Environmental Conservation
Semester One
Environmental Conservation
Guidelines and Expectations
Teachers: Mr. Carlson and Mrs. Sanderman
Subject: Environmental Conservation
Room: 108
Teacher contact information:
The school phone number is 352-2087, extension 171 (Sanderman) or 150 (Carlson). You may also
contact us via email: sandermanm@waverly-shellrock.k12.ia.us or carlsond@waverly-shellrock.k12.ia.us .
You can also contact us through the use of the class website at www.waverlyshellrock.k12.ia.us/srhigh/EC.htm. Locate a name and click on it and it will link you to our email.
Late work policy:
At this stage of your academic career, work should never be turned in late. However, we understand that
the rare situation may arise that causes you to turn an assignment in late. You will have 1 week to turn in past due
assignments, after that period of time, your grade on that assignment will be drastically reduced. If late work
becomes a problem for you, we will begin to keep you after school to complete your work. Please remember that
this is a college level course and late work is seldom accepted for any credit in college.
Make up work policy:
Anytime you are gone, you are expected to complete the make up work in a timely manner. The time line
is the number of days you were gone plus one additional day. Whenever you are gone, a slip of paper is filled out
for you and put on the cork strip by the door. If no slip is there, please see Mrs. Sanderman or Mr. Carlson. It is
YOUR responsibility to pick up this slip and do the make up work.
Cheating policy:
We expect your work to be your own. I would much rather you are honest about not completing an
assignment than to have you copy down work from someone else. The penalty for cheating on an assignment or
test is failure of that test/assignment, detention and parent conference. If there is a second offense of cheating, we
will visit at length about whether or not you should continue to be in this class. (see Hawkeye Plagiarism Policy)
Animals in the classroom:
The fish and other animals in this room are living creatures and will be treated as such. They are members
of the class and deserve our respect. You may not use the animals to scare anyone and you must handle them in a
manner that keeps you and them safe. If you are unable to do so, you will no longer be allowed to handle the
animals. Please wash hands or use Germ-X after handling the animals.
Textbooks/supplies:
Please arrive for class prepared and ready to learn. You will need to bring your 3 ring binder, writing
utensils, and textbook each day. You are expected to carry your planner to class as a place to record assignments
as well as it will be used as a hallway pass in emergency situations. Please do not come to class and ask “Do we
need our book?” - this is not something you would ever ask a college professor; do not ask us this question either..
Classroom behavior:
You are all young adults and we expect you to conduct yourselves as such while you are in this classroom.
You will be treated with the respect that you deserve and we expect to be treated with this same respect. We value
honesty, fairness, and cooperation in a teacher/student relationship and expect to see these values shown to one
another in this room. Character Counts here at Waverly-Shell Rock and we will expect you to follow the 6 pillars
of character as displayed in the classroom.
Community Service:
Part of being a valuable citizen to any community and to the environment is participating in community
service. You are expected to complete 5 community service hours each semester (10 total during the year). These
hours can be completed by assisting with school recycling, volunteering time at the recycling center, helping to
clean the bike trail, participating in Envirothon, helping with storm clean up, and a wide variety of other areas. If
you need help finding community service hours, ask Mrs. Sanderman or Mr. Carlson – we can certainly help you
find a project to participate in!
Envirothon:
Envirothon is a program that you can use for your community service hours or as extra credit. The
Envirothon teams typically meet once or twice a week to listen to guest speakers and learn more in the areas of
aquatics, wildlife, forestry, and soils. They then take a test as a team and compete against other teams from this
area. We have been fortunate to send teams to state competition and you will find being in Envirothon will greatly
help you in this course as much of the material will be covered during class as well.
Dual Credit:
This course is a dual credit one in more ways than one. You can choose to have this course count as either
an Ag credit or Science credit towards W-SR graduation. This course will also count as a Hawkeye College credit
upon successful completion. Hawkeye has a different grading scale than W-SR, so it is possible that the Hawkeye
grade you get is not the W-SR grade that is recorded. Because this course is quite similar to the former AP
Environmental Science course, it is possible that you could take the AP Environmental Science exam if you so
choose. Please see Mrs. Sanderman if you are interested in this option.
Hawkeye grading scale:
100%-94% A
93%-86%
B
85%-70%
C
69%-60%
D
Hawkeye does not
give + or – grades!
W-SR Grading Scale:
100-93% A
92%-90% A89%-88% B+
87%-83% B
82%-80% B79%-78% C+
77%-73% C
72%-70% C69%-68% D+
67%-63% D
62%-60% D-
Grades are weighed as follows:
Exams
50% (most exams will be taken online with Hawkeye)
Labs
20%
Daily work
15%
Sand County Paper
15% (more info on this separately)
Because this is a dual credit course, you will need to take the COMPASS test or meet minimum requirements on
all components of your ACT.
Plagiarism The integrity of the academic program and degree rests on the principle that the grades
awarded to students reflect only their own individual efforts and achievement.
Policy
Students are required to perform the work specified by the instructor and are
responsible for the content of work submitted, such as papers, reports, examinations,
and other work. Violations of academic integrity include various types of plagiarism
and cheating.
Plagiarism: Representing someone else’s work (written or visual) as your
own without proper attribution or acknowledgement using academic
conventions of citation is plagiarism.
Plagiarism includes but is not limited to:
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Using exact words from a source without appropriate crediting
Cutting and pasting electronically from any source without appropriate
crediting
Using wording and/or sentence structure too close to the original in
paraphrasing
Using visual images in whole or in part created by someone else
Buying a paper and presenting any part of it as one’s own
Borrowing a paper in whole or part and presenting any part of it as one’s own
without appropriate crediting
Falsifying or inventing any information or citation in an academic exercise
Cheating:
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Obtaining or giving assistance in any academic work such as on quizzes, tests,
homework, etc., without instructor’s consent
Taking an examination or course or turning in work for someone else
Allowing someone to take an examination or course or turn in work in your
name
Using crib notes or electronic devices to get unauthorized assistance on
examinations or other in-class work
Addressing Violations of Academic Integrity:
Any violations of academic integrity are addressed first by the instructor within the
classroom; the instructor shall have the discretion to determine the level of severity in
setting appropriate penalties.
First Offense: The individual instructor may reduce the student’s grade in the
assignment or examination and has the discretion to file a report. However, for
extreme cases of plagiarism or cheating, the instructor may assign the student an “F” in
the course and will report this action to the Dean; the report will be placed in the
student’s file.
Second Offense: Upon confirmation by the Dean of a student’s previous reported
offense, the instructor will have the authority to issue an “F” in the course. A report
will be made and placed in the student’s file.
Third Offense: Upon confirmation by the Dean of a student’s third offense, the
Dean will determine appropriate penalties ranging from an “F” in the course to
recommending suspension from the college for academic misconduct.
If the student feels that the penalty imposed is unjust, the student may request a review
by the Academic Integrity Review Board composed of the Director of Student
Development/Life (presiding), at least three faculty representatives selected from the
Academic Standards and Issues Committee, two Student Senate representatives, and
the Director of Student Records and Registration (serving ex officio). The Review
Board shall meet with the student and faculty to review the case and make
recommendations to the Vice President of Academic Affairs, who shall determine the
appropriate penalty.
Environmental Conservation – Hawkeye Community College (Terri Rogers, instructor)
Course Outline
I.
Environmental Conservation
A.
Science Processes & Critical Thinking
B.
Environmental Science & Sustainability
II.
Ecosystems & Ecological Principles
A.
Ecosystems & Ecological Communities
B.
Principles of Ecosystem Function
C.
Biological Productivity & Energy Flow
D.
Roles & Interactions Within Ecosystems
E.
Global Perspective
III.
Balancing Human Population with Resources
A.
Population Dynamics
B.
World Food Supply
C.
Soil & Water Resources & Sustainable Agriculture
IV.
Natural Resources
A.
Biological Diversity & Protection
B.
Ecosystems as Resources
C.
Sustainability, Conservation, & Resource Management
D.
Reconstruction, Restoration, & Recovery
V.
Human Impacts
A.
Urbanization
B.
Habitat Loss & Degradation
C.
Global Climate Change
D.
Quality of Air, Water, & Soil
E.
Energy Utilization & Management
VI.
Environment & Society
A.
Environmental Economics
B.
Environmental Health & Toxicology
C.
Integrating Values & Knowledge
D.
Environmental Ethic
Environmental Conservation – Hawkeye Community College (Terri Rogers, instructor)
Performance Objectives
The student will:
I.
Environmental Conservation
A.
Demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry by using appropriate
scientific processes.
B.
Provide an explanation of sustainability.
II. Ecosystems & Ecological Principles
A.
Understand the significance of ecosystems and the interdependency of all organisms using a global
perspective.
B.
Chart the principles of ecosystem function.
C.
Gain an introduction to biological productivity and energy flow.
D.
Diagram interactions within a specific ecosystem.
E.
Justify the necessity of having a global perspective.
III. Balancing Human Population with Resources
A.
Explain the tremendous impact humans have on the sustainability of the environment as they
modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, technology, and consumption.
B.
Graph the world population against food supply, both currently and 50 years in the future.
C.
Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of a sustainable agriculture by
explaining the role of soil and water conservation in land use decisions.
IV. Natural Resources
A.
Understand and appreciate the importance of biological diversity.
B.
Begin to appreciate the value of entire ecosystems as resources.
C.
Discuss methods that can be utilized to progress toward the goal of sustainable
use of our natural resources.
D.
Examine examples of reconstructions of ecosystems on campus.
V. Human Impacts
A.
Illustrate the impact of urbanization on local waterways.
B.
Locate a local example of habitat degradation.
C.
List impacts they can make to reduce global climate change.
D.
Discuss the importance of either air, soil, or water quality.
E.
Explain which types of energy utilization are not sustainable.
VI. Environment & Society
A.
Become aware of the various ways they can contribute to their community by
collaborating on environmental projects, impacting environmental economics.
B.
Give an example of environmental toxicology currently in the news.
C.
Apply their knowledge, while recognizing the importance of values, in the
resolution of environmental issues.
D.
Begin to develop a universal environmental ethic including a sense of responsibility and
commitment to the future, which prepares them to carry out the role of defending and improving
the environment, in order to sustain both present and future generations of all living things.
SAND COUNTY ALMANAC PAPER
Sand County Almanac… And Sketches Here And There
by Aldo Leopold
The Sand County Almanac is a classic in conservation circles, read by millions of readers around the world. It
has survived the test of time because it allows the reader to experience his ideas through argument,
descriptions, and explanations. It is based on the idea that land is a community of living things; arguing for
the study of ecology. Leopold writing shows his love and respect for the environment; supporting a
philosophy of conservation ethics. The entire book builds toward the conclusion which outlines Leopold’s Land
Ethic.
Land Ethic
“The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals,
or collectively: the land. This sounds simple: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of
the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which
we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except
to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate
whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated
many of the largest and most beautjful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration,
management, and use of these ‘resources, ‘ but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at
least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state.”
--Aldo Leopold 1949
There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.
--Aldo Leopold
SAND COUNTY ALMANAC
Aldo Leopold Background Information
Aldo Leopold was born in Burlington, Iowa in southeast Iowa in 1887. This
immediately strikes a chord in me as I remember wandering many of the same wild
places. As a child, I explored many of the parks he once visited, and most likely
helped preserve.
His professional career began in 1909 when he joined the Forest Service, and in
1924 he became Associate Director of the Forest Products Lab in Madison
