difference examples)
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Environmental effects of food production
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Pros cons of GMO’s