Wisconsin. In 1933 he became chair of game management at the University of
Wisconsin. He is often credited as the father of wildlife ecology as a result of his
1933 book Game Management.
One of the first projects of the Iowa Fish and Game Commission performed when
they were created in 1932 was to work with Leopold. Under the leadership of Professor Aldo
Leopold of the University of Wisconsin, some of the most knowledgeable persons in the then infant field of
natural resource management were drawn together to create a comprehensive 25-year conservation plan for
the state of Iowa. Because of this ground-breaking work we have our state park system and Iowa
Department of Natural Resources today!
Leopold is best known for the book you are reading; A Sand County Almanac. It is claimed set landmarks in
conservation, melding prose with keen observations of nature. It reflected a lifetime of observation and
thought, but was not published until 1949. He died in 1948.
SAND COUNTY ALMANAC - Chapter Questions
First, prepare your own answers to these questions prior to class after reading the chapter in question.Then,
the questions are reviewed with other students. These questions are answered in small groups in the face to
face classes. Regardless, record the answers of the group for your preparation of the final paper of the
Sand County Almanac.
January: January Thaw
• Identify and interpret three different animal signs in winter.
• Compare and contrast your experiences with Leopold’s observations.
• The owl and hawk are able to exist in the same locale, even though both are birds of prey. Though
the hawk and owl compete for the same prey species, how are they both able to find enough food to
survive.
February: The Good Oak
• Relate the characteristics of annual growth rings to environmental conditions present at the time
of your growth.
• Do trees grow the same amount each year? Give reasons for differences in the width of annual
rings.
• Why do you think Leopold wrote an essay about an old oak?
March: The Geese Return
• Identify two types of waterfowl in Iowa.
• List components in the diets of geese. Only one may be a crop.
• What is the difference between ducks and geese in terms of flight behavior?
April: Come High Water
• Discuss the ethical implications of discarding still useful items in a world of dwindling natural
resources and crowded landfills. Be sure to relate this to Leopold’s essay.
• Explain the impact of settlers on prairies.
• Describe the courtship ritual differences between two types of birds.
May: Back From the Argentine
• Identify at least three local birds found in marsh, prairie, and woodland habitats.
• Select one migratory bird species and identify its area of summer, winter, and permanent
residence.
• The U.S. government has made laws to protect migratory laws to protect migratory birds. Give and
explain specific examples.
June: The Alder Fork A Fishing Idyl
• What type of fish can you find in Iowa? List three.
• What conditions do trout need to live?
• Why does Leopold travel to the Alder Fork to fish for Trout? What specific conditions are there
that he is looking for?
July: Great Possessions
• List a skill used in scientific thinking and describe it. See your textbook. Use an example of how it
is used.
• Distinguish between two types of observations: quantitative and qualitative. Give an example of
each.
• Describe an adaptation of the plant Silphium as described by Leopold. Explain why this plant can
survive drought.
August: The Green Pasture
• List some of the native plants from Iowa that are commonly found in pastures.
• What are the green pastures described by Leopold.
September: The Choral Copse
• Describe behavioral changes in animal species due to seasonal changes.
• Relate seasonal changes to personal changes in your activities.
October: Smoky Gold
• Debate the issue of hunting, giving at least two reasons supporting it and two reasons opposing it.
• Identify by giving two specific distractions of how Leopold uses distracts to increase his
awareness of his surroundings.
November
• Describe three types of evidence of how the wind can be seen.
• What would be the impact of the wind in winter months on species of migrating wildlife if they did
not or could not migrate?
• Describe Leopold’s biases about the white pine and the red bird. Which does he favor? Why?
December
• What do you think the size of home range for deer is?
• State the importance of bird habitat.
• Describe how 65290 and its relatives coped with the drizzles of winter. How did he survive?
Who is Aldo Leopold?
The Sand County Almanac is a classic book used in most conservation courses. Aldo Leopold, the author,
played an important role in conservation and wildlife management. Use resources available to you to
determine information regarding the importance of Aldo Leopold on the history of conservation. Be sure to
credit your sources. This information will go in your introduction. Please use a minimum of three sources.
How to Credit a Document
To credit a document within the text, simply give the authors last name, place a comma, then give the date
of the publication by year. The credit follows the information cited within parenthesis. An example is
(Rogers, 2007). At the end of the document (paper) is a full bibliography with the complete information
cited.
Paper introduction
The introduction to any paper sets the stage for the paper. It tells the reader what to expect and the
importance of what the reader will read. This introduction is the very first thing that I read,. This report is
20% of your grade. It sets the tone. It needs to be well written, spell checked, and grammar checked. You
should have written three drafts of this paper. You have spent half the semester on it, and have worked
with classmates on it. I grade it very toughly. You may even want to take it to the English instructors in
BRII6, the Academic Support Area to look over. If it is not grammatically correct and has spelling mistakes,
you lose a letter grade automatically. Therefore, to give you a guideline for my expectations for your
introductions, at the MINIMUM, you will include the following:
• Who is Aldo Leopold? What role did he play in conservation?
• Why did Aldo Leopold write The Sand County Almanac?
• How is the book organized? How does this relate to Leopold’s purpose in writing?
• Describe the themes of the book as they relate to the themes of our course.
• Relate the book’s relevance to conservation.
• How does the book relate to you?
• Describe Leopold’s writing style.
Body of Paper
The body of the paper will include summaries of the chapters. Within each summary you will include the
answers to each of the questions posed on the previous pages. The answers to the questions should be
incorporated into the summaries. Your paper should be written as an essay. Each chapter should be
designated as such.
More specifically: Begin by writing short summaries of each chapter. Be sure to address the answers to each
question posed regarding the chapter. Each chapter summary would be three to five paragraphs. Within the
chapter summaries you should of course talk about Leopold’s observations. Just as important, you should
integrate the questions posed that you answered on the discussion board. Be sure to reference the answers
your classmates made as well. I place as much grading emphasis on including the answers to the questions as
I do to the summaries themselves. Plus, I look for HOW the student integrates the two to make a cohesive
essay.
As I grade each paper, I am looking for specific items. First, I will look to verify that you have CORRECTLY
answered all the questions posed. Additionally, I am reading your essay to see if you have a grasp for the
content of Leopold’s message which is inherent in the chapter.
Paper Conclusion
Conclude by writing a one page essay summarizing the book as a whole, stating its importance to
environmental conservation today.
• State the book’s importance to environmental conservation today. List five ways
• The book was written in the 1930’s. How is the message still important today?
• Find five ways the Sand County Almanac relate to our course. What does the Sand County talk about that
our class discusses?
• Most importantly of all, discuss how this book could have an impact on how you think about conservation.
Name ___________________
Environmental Conservation
Dollars to Donuts Activity
Purpose: This activity is designed for you to make connections regarding the evenness of
distribution of resources around the world.
1. Write down the percent of POPULATION each of these regions has:
______ Asia
______ Latin America
______ US and Canada
______ Europe
______ Africa
2. Write down the percent of resources each of these countries has:
______ Asia
______ Latin America
______ US and Canada
______ Europe
______ Africa
3. Complete the following grid:
Region
Asia
Latin America
US and Canada
Europe
Africa
People in Group
Donuts
4. What region were you? How many donuts did YOU get (not your whole group – just you)
5. How did you feel looking at the groups that had LESS donuts than you?
6. How did you feel looking at the groups that had MORE donuts than you?
7. How did you divide the donuts among your group members?
8. What does this lab show you about the resources that are used by the US and Canada
compared to the rest of the world?
9. Why do you think that the US uses so much of the world’s resources?
10. Write a brief reflection connecting this activity to situations such as
importing/exporting resources or immigration.
A Sound of Thunder
By Ray Bradbury (New York: Doubleday, 1952)
The sign on the wall seemed to quaver under a film of sliding warm water. Eckels felt his eyelids blink over
his stare, and the sign burned in this momentary darkness:
TIME SAFARI, INC.
SAFARIS TO ANY YEAR IN THE PAST.
YOU NAME THE ANIMAL.
WE TAKE YOU THERE.
YOU SHOOT IT.
Warm phlegm gathered in Eckels' throat; he swallowed and pushed it down. The muscles around his mouth
formed a smile as he put his hand slowly out upon the air, and in that hand waved a check for ten thousand
dollars to the man behind the desk.
"Does this safari guarantee I come back alive?"
"We guarantee nothing," said the official, "except the dinosaurs." He turned. "This is Mr. Travis, your Safari
Guide in the Past. He'll tell you what and where to shoot. If he says no shooting, no shooting. If you disobey
instructions, there's a stiff penalty of another ten thousand dollars, plus possible government action, on
your return."
Eckels glanced across the vast office at a mass and tangle, a snaking and humming of wires and steel boxes,
at an aurora that flickered now orange, now silver, now blue. There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire
burning all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame.
A touch of the hand and this burning would, on the instant, beautifully reverse itself. Eckels remembered
the wording in the advertisements to the letter. Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden
salamanders, the old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten the air, white hair turn Irish-black,
wrinkles vanish; all, everything fly back to seed, flee death, rush down to their beginnings, suns rise in
western skies and set in glorious easts, moons eat themselves opposite to the custom, all and everything
cupping one in another like Chinese boxes, rabbits into hats, all and everything returning to the fresh death,
the seed death, the green death, to the time before the beginning. A touch of a hand might do it, the
merest touch of a hand.
"Unbelievable." Eckels breathed, the light of the Machine on his thin face. "A real Time Machine." He shook
his head. "Makes you think, If the election had gone badly yesterday, I might be here now running away from
the results. Thank God Keith won. He'll make a fine President of the United States."
"Yes," said the man behind the desk. "We're lucky. If Deutscher had gotten in, we'd have the worst kind of
dictatorship. There's an anti everything man for you, a militarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual.
People called us up, you know, joking but not joking. Said if Deutscher became President they wanted to go
live in 1492. Of course it's not our business to conduct Escapes, but to form Safaris. Anyway, Keith's
President now. All you got to worry about is-"
"Shooting my dinosaur," Eckels finished it for him.
"A Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Tyrant Lizard, the most incredible monster in history. Sign this release.
Anything happens to you, we're not responsible. Those dinosaurs are hungry."
Eckels flushed angrily. "Trying to scare me!"
"Frankly, yes. We don't want anyone going who'll panic at the first shot. Six Safari leaders were killed last
year, and a dozen hunters. We're here to give you the severest thrill a real hunter ever asked for. Traveling
you back sixty million years to bag the biggest game in all of Time. Your personal check's still there. Tear it
up." Mr. Eckels looked at the check. His fingers twitched.
"Good luck," said the man behind the desk. "Mr. Travis, he's all yours."
They moved silently across the room, taking their guns with them, toward the Machine, toward the silver
metal and the roaring light.
First a day and then a night and then a day and then a night, then it was day-night-day-night. A week, a
month, a year, a decade! A.D. 2055. A.D. 2019. 1999! 1957! Gone! The Machine roared.
They put on their oxygen helmets and tested the intercoms.
Eckels swayed on the padded seat, his face pale, his jaw stiff. He felt the trembling in his arms and he
looked down and found his hands tight on the new rifle. There were four other men in the Machine: Travis,
the Safari Leader, his assistant, Lesperance, and two other hunters, Billings and Kramer. They sat looking at
each other, and the years blazed around them.
"Can these guns get a dinosaur cold?" Eckels felt his mouth saying.
"If you hit them right," said Travis on the helmet radio. "Some dinosaurs have two brains, one in the head,
another far down the spinal column. We stay away from those. That's stretching luck. Put your first two
shots into the eyes, if you can, blind them, and go back into the brain."
The Machine howled. Time was a film run backward. Suns fled and ten million moons fled after them. "Think,"
said Eckels. "Every hunter that ever lived would envy us today. This makes Africa seem like Illinois."
The Machine slowed; its scream fell to a murmur. The Machine stopped.
The sun stopped in the sky.
The fog that had enveloped the Machine blew away and they were in an old time, a very old time indeed,
three hunters and two Safari Heads with their blue metal guns across their knees.
"Christ isn't born yet," said Travis, "Moses has not gone to the mountains to talk with God. The Pyramids are
still in the earth, waiting to be cut out and put up. Remember that. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler-none
of them exists." The man nodded.
"That" - Mr. Travis pointed - "is the jungle of sixty million two thousand and fifty-five years before
President Keith."
He indicated a metal path that struck off into green wilderness, over streaming swamp, among giant ferns
and palms.
"And that," he said, "is the Path, laid by Time Safari for your use,
It floats six inches above the earth. Doesn't touch so much as one grass blade, flower, or tree. It's an antigravity metal. Its purpose is to keep you from touching this world of the past in any way. Stay on the Path.
Don't go off it. I repeat. Don't go off. For any reason! If you fall off, there's a penalty. And don't shoot any
animal we don't okay."
"Why?" asked Eckels.
They sat in the ancient wilderness. Far birds' cries blew on a wind, and the smell of tar and an old salt sea,
moist grasses, and flowers the color of blood.
"We don't want to change the Future. We don't belong here in the Past. The government doesn't like us
here. We have to pay big graft to keep our franchise. A Time Machine is finicky business. Not knowing it, we
might kill an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even, thus destroying an important link in a
growing species."
"That's not clear," said Eckels.
"All right," Travis continued, "say we accidentally kill one mouse here. That means all the future families of
this one particular mouse are destroyed, right?"
"Right"
"And all the families of the families of the families of that one mouse! With a stamp of your foot, you
annihilate first one, then a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a billion possible mice!"
"So they're dead," said Eckels. "So what?"
"So what?" Travis snorted quietly. "Well, what about the foxes that'll need those mice to survive? For want
of ten mice, a fox dies. For want of ten foxes a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects,
vultures, infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction. Eventually it all boils down to
this: fifty-nine million years later, a caveman, one of a dozen on the entire world, goes hunting wild boar or
saber-toothed tiger for food. But you, friend, have stepped on all the tigers in that region. By stepping on
one single mouse. So the caveman starves. And the caveman, please note, is not just any expendable man, no!
He is an entire future nation. From his loins would have sprung ten sons. From their loins one hundred sons,
and thus onward to a civilization. Destroy this one man, and you destroy a race, a people, an entire history of
life. It is comparable to slaying some of Adam's grandchildren. The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, could
start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our earth and destinies down through Time, to their
very foundations. With the death of that one caveman, a billion others yet unborn are throttled in the womb.
Perhaps Rome never rises on its seven hills. Perhaps Europe is forever a dark forest, and only Asia waxes
healthy and teeming. Step on a mouse and you crush the Pyramids. Step on a mouse and you leave your print,
like a Grand Canyon, across Eternity. Queen Elizabeth might never be born, Washington might not cross the
Delaware, there might never be a United States at all. So be careful. Stay on the Path. Never step off!"
"I see," said Eckels. "Then it wouldn't pay for us even to touch the grass?"
"Correct. Crushing certain plants could add up infinitesimally. A little error here would multiply in sixty
million years, all out of proportion. Of course maybe our theory is wrong. Maybe Time can't be changed by
us. Or maybe it can be changed only in little subtle ways. A dead mouse here makes an insect imbalance
there, a population disproportion later, a bad harvest further on, a depression, mass starvation, and finally, a
change in social temperament in far-flung countries. Something much more subtle, like that. Perhaps only a
soft breath, a whisper, a hair, pollen on the air, such a slight, slight change that unless you looked close you
wouldn't see it. Who knows? Who really can say he knows? We don't know. We're guessing. But until we do
know for certain whether our messing around in Time can make a big roar or a little rustle in history, we're
being careful. This Machine, this Path, your clothing and bodies, were sterilized, as you know, before the
journey. We wear these oxygen helmets so we can't introduce our bacteria into an ancient atmosphere."
"How do we know which animals to shoot?"
"They're marked with red paint," said Travis. "Today, before our journey, we sent Lesperance here back
with the Machine. He came to this particular era and followed certain animals."
"Studying them?"
"Right," said Lesperance. "I track them through their entire existence, noting which of them lives longest.
Very few. How many times they mate. Not often. Life's short, When I find one that's going to die when a
tree falls on him, or one that drowns in a tar pit, I note the exact hour, minute, and second. I shoot a paint
bomb. It leaves a red patch on his side. We can't miss it. Then I correlate our arrival in the Past so that we
meet the Monster not more than two minutes before he would have died anyway. This way, we kill only
animals with no future, that are never going to mate again. You see how careful we are?"
"But if you come back this morning in Time," said Eckels eagerly, you must've bumped into us, our Safari!
How did it turn out? Was it successful? Did all of us get through-alive?"
Travis and Lesperance gave each other a look.
"That'd be a paradox," said the latter. "Time doesn't permit that sort of mess-a man meeting himself. When
such occasions threaten, Time steps aside. Like an airplane hitting an air pocket. You felt the Machine jump
just before we stopped? That was us passing ourselves on the way back to the Future. We saw nothing.
There's no way of telling if this expedition was a success, if we got our monster, or whether all of us meaning you, Mr. Eckels - got out alive."
Eckels smiled palely.
"Cut that," said Travis sharply. "Everyone on his feet!"
They were ready to leave the Machine.
The jungle was high and the jungle was broad and the jungle was the entire world forever and forever.
Sounds like music and sounds like flying tents filled the sky, and those were pterodactyls soaring with
cavernous gray wings, gigantic bats of delirium and night fever.
Eckels, balanced on the narrow Path, aimed his rifle playfully.
"Stop that!" said Travis. "Don't even aim for fun, blast you! If your guns should go off - - "
Eckels flushed. "Where's our Tyrannosaurus?"
Lesperance checked his wristwatch. "Up ahead, We'll bisect his trail in sixty seconds. Look for the red
paint! Don't shoot till we give the word. Stay on the Path. Stay on the Path!"
They moved forward in the wind of morning.
"Strange," murmured Eckels. "Up ahead, sixty million years, Election Day over. Keith made President.
Everyone celebrating. And here we are, a million years lost, and they don't exist. The things we worried
about for months, a lifetime, not even born or thought of yet."
"Safety catches off, everyone!" ordered Travis. "You, first shot, Eckels. Second, Billings, Third, Kramer."
"I've hunted tiger, wild boar, buffalo, elephant, but now, this is it," said Eckels. "I'm shaking like a kid."
"Ah," said Travis.
Everyone stopped.
Travis raised his hand. "Ahead," he whispered. "In the mist. There he is. There's His Royal Majesty now."
The jungle was wide and full of twitterings, rustlings, murmurs, and sighs.
Suddenly it all ceased, as if someone had shut a door.
Silence.
A sound of thunder.
Out of the mist, one hundred yards away, came Tyrannosaurus Rex.
"It," whispered Eckels. "It......
"Sh!"
It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil
god, folding its delicate watchmaker's claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a
thousand pounds of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like
the mail of a terrible warrior. Each thigh was a ton of meat, ivory, and steel mesh. And from the great
breathing cage of the upper body those two delicate arms dangled out front, arms with hands which might
pick up and examine men like toys, while the snake neck coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured
stone, lifted easily upon the sky. Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled,
ostrich eggs, empty of all expression save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones
crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep
wherever it settled its weight.
It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit area
warily, its beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air.
"Why, why," Eckels twitched his mouth. "It could reach up and grab the moon."
"Sh!" Travis jerked angrily. "He hasn't seen us yet."
"It can't be killed," Eckels pronounced this verdict quietly, as if there could be no argument. He had weighed
the evidence and this was his considered opinion. The rifle in his hands seemed a cap gun. "We were fools to
come. This is impossible."
"Shut up!" hissed Travis.
"Nightmare."
"Turn around," commanded Travis. "Walk quietly to the Machine. We'll remit half your fee."
"I didn't realize it would be this big," said Eckels. "I miscalculated, that's all. And now I want out."
"It sees us!"
"There's the red paint on its chest!"
The Tyrant Lizard raised itself. Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins. The coins, crusted
with slime, steamed. In the slime, tiny insects wriggled, so that the entire body seemed to twitch and
undulate, even while the monster itself did not move. It exhaled. The stink of raw flesh blew down the
wilderness.
"Get me out of here," said Eckels. "It was never like this before. I was always sure I'd come through alive. I
had good guides, good safaris, and safety. This time, I figured wrong. I've met my match and admit it. This
is too much for me to get hold of."
"Don't run," said Lesperance. "Turn around. Hide in the Machine."
"Yes." Eckels seemed to be numb. He looked at his feet as if trying to make them move. He gave a grunt of
helplessness.
"Eckels!"
He took a few steps, blinking, shuffling.
"Not that way!"
The Monster, at the first motion, lunged forward with a terrible scream. It covered one hundred yards in
six seconds. The rifles jerked up and blazed fire. A windstorm from the beast's mouth engulfed them in the
stench of slime and old blood. The Monster roared, teeth glittering with sun.
The rifles cracked again, Their sound was lost in shriek and lizard thunder. The great level of the reptile's
tail swung up, lashed sideways. Trees exploded in clouds of leaf and branch. The Monster twitched its
jeweler's hands down to fondle at the men, to twist them in half, to crush them like berries, to cram them
into its teeth and its screaming throat. Its boulderstone eyes leveled with the men. They saw themselves
mirrored. They fired at the metallic eyelids and the blazing black iris,
Like a stone idol, like a mountain avalanche, Tyrannosaurus fell.
Thundering, it clutched trees, pulled them with it. It wrenched and tore the metal Path. The men flung
themselves back and away. The body hit, ten tons of cold flesh and stone. The guns fired. The Monster
lashed its armored tail, twitched its snake jaws, and lay still. A fount of blood spurted from its throat.
Somewhere inside, a sac of fluids burst. Sickening gushes drenched the hunters. They stood, red and
glistening.
The thunder faded.
The jungle was silent. After the avalanche, a green peace. After the nightmare, morning.
Billings and Kramer sat on the pathway and threw up. Travis and Lesperance stood with smoking rifles,
cursing steadily. In the Time Machine, on his face, Eckels lay shivering. He had found his way back to the
Path, climbed into the Machine.
Travis came walking, glanced at Eckels, took cotton gauze from a metal box, and returned to the others, who
were sitting on the Path.
"Clean up."
They wiped the blood from their helmets. They began to curse too. The Monster lay, a hill of solid flesh.
Within, you could hear the sighs and murmurs as the furthest chambers of it died, the organs
malfunctioning, liquids running a final instant from pocket to sac to spleen, everything shutting off, closing
up forever. It was like standing by a wrecked locomotive or a steam shovel at quitting time, all valves being
released or levered tight. Bones cracked; the tonnage of its own flesh, off balance, dead weight, snapped
the delicate forearms, caught underneath. The meat settled, quivering.
Another cracking sound. Overhead, a gigantic tree branch broke from its heavy mooring, fell. It crashed
upon the dead beast with finality.
"There." Lesperance checked his watch. "Right on time. That's the giant tree that was scheduled to fall and
kill this animal originally." He glanced at the two hunters. "You want the trophy picture?"
"What?"
"We can't take a trophy back to the Future. The body has to stay right here where it would have died
originally, so the insects, birds, and bacteria can get at it, as they were intended to. Everything in balance.
The body stays. But we can take a picture of you standing near it."
The two men tried to think, but gave up, shaking their heads.
They let themselves be led along the metal Path. They sank wearily into the Machine cushions. They gazed
back at the ruined Monster, the stagnating mound, where already strange reptilian birds and golden insects
were busy at the steaming armor. A sound on the floor of the Time Machine stiffened them. Eckels sat
there, shivering.
"I'm sorry," he said at last.
"Get up!" cried Travis.
Eckels got up.
"Go out on that Path alone," said Travis. He had his rifle pointed, "You're not coming back in the Machine.
We're leaving you here!"
Lesperance seized Travis's arm. "Wait-"
"Stay out of this!" Travis shook his hand away. "This fool nearly killed us. But it isn't that so much, no. It's
his shoes! Look at them! He ran off the Path. That ruins us! We'll forfeit! Thousands of dollars of insurance!
We guarantee no one leaves the Path. He left it. Oh, the fool! I'll have to report to the government. They
might revoke our license to travel. Who knows what he's done to Time, to History!"
"Take it easy, all he did was kick up some dirt."
"How do we know?" cried Travis. "We don't know anything! It's all a mystery! Get out of here, Eckels!"
Eckels fumbled his shirt. "I'll pay anything. A hundred thousand dollars!"
Travis glared at Eckels' checkbook and spat. "Go out there. The Monster's next to the Path. Stick your arms
up to your elbows in his mouth. Then you can come back with us."
"That's unreasonable!"
"The Monster's dead, you idiot. The bullets! The bullets can't be left behind. They don't belong in the Past;
they might change anything. Here's my knife. Dig them out!"
The jungle was alive again, full of the old tremorings and bird cries. Eckels turned slowly to regard the
primeval garbage dump, that hill of nightmares and terror. After a long time, like a sleepwalker he shuffled
out along the Path.
He returned, shuddering, five minutes later, his arms soaked and red to the elbows. He held out his hands.
Each held a number of steel bullets. Then he fell. He lay where he fell, not moving.
"You didn't have to make him do that," said Lesperance.
"Didn't I? It's too early to tell." Travis nudged the still body. "He'll live. Next time he won't go hunting
game like this. Okay." He jerked his thumb wearily at Lesperance. "Switch on. Let's go home."
1492. 1776. 1812.
They cleaned their hands and faces. They changed their caking shirts and pants. Eckels was up and around
again, not speaking. Travis glared at him for a full ten minutes.
"Don't look at me," cried Eckels. "I haven't done anything."
"Who can tell?"
"Just ran off the Path, that's all, a little mud on my shoes-what do you want me to do-get down and pray?"
"We might need it. I'm warning you, Eckels, I might kill you yet. I've got my gun ready."
"I'm innocent. I've done nothing!"
1999.2000.2055.
The Machine stopped.
"Get out," said Travis.
The room was there as they had left it. But not the same as they had left it. The same man sat behind the
same desk. But the same man did not quite sit behind the same desk. Travis looked around swiftly.
"Everything okay here?" he snapped.
"Fine. Welcome home!"
Travis did not relax. He seemed to be looking through the one high window.
"Okay, Eckels, get out. Don't ever come back." Eckels could not move.
"You heard me," said Travis. "What're you staring at?"
Eckels stood smelling of the air, and there was a thing to the air, a chemical taint so subtle, so slight, that
only a faint cry of his subliminal senses warned him it was there. The colors, white, gray, blue, orange, in the
wall, in the furniture, in the sky beyond the window, were . . . were . . . . And there was a feel. His flesh
twitched. His hands twitched. He stood drinking the oddness with the pores of his body. Somewhere,
someone must have been screaming one of those whistles that only a dog can hear. His body screamed
silence in return. Beyond this room, beyond this wall, beyond this man who was not quite the same man
seated at this desk that was not quite the same desk . . . lay an entire world of streets and people. What
sort of world it was now, there was no telling. He could feel them moving there, beyond the walls, almost,
like so many chess pieces blown in a dry wind ....
But the immediate thing was the sign painted on the office wall, the same sign he had read earlier today on
first entering. Somehow, the sign had changed:
TYME SEFARI INC.
SEFARIS TU ANY YEER EN THE PAST.
YU NAIM THE ANIMALL.
WEE TAEK YU THAIR.
YU SHOOT ITT.
Eckels felt himself fall into a chair. He fumbled crazily at the thick slime on his boots. He held up a clod of
dirt, trembling, "No, it can't be. Not a little thing like that. No!"
Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead.
"Not a little thing like that! Not a butterfly!" cried Eckels.
It fell to the floor, an exquisite thing, a small thing that could upset balances and knock down a line of small
dominoes and then big dominoes and then gigantic dominoes, all down the years across Time. Eckels' mind
whirled. It couldn't change things. Killing one butterfly couldn't be that important! Could it?
His face was cold. His mouth trembled, asking: "Who - who won the presidential election yesterday?"
The man behind the desk laughed. "You joking? You know very well. Deutscher, of course! Who else? Not
that fool weakling Keith. We got an iron man now, a man with guts!" The official stopped. "What's wrong?"
Eckels moaned. He dropped to his knees. He scrabbled at the golden butterfly with shaking fingers. "Can't
we," he pleaded to the world, to himself, to the officials, to the Machine, "can't we take it back, can't we
make it alive again? Can't we start over? Can't we-"
He did not move. Eyes shut, he waited, shivering. He heard Travis breathe loud in the room; he heard Travis
shift his rifle, click the safety catch, and raise the weapon.
There was a sound of thunder.
Ray Bradbury, "A Sound of Thunder," in R is for Rocket, (New York: Doubleday, 1952)
Write a brief (1-2 paragraphs) reflection. You can focus on these questions to guide you… How does
this story connect with conservation or environmental science? How does this story demonstrate how
all things in nature are connected with each other?
Name _________________
Environmental Conservation
Tragedy of the Commons
Procedure
Part 1:
Divide yourselves into groups of four. Imagine this scenario. Each person represents the head of a starving
family, which requires food. The only food source for these four families is a small fishing hole that can
accommodate an unknown amount of fish. Fortunately, after each round of fishing by the four family heads,
each remaining fish is able to spontaneously reproduce. Each person is allowed to take as many or few fish as
you want, but if you take only one fish, your family will starve.
In this simulation, our pond is a beaker, and our fish are Hershey's Kisses. Fish are caught using plastic
spoons. Each fishing round will last for 1 minute. You should rotate your fishing order every round so that
everyone has a chance to go first. The simulation will continue for three rounds. The pond will be covered with
a fabric sleeve, so that it is not possible to tell how many fish have been taken before you fish. No talking is
allowed in this part.
Data
1) All data should be recorded in the following tables.
Part 1: Commons pond
# of
fish
# of fish # of fish # of fish # of fish fisher Total
Round
at beg. taken by taken by taken by taken by fish left at
#
of
1st fisher 2nd fisher 3rd fisher 4th
end of round
round
1
2
3
Total
XXXX
XXXXXX
Questions
1. What happened to the common resource in the pond in Part 1? Why?
2. Explain the rationale for your fishing technique in this part.
3. What factors lead to uncertainty in this round?
Procedure
Part 2:
In this part, you will have access to two ponds, one common and one private. The rules for the common pond
are the same as before. However, talking and strategizing is allowed in this part. The cloth sleeve will be
removed so that you will know exactly how many fish are in the ponds at all times, and how quickly the fish
will reproduce. The carrying capacity for the common ponds is 16 and for the private ponds is 4. You must
remove at least one fish from each pond each round. As before, you may catch as many fish as you would like
from both ponds during each round.
Data
Part 2: Commons pond
# of
fish
# of fish # of fish # of fish # of fish fisher Total
Round
at beg. taken by taken by taken by taken by fish left at
#
of
1st fisher 2nd fisher 3rd fisher 4th
end of round
round
1
2
3
Total
XXXX
XXXXXX
Part 2: Private pond
Round
#
# of fish at beg.
of round
# fish taken
this round
# of fish at the end
of round
1
2
3
Total
XXXXX
XXXXX
Questions
1. Did you get different results for the pond in Part 2? Why?
2. Explain the rationale for your fishing technique in this part.
3. If you cooperated with other fishers, what was the result of that cooperation?
4. Did you use different fishing strategies in the common pond and the private pond?
5. Why does common usage lead to exploitation? (read page 5-6 in your text for help with this answer)
6. What would be the ideal way to manage the common pond?
7. How would this simulation have been different if you didn't know the students in your group?
8. What are the strategies that help to prevent the "tragedy of the commons"? (read page 5-6 in your text for
help with this answer)
9. If a new student had joined your group in the middle of Part 2, how would that affected your strategy and
the use of the resource?
10. Why is the private pond easier to manage for long-term success?
Name ________________________
Environmental Conservation
Ecological Footprint Activity
Background: Please read the section on Ecological Footprints on page 6-7 of your textbook to gain
some background on this area. Then review the overhead with your teachers to learn more about what
goes into an ecological footprint.
1. Using your text as a guide, please write your own definition of “ecological footprint.”
2. List the nine major components that make up an Ecological Footprint:
1.
6.
2.
7.
3.
8.
4.
9.
5.
Activity 1: Internet Activity
You will need to utilize the internet for this area of the worksheet. Go to: www.myfootprint.org (If this
website won’t load, go to: www.redefiningprogress.org ) When you enter your basic information, please
do not include your email address!
3. After answering the survey questions, fill in the chart below:
Footprint component:
Food
Mobility
Acres:
Metric note: Hectare is an SI
unit. There are approximately
2.5 acres in a hectare.
Shelter
Goods/services
Total footprint:
4. What is the average size of the ecological footprint for someone in our country based on this website?
5. Based on the website, how much “biologically productive” land is available for each person on Earth?
6. If everyone lived like you, how many Earth’s would we need?
Activity #2: Read “Hamburger, Fries, and Cola” and choose from one of the following topics: (circle
your choice)
How I Got to School Today
My Favorite Item
My Favorite Clothing Item
My House
My Favorite Food (can’t use hamburger, fries or cola)
With your group, brainstorm all the different resources that went into that item. Draw a web
diagram with your topic in the middle and all the resources surrounding it (see example) Make sure all
group member’s names are on the diagram for credit! Keep in mind, the below web is very basic and
would have been given a grade of about a C; make sure yours is complete! Yours will probably fill the
front side of a blank piece of typing paper!
feed
slaughter
cow
Patties
testing
cattle
Shipping
medicine
Meat
cooking
Processing
supplies
Hamburger
grinding
Frozen ones
in plastic
Packaging
wrappers
boxes
Wax paper
between patties
HAMBURGER, FRIES, AND A COLA
WHAT DID IT TAKE TO PRODUCE THIS FAVORITE AMERICAN MEAL?
The meat came from cattle grazed initially on public or private land, and later fed grain.
About 10 percent of all public lands in the western United States have been turned to desert by
overgrazing, and about two-thirds of those public lands are significantly degraded. Streamside lands, where
cattle graze, have been especially damaged.
It took approximately 2 pounds of grain to produce that quarter pound of meat, and that grain
production caused five times its weight in topsoil loss due to erosion from unsustainable farming methods.
Producing that grain also took substantial amounts of pesticides and fertilizers (half of all fertilizer in the
United States is applied to feed corn for animals), some of which ran off into surface water or seeped into
groundwater supplies. By the time the steer was finished in the feedlot, it took 600 gallons of water to build
that hamburger patty. Once slaughtered and processed, the meat was frozen, shipped by truck, kept cold,
and then cooked on a grill using natural gas.
The 5-ounce order of fries came from one 10-ounce potato grown in Idaho on half a square foot of
soil. It took 7.5 gallons of water to raise that potato, plus quantities of fertilizer and pesticides, some of
which ran off into the Columbia or Snake Rivers. Because of that, and dams that generate power and divert
water for irrigation, the Snake River sockeye salmon is virtually extinct. A number of other species are also
in decline because of these production practices.
The potato was dug with a diesel-powered harvester and then trucked to a processing plant where it
was dehydrated, sliced, and frozen. The freezing was done by a cooling unit containing hydrofluorocarbons,
some of which escaped into the atmosphere and likely contributed to global climate change. The frozen fries
were then trucked to a distribution center, then on to a fast-food restaurant where they were stored in a
freezer and then fried in corn oil heated by electricity generated by hydropower.
The meal was served in a fast-food restaurant built on what once was originally forest, then
farmland, then converted to commercial/industrial uses as the city expanded. The ketchup in aluminum- foil
packets came from Pittsburgh and was made from Florida tomatoes. The salt came from Louisiana.
The cola came from a Seattle processing plant. It is made of 90 percent water from the
Cedar River. The high-fructose corn syrup came from Iowa, as did the carbon dioxide used to produce the
fizz, which is produced by fermenting corn. The caffeine came from a processing plant that makes
decaffeinated coffee. The cola can was made from one-third recycled aluminum and two-thirds bauxite ore
strip-mined in Australia. It came to Washington state on a Korean freighter, and was processed into
aluminum using an amount of energy equivalent to a quart of gasoline. The energy came from some of the
same dams mentioned earlier that have contributed to a 97 percent decrease in the salmon runs of the
Columbia Basin.
The typical mouthful of food consumed in the United States traveled 1,200 miles for us to eat it.
Along the way, it required packaging, energy, roads, bridges, and warehouses, and contributed to
atmospheric pollution, adverse health effects, and traffic congestion.
Adapted from Stuff—The Secret Lives of Everyday Things,
by John C. Ryan and Alan Thein Durning, published by
Northwest Environment Watch. www.northwestwatch.org.
WATCH WHERE YOU STEP—HAMBURGER, FRIES, AND A COLA
©2002 www.facingthefuture.org
Name ___________________
Environmental Conservation
Scientific Method and Experimentation Activity
Background: Read pages 10- 15 on “The Nature of Science” and answer the following
questions:
1. List the basic steps of the scientific method:
2. Analyze this experiment and list at least two things wrong with either the experiment
or the conclusion:
I have an idea that a 2 degree temperature change will improve the hatching rate
of quail eggs. I set up two identical brands of incubators and keep the humidity, turning
rate, and positions of the eggs the same in both groups. One incubator temperature is set
at 100o and the other at 102 o. The 102 o group has a successful hatch rate of 85% and
the other group was 75%. I conclude the 2 degree change causes the better hatch rate.
3. Consider this experiment and then identify the different components of it…
I decide to test the effectiveness of a specific brand of fertilizer on corn plants.
I think that fertilizer is overrated and unnecessary on my corn fields. To test this, I
fertilize 2 acres of corn with the fertilizer and leave a separate two acres unfertilized.
Both fields are treated the same in terms of irrigation, herbicide, pesticides, etc. At
harvest time, the fertilized field is producing 10 more bushels per acre than the
unfertilized field.
In the above experiment, what was the….
Problem/Question: _____________________________
Hypothesis: __________________________________
Independent variable: ___________________________
Dependent variable: _____________________________
Control group: _________________________________
Treatment group: _______________________________
Slime Experiment Procedure: You will need the following items per group:
1 dixie cup
1 tsp. Glue All
1 tsp. Water from the tap
1 tsp laundry starch
Experiment: Design an experiment either based on the recipe of slime or with the slime
itself. Your experiment must include all parts of a scientific method. Some ideas might
include: how long can a strand of “slime” get before breaking, the effect of temperature
on the substance, will adding more glue make the slime better, does using a different glue
type work better, etc.
Problem or question:
Hypothesis:
Set up the experiment: (you should have a control, dependant, and independent
variable!)
Record and Analyze the data:
Result or conclusion:
Name ____________________
Environmental Conservation
Chapter 1 – People
You will be assigned one or two of these gentleman to research in Chapter 1. Please record what their
connection to environmental conservation is as well as a rough period of time for their accomplishments.
Thomas Malthus:
Paul Ehrlich:
Garrett Hardin:
John Muir:
Gifford Pinchot:
Aldo Leopold:
PLEASE READ PAGE 19 IN YOUR TEXT PRIOR TO READING AND REFLECTING ON
THIS ESSAY.
GUEST ESSAY
Environmental Justice for All
Robert D. Bullard
Robert D. Bullard is professor of sociology and director of the
Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta
University. For more than a decade, he has conducted
research in the areas of urban land use, housing, community
development, the location of industrial facilities, and
environmental justice. He is the author of seven books and a
number of articles, monographs, and scholarly papers that
address concerns about environmental justice. His book
Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality, 3rd ed. (2000) has become a standard
text in the field. Other books are Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots
(1993), Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color (1994), Just
Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World (2003 with Julian Agyeman and Bob Evans), and
A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana's Chemical Corridor (2004, with Steve Lerner)
Despite widespread media coverage and volumes written on the U.S. environmental
movement, environmentalism and social justice have seldom been linked. Nevertheless, an
environmental revolution has been taking shape in the United States that combines the
environmental and social justice movements into one framework.
People of color (African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans),
working-class people, and poor people in the United States suffer disproportionately from industrial
toxins, dirty air and drinking water, unsafe work conditions, and the location of noxious facilities
such as municipal landfills, incinerators, and toxic-waste dumps.
The environmental justice movement attempts to dismantle exclusionary zoning ordinances,
discriminatory land-use practices, differential enforcement of environmental regulations, unfair
location of harmful industrial plants and other facilities, and the dumping of toxic waste on the poor
and people of color in the United States and in developing countries.
Despite the government’s attempts to level the playing field, all communities are not created
equal when it comes to resolving environmental and public health concerns. Each year pesticides
sprayed on crops in the United States poison more than 300,000 farm workers (more than 90% of
whom are people of color) and their children. Some 3–4 million children (many of them AfricanAmericans or Latinos living in the inner city) are poisoned by lead-based paint in old buildings, leadsoldered pipes and water mains, lead-tainted soil contaminated by industry, and air pollutants from
smelters.
All communities do not bear the same burden or reap the same benefits from industrial
expansion. Nationally, 60% of African-Americans and 50% of Latinos live in communities with at
least one uncontrolled toxic-waste site. Three of the five largest hazardous-waste landfills are
located in communities that are predominantly African-American or Latino. Environmental justice
does not stop at the U.S. border. Environmental injustices exist from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, to the shantytowns of Johannesburg, South Africa. Members of the environmental justice
movement are also questioning the wasteful and unsustainable development models being exported
to the developing world.
Grassroots leaders are demanding justice. Residents of communities such as West Dallas and
Texarkana (Texas), West Harlem (New York), Rosebud (South Dakota), Kettleman City (California),
and Sunrise, Lions, and Wallace (Louisiana) see their struggle for environmental justice as a lifeand-death matter. Unfortunately, their stories of environmental injustice are not broadcast into the
nation’s living rooms during the nightly news, nor are they splashed across the front pages of
national newspapers and magazines. To a large extent, the communities that are the victims of
environmental injustice remain invisible to the larger society.
The environmental justice movement is led, planned, and to a large extent funded by people
who are not part of the established environmental community or the “Big 10” environmental
organizations. Most environmental justice groups are small and operate with resources generated
from the local community.
For too long these groups and their leaders have been invisible and their stories muted. This
is changing as these grassroots groups are forcing their issues onto the nation’s environmental
agenda.
The United States has a long way to go in achieving environmental justice for all its citizens.
The membership of decision-making boards and commissions still does not reflect the racial, ethnic,
and cultural diversity of the country. And token inclusion of people of color on boards and
commissions does not necessarily mean that their voices will be heard or their cultures respected.
The ultimate goal of any inclusion strategy should be to democratize the decision-making process
and empower disenfranchised people to speak and do for themselves.
Name ______________________
Environmental Conservation
Chapter 1 Study Guide
This guide will not be collected and graded. It is simply a guide to help you reinforce what you
have learned in Chapter 1. Simply completing this guide does not guarantee you a good grade on
the test – you will need to review your notes, re-read the chapter, use the book website, etc in
addition to this study guide.
1. Give a definition of environment.
2. Give a definition of environmental science.
3. Explain the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources and be able to provide
examples of each.
4. Explain why the agricultural revolution lead to a population increase.
5. Explain why the industrial revolution lead to a population increase.
6. What did Thomas Malthus predict?
7. Name some possible ways to prevent “Tragedy of the Commons.”
8. What is an ecological footprint?
9. Looking at Figure 1.15 on page 20 of your text, about how many times bigger is the ecological
footprint of a US citizen compared to that of someone from Indonesia?
10. List the basic steps of the scientific method.
11. What is the difference between a manipulative experiment and a natural experiment?
12. Give a definition of each of these terms that deal with scientific experimentation:
independent variable:
dependent variable:
control group:
treatment group:
quantitative data:
hypothesis:
paradigm:
13. What does the field of ethics investigate?
14. Describe each of these ethical worldviews:
anthropocentric:
biocentric:
ecocentric:
15. What does sustainability mean?
16. Briefly explain what each of these men contributed to environmental science:
John Muir:
Garrett Hardin:
Aldo Leopold:
Thomas Malthus:
Gifford Pinchot:
Paul Ehrlich:
Consider this problem… I would like to determine if a more expensive brand of feed causes my
beef cattle to gain more muscle weight.
17. How should I set up this experiment? This is a manipulative or natural experiment?
18. What control(s) you have?
19. What is the independent variable? What is the dependent variable?
20. Can your experiment PROVE that expensive feed does or does not lead to more muscle weight in
beef cattle?
Name __________________________
Environmental Conservation
Emission Trading Game
Directions:
The color white is now a pollutant. For each item of visible clothing (underwear does not
count, but socks do) that has ANY white on it, you must pay 1 ticket. For example, a
student is wearing 2 socks and a t-shirt with white on it; they owe 3 tickets. Each student
is allowed 2 tickets and a packet of Smarties. If you do not have enough tickets to cover
your “white pollution,” you will lose 2 classroom points per white pollutant. You may
attempt to “buy” (with Smarties), trade, etc. to gain tickets if you need. You will have 710 minutes in which to work to meet your White Pollutant Allowance Limitation.
Reflection questions:
1. How many items with the color white are you currently wearing?
2. Do you have a surplus, deficit, or equal amount of tickets to cover your White
Pollution?
3. If you have a surplus, what did you do with it? If you had a deficit, what did you do?
If you were equal, just write in “equal.”
4. Ask those who had to “buy” tickets… what seemed to be the going rate for purchasing
White Pollution Allowances?
5. If this experiment were continued for a week, how would that affect your willingness
to trade if you had a surplus?
6. If this experiment continued for a week, how would that affect your clothing choice
each morning?
7. Please read page 45 section: “Markets in Permits can save money and produce results.”
Our current marketable emissions permit has been in place to limit what emission?
8. What is a disadvantage of a “cap and trade” program?
Name _______________________
Environmental Conservation
Environmental Organizations and Policy Procedure
Please read through pages 40-44 on environmental organizations and policy
procedures.
1. Describe the United Nations:
2. Describe the World Bank and the criticism against it:
3. Describe the European Union:
4. Describe the World Trade Organization:
5. Give an explanation why the EU and WTO have been criticized about their approach to
environmental problems.
6. What does NGO stand for and what do they do? List at least four examples of NGO’s.
7. Fill in the missing steps for enacting an environmental policy or law:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. Draft a bill
a. Introduced by Representatives/Senators
b.
c. Full committee votes on bill
d.
e. Conference committee between House and Senate
f. House and Senate approval
g. Goes to the president who can either:
1.
2.
Name _______________________
Environmental Conservation
Interpreting Events and Meaning in The LORAX
The LORAX is a fictional story about a man who abused the environment
and about what he learned. The story begins in the most run-down part of a
dull, gray town. A small boy asks the Once-ler to share the secret of the
Lorax and how he was "taken away." Thus, the story is told as a "flashback"
as the Once-ler talks about the Lorax and past events.
1. Who did the Once-ler represent? _____________________________
2. Who did the Lorax represent? _______________________________
3. The Once-ler moved across the land in his wagon. He came upon a new
region with an important natural resource. (A natural resource is a plant,
animal, or mineral that can be used by people.) What was this natural
resource the Once-ler found?__________________________________
4. Humans often appreciate the beauty of the natural world. Experiences
such as finding sea shells on a beach or seeing a rare bird often cause strong
feelings. Did the Once-ler have feelings about the region and natural
resource that he found? Explain your answer.
________________________________________________________
5. The Once-ler used the land's natural resource to start a business which
made and sold a product. What was the product? How was it used by
buyers?_____________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
6. Pollution not only affects plant and animal species, but it also affects
another living species, human beings. Explain whether the Once-ler's factory
and town was a safe and healthy place to live.______________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
7. The Once-ler's business failed. What happened to cause the failure of this
business? ___________________________________________________
8. The Once-ler learned that he had made a serious mistake. What, in your
opinion, was his mistake? _______________________________________
____________________________________________________________
9. Explain what, in the Once-ler's opinion, must happen for the Lorax and
his animals to return. ___________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
10. Can you think of a real-life example of how man-made pollution affected
a real ecosystem, its abiotics (e.g. temperature, water quality, etc.) its biotics
(e.g., species extinction), or its habitat? Please briefly describe the incident
below. ______________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Name ______________________
Environmental Conservation
Chapter 2 Study Guide
This study guide will not be collected and graded. It is for your use and studying to help prepare
you for the Chapter 2 test. Don’t forget to also re-read through the chapter, study your notes and
class activities, and use the book website to help you prepare as well.
1. Describe each of these types of economies:
subsistence economy:
capitalist market economy:
centrally planned economy:
2. Define and give several examples of ecosystem services.
3. Describe Adam Smith’s philosophy for classical economy.
4. Describe neoclassical economics and include a description of cost-benefit analysis and supply and
demand.
5. Describe ecological economists philosophy of economy. Include a description of steady-state
economies.
6. Describe environmental economists philosophy of economy.
7. List some common external costs.
8. List some non-market values and examples of them.
9. Give a definition of ecomonics.
10. List the three branches of government.
11. Describe what the “fourth branch” of government is and how it affects environmental policy.
12. Describe each of these early environmental acts:
Homestead Act:
Mineral Lands Act:
Timber Culture Act:
13. Describe some of the government responses to address the impact of the early environmental acts
(second wave policies).
14. Describe what Silent Spring was and what issue it addressed.
15. Describe the issue addressed with the Cuyahoga River episodes.
16. Describe the following agencies, including such items (if applicable) such as where they are
headquartered, what they address and stand for, when they were established.
NEPA:
EPA:
EU:
NGO:
UNEP:
World Bank:
UN:
WTO:
17. Briefly describe what are the conventional laws stated by the Montreal Protocol and Kyoto Protocol.
18. What is the difference between conventional law, statutory law, and customary law?
19. Describe how active management and restriction of use address the tragedy of the commons.
20. Describe each of the following terms:
subsidy:
green taxes:
marketable emissions permits:
ecolabeling:
Chapter 3 Science Review
Across
2. Bond type formed through electron transfer
6. These are made up of amino acids
10. Also known as deoxyribonucleic acid
11. Cells such as bacteria that lack a nucleus
13. The positively charge particle of an atom
15. Negatively charged particle of an atom
16. Cells with a nucleus
18. Energy of motion
19. Bond type formed through sharing electrons
20. Compounds that contain carbon and are typically found in living things
22. Energy of position
Down
1. Molecule made of two or more atoms bonded together
3. This part of the atom has no charge
4. The basic organizational unit of all living things
5. Compounds such as oils and fats that do not dissolve in water
7. Atoms with differing numbers of neutrons
8. All elements are made up of identical ______
9. Solutions with a pH greater than 7 are said to be ________
12. An atom that has a positive or negative charge
14. Also known as ribonucleic acid
15. Fundamental part of matter
17. Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be _______
19. Energy held in the bonds of atoms
21. Where the protons and neutrons are located
Use the information
from pages 52-58 to
help you complete this
crossword.
The Carbon Cycle
Summary of the Carbon Cycle:
Name _______________________
Environmental Conservation
Chapter 3 Study Guide
This study guide will not be collected or graded. It is simply to help you prepare for the Chapter 3
test. Please also study from the text, webpage, and your notes in your preparation for this exam.
1. Describe a negative feedback loop:
2. Describe a positive feedback loop:
3. What is a “hypoxic zone” and what is causing the one in the Gulf of Mexico?
4. Describe how nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in water can cause eutrophication:
5. Draw an atom and label these parts: proton, neutron, electron, nucleus.
6. What is the difference between and isotope and an ion?
7. Compare and contrast ionic bonds with covalent bonds:
8. Describe each of these essential macromolecules:
proteins:
nucleic acids:
carbohydrates:
lipids:
9. Describe each of these energy types:
potential energy:
kinetic energy:
chemical energy:
10. What does the first law of thermodynamics state?
11. What does the second law of thermodynamics state? What is entropy?
12. Explain the difference between autotrophs/producers and heterotrophs/consumers.
13. List the chemical equation for both cellular respiration and photosynthesis:
14. Give a definition of an ecosystem:
15. What ecosystems have a high net primary productivity?
16. List some ways carbon is put into the atmosphere:
17. List some ways carbon is put into the ground or water:
18. List some ways phosphorus is put into the ground or water:
19. List some ways phosphorus is put into the atmosphere:
20. List some ways nitrogen is put into the ground or water:
21. List some ways nitrogen is put into the atmosphere:
22. Draw a sketch of the hydrologic cycle. Include terms such as precipitation, transpiration,
evaporation, infiltration, water table, aquifer.
23. Describe how each of these rock types are formed:
sedimentary:
metamorphic:
igneous:
24. Describe these types of plate boundaries and what land features they can create:
convergent boundaries:
divergent boundaries:
transform boundaries:
Waterfowl Management
Identification Notes Page
Types of Ducks:
1. __________________
2. __________________
Characteristics:
___________________
_________________
Leg Placement
_________________
Feeding Technique
_______________
__________________
Speculum color
________________
__________________
Take off pattern
________________
___________________
Tail Placement
_________________
___________________
Hind toe
_________________
Name ____________________
Environmental Conservation
Ducks Under Siege
Video Guide
1. List some of the concerns for the duck populations:
2. Should duck hunting be closed to help restoration of duck populations? Why or Why not?
3. What are the problems and concerns in the Louisiana marsh areas?
4. What is happening to the wetland areas in Canada? Why are they so important?
5. Who is to blame for the shortage of wetlands in the United States?
6. How do endangered species become a blessing to waterfowl and waterfowl habitat?
7. Who got the good deal (and who didn’t) when the developer took 1000 acres of wetlands to provide
600 office spaces, housing, and a golf course?
8. Discuss some wetland projects you are aware of in the vicinity of Waverly-Shell Rock High School:
Goose Information
1.
Name the four paths or flyways waterfowl follow.
2.
When was the Flyway Council formed? And what agencies are a part of it?
3.
What are the duties of the Flyway Council?
4.
When does the fall migration south begin? The spring migration north?
5.
Geese mate _______________. And lay _______________ and hatch in _______________ days.
6.
Their average life expectancy is _______________ years.
7.
Male is a _______________, female is a _______________.
8.
What formation do they fly in? _______________. And at what speeds? _______________.
9.
What are the two main enemies of geese?
10. List six ways geese differ from ducks:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
10. What are the three objectives of goose management?
11. List five factors that will increase nesting success for the goose population:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Puddle ducks
Mallard
Gender
Male
Female
Black Duck
Male
Wigeon
Male
Gadwall
Male
Pintail
Male
Shoveller
Male
Blue-Winged
Teal
Male
Green-Winged
Teal
Male
Wood Duck
Male
Female
Diving Ducks
Redhead
Male
Body
Wings
Voice
Inflight
Size (wt and inche
Canvasback
Male
Scaup
Male
Ring-Necked
Duck
Male
Bufflehead
Male
Hooded
Merganzer
Male
Ruddy Duck
Male
Goldeneye
Male
Geese
Canadian
Both
Snow
Both
Blue
Both
White fronted
Both
Other
Coot
Male
Snipe
Male
Trumpeter
Swan
Male
Shannon Index Practice Sheet
Shannon Index Calculation
Sample I
pi
Ln(pi)
pi*ln(pi)
Species
A
24
-0.81
B
20
-0.99
C
7
-2.04
D
3
-2.89
Total
54
1
H'=
1
H'=
Sample II
A
48
B
40
C
14
D
6
Total
108
Sample III
A
24
-0.88
B
20
-1.06
C
7
-2.11
D
3
-2.96
E
3
-2.96
F
1
-4.06
Total
58
1
H'=
Note that:
Note that the index is invariant with respect to sample size, but rare species add to it.
In other words, the higher the “H” value ________________________________________________
Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index Lab
Background: The Shannon Index is a measurement used to compare diversity between habitat
samples. This comparison can be between two different habitats or a comparison of one habitat
over time. The actual formula for the Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index is:
Other Shannon measurements
include “S” which is the number of species present in the
sample, and E which is the evenness of those species. If the E value is 1, the species are equally
present in the habitat. The formula to find E is: E = H/ln(S).
Procedure: Fill a dixie cup with Trail Mix 1 and a separate Dixie cup with Trail Mix 2. Mark your
cups so you know which is from which “habitat.” Assume each type of food is a new species in the
habitat. You will need to use a copy of the natural log tables or visit:
http://www.ajdesigner.com/phpnaturallog/natural_log_equation_y.php
Fill in the charts for each Habitat using Shannon’s Diversity Index.
Habitat One:
Species
(i)
Number
of that
species in
sample
Pi
(number
of that
species/total)
Ln(Pi)
Pi *ln(Pi)
_____Tot Should
Use the
H=
al from
add up to
natural
_____
(add this
all
1.0
log table
column and
species
remove the -)
Questions from Habitat One:
1. What is the H value and what use would this value have if I did a second sample from
this habitat three years from now (assuming it was real animals and not food!)?
2. What would be the E value (evenness) for this habitat?
Habitat Two:
Species
(i)
Number
of that
species in
sample
Pi
(number
of that
species/total)
Ln(Pi)
_____Tot Should
Use the
al from
add up to
natural
all
1.0
log table
species
Questions from Habitat two:
1. What is the H value for habitat two?
Pi *ln(Pi)
H=
_____
(add this
column and
remove the -)
2. Compare the H value of habitat one and two and use that comparison to describe which
habitat has more diversity to it.
3. What is the E value for Habitat two?
4. List two advantages to using a Shannon Index instead of simply a population count to
determine diversity.
5. List two disadvantages to using a Shannon Index to determine diversity.
Name ____________________
Environmental Conservation
Endangered/Threatened Species WebQwest
National Endangered Species
Using your book pages 182-189 or the list found at: http://ecos.fws.gov/tess_public/StartTESS.do
(click on either vertebrate animals or invertebrate animals under the “Listed Species” section) to
choose one animal (no plants). Be able to answer the following questions about that species. You may
find you need to do an internet search to find some of the animals.
What did you choose (common name and animal type)?
What status does that species currently have?
When was it listed as threatened or endangered?
Where is that species naturally located?
Using a search engine such as Google, print off a picture of your animal. (You might want to copy and
paste it into Word, you will be adding another picture later and that way you only will use one piece of paper)
Using a search engine, research to determine what the main cause(s) contributing to the
endangered/threatened status:
Iowa
Now go to the following website and choose one of the listed species (plants are OK this time). You
must clear you species with your teacher as only two people can have the same species (no, you aren’t
working together!)
http://ecos.fws.gov/tess_public/StateListingAndOccurrence.do?state=IA
What did you choose (common name and species type)?
What status does that species currently have?
When was it listed as threatened or endangered?
Using a search engine such as Google, print off a picture of your species (you can copy and paste it to
the same page in Word that you just did for the National section)
Using a search engine, research to determine what the main cause(s) contributing to the
endangered/threatened status:
History of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)
Go to the following website: http://www.fws.gov/endangered/whatwedo.html and click on the
area listed “History of the ESA”.
What Acts were the predecessors of the ESA and what years were they enacted?
What does CITES stand for, what was it about, and what year was it agreed to?
What year was the ESA passed?
List the 8 principal provisions of the Endangered Species Act:
How many times and in what years has the ESA been amended?
June 2001
The Sixth Extinction
By Niles Eldredge
There is little doubt left in the minds of professional biologists that Earth is currently faced with
a mounting loss of species that threatens to rival the five great mass extinctions of the
About 30,000
geological past. As long ago as 1993, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson estimated that Earth is
species go
currently losing something on the order of 30,000 species per year -- which breaks down to
extinct annually.
the even more daunting statistic of some three species per hour. Some biologists have begun
to feel that this biodiversity crisis -- this "Sixth Extinction" -- is even more severe, and more
imminent, than Wilson had supposed.
Extinction in the past
The major global biotic turnovers were all caused by physical events that lay outside the
normal climatic and other physical disturbances which species, and entire ecosystems,
experience and survive. What caused them?
The previous
mass extinctions
were due to
natural causes.
mya = millions of
years ago

First major extinction (c. 440 mya): Climate change (relatively severe and sudden
global cooling) seems to have been at work at the first of these-the end-Ordovician
mass extinction that caused such pronounced change in marine life (little or no life
existed on land at that time). 25% of families lost (a family may consist of a few to
thousands of species).

Second major extinction (c. 370 mya): The next such event, near the end of the
Devonian Period, may or may not have been the result of global climate change. 19%
of families lost.

Third major Extinction (c. 245 mya): Scenarios explaining what happened at the
greatest mass extinction event of them all (so far, at least!) at the end of the Permian
Period have been complex amalgams of climate change perhaps rooted in plate
tectonics movements. Very recently, however, evidence suggests that a bolide impact
similar to the end-Cretaceous event may have been the cause. 54% of families lost.

Fourth major extinction (c. 210 mya): The event at the end of the Triassic Period,
shortly after dinosaurs and mammals had first evolved, also remains difficult to pin
down in terms of precise causes. 23% of families lost.

Fifth major extinction (c. 65 mya): Most famous, perhaps, was the most recent of
these events at the end-Cretaceous. It wiped out the remaining terrestrial dinosaurs
and marine ammonites, as well as many other species across the phylogenetic
spectrum, in all habitats sampled from the fossil record. Consensus has emerged in the
past decade that this event was caused by one (possibly multiple) collisions between
Earth and an extraterrestrial bolide (probably cometary). Some geologists, however,
point to the great volcanic event that produced the Deccan traps of India as part of the
chain of physical events that disrupted ecosystems so severely that many species on
land and sea rapidly succumbed to extinction. 17% of families lost.
How is the Sixth Extinction different from previous events?
The current
mass extinction
At first glance, the physically caused extinction events of the past might seem to have little or
is caused by
nothing to tell us about the current Sixth Extinction, which is a patently human-caused event.
humans.
For there is little doubt that humans are the direct cause of ecosystem stress and species
destruction in the modern world through such activities as:

transformation of the landscape

overexploitation of species

pollution

the introduction of alien species
And because Homo sapiens is clearly a species of animal (however behaviorally and
ecologically peculiar an animal), the Sixth Extinction would seem to be the first recorded global
extinction event that has a biotic, rather than a physical, cause.
We are bringing
about massive
changes in the
environment.
Yet, upon further reflection, human impact on the planet is a direct analogue of the Cretaceous
cometary collision. Sixty-five million years ago that extraterrestrial impact -- through its sheer
explosive power, followed immediately by its injections of so much debris into the upper
reaches of the atmosphere that global temperatures plummeted and, most critically,
photosynthesis was severely inhibited -- wreaked havoc on the living systems of Earth. That is
precisely what human beings are doing to the planet right now: humans are causing vast
physical changes on the planet.
What is the Sixth Extinction?
We can divide the Sixth Extinction into two discrete phases:
Humans began
disrupting the
environment as
soon as they
appeared on
Earth.

Phase One began when the first modern humans began to disperse to different parts of
the world about 100,000 years ago.

Phase Two began about 10,000 years ago when humans turned to agriculture.
The first phase began shortly after Homo sapiens evolved in Africa and the anatomically
modern humans began migrating out of Africa and spreading throughout the world. Humans
reached the middle east 90,000 years ago. They were in Europe starting around 40,000 years
ago. Neanderthals, who had long lived in Europe, survived our arrival for less than 10,000
years, but then abruptly disappeared -- victims, according to many paleoanthropologists, of
our arrival through outright warfare or the more subtle, though potentially no less devastating
effects, of being on the losing side of ecological competition.
Everywhere, shortly after modern humans arrived, many (especially, though by no means
exclusively, the larger) native species typically became extinct. Humans were like bulls in a
China shop:
Wherever early
humans
migrated, other
species became
extinct.

They disrupted ecosystems by overhunting game species, which never experienced
contact with humans before.

And perhaps they spread microbial disease-causing organisms as well.
The fossil record attests to human destruction of ecosystems:

Humans arrived in large numbers in North America roughly 12,500 years ago-and sites
revealing the butchering of mammoths, mastodons and extinct buffalo are well
documented throughout the continent. The demise of the bulk of the La Brea tar pit
Pleistocene fauna coincided with our arrival.

The Caribbean lost several of its larger species when humans arrived some 8000 years
ago.

Extinction struck elements of the Australian megafauna much earlier-when humans
arrived some 40,000 years ago. Madagascar-something of an anomaly, as humans only
arrived there two thousand years ago-also fits the pattern well: the larger species
(elephant birds, a species of hippo, plus larger lemurs) rapidly disappeared soon after
humans arrived.
Indeed only in places where earlier hominid species had lived (Africa, of course, but also most
of Europe and Asia) did the fauna, already adapted to hominid presence, survive the first wave
of the Sixth Extinction pretty much intact. The rest of the world's species, which had never
before encountered hominids in their local ecosystems, were as naively unwary as all but the
most recently arrived species (such as Vermilion Flycatchers) of the Galapagos Islands remain
to this day.
Why does the Sixth Extinction continue?
Phase two of the Sixth Extinction began around 10,000 years ago with the invention of
The invention of agriculture-perhaps first in the Natufian culture of the Middle East. Agriculture appears to have
been invented several different times in various different places, and has, in the intervening
agriculture
accelerated the years, spread around the entire globe.
pace of the Sixth
Agriculture represents the single most profound ecological change in the entire 3.5 billion-year
Extinction.
history of life. With its invention:

humans did not have to interact with other species for survival, and so could
manipulate other species for their own use

humans did not have to adhere to the ecosystem's carrying capacity, and so could
overpopulate
Homo sapiens became the first species to stop living inside local ecosystems. All other species,
including our ancestral hominid ancestors, all pre-agricultural humans, and remnant huntergatherer societies still extant exist as semi-isolated populations playing specific roles (i.e.,
Humans do not
have "niches") in local ecosystems. This is not so with post-agricultural revolution humans,
live with nature
who in effect have stepped outside local ecosystems. Indeed, to develop agriculture is
but outside it.
essentially to declare war on ecosystems - converting land to produce one or two food crops,
with all other native plant species all now classified as unwanted "weeds" -- and all but a few
domesticated species of animals now considered as pests.
The total number of organisms within a species is limited by many factors-most crucial of
which is the "carrying capacity" of the local ecosystem: given the energetic needs and energyprocuring adaptations of a given species, there are only so many squirrels, oak trees and
hawks that can inhabit a given stretch of habitat. Agriculture had the effect of removing the
natural local-ecosystem upper limit of the size of human populations. Though crops still fail
regularly, and famine and disease still stalk the land, there is no doubt that agriculture in the
main has had an enormous impact on human population size:
Earth can't
sustain the
trend in human
population
growth. It is
reaching its
limit in carrying
capacity.

Estimates vary, but range between 1 and 10 million people on earth 10,000 years ago.

There are now over 6 billion people.

The numbers continue to increase logarithmically -- so that there will be 8 billion by
2020.

There is presumably an upper limit to the carrying capacity of humans on earth -- of
the numbers that agriculture can support -- and that number is usually estimated at
between 13-15 billion, though some people think the ultimate numbers might be much
higher.
This explosion of human population, especially in the post-Industrial Revolution years of the
past two centuries, coupled with the unequal distribution and consumption of wealth on the
planet, is the underlying cause of the Sixth Extinction. There is a vicious cycle:
Overpopulation,
invasive species,
and
overexploitation
are fuelling the
extinction.

More lands are cleared and more efficient production techniques (most recently
engendered largely through genetic engineering) to feed the growing number of
humans -- and in response, the human population continues to expand.

Higher fossil energy use is helping agriculture spread, further modifying the
environment.

Humans continue to fish (12 of the 13 major fisheries on the planet are now considered
severely depleted) and harvest timber for building materials and just plain fuel,
pollution, and soil erosion from agriculture creates dead zones in fisheries (as in the
Gulf of Mexico)

While the human Diaspora has meant the spread, as well, of alien species that more
often than not thrive at the detriment of native species. For example, invasive species
have contributed to 42% of all threatened and endangered species in the U.S.
Can conservation measures stop the Sixth Extinction?
The world's ecosystems have been plunged into chaos, with some conservation biologists
thinking that no system, not even the vast oceans, remains untouched by human presence.
Conservation measures, sustainable development, and, ultimately, stabilization of human
Only 10% of the
population numbers and consumption patterns seem to offer some hope that the Sixth
world's species
Extinction will not develop to the extent of the third global extinction, some 245 mya, when
survived the
90% of the world's species were lost.
third mass
extinction. Will Though it is true that life, so incredibly resilient, has always recovered (though after long lags)
any survive this
after major extinction spasms, it is only after whatever has caused the extinction event has
one?
dissipated. That cause, in the case of the Sixth Extinction, is ourselves -- Homo sapiens. This
means we can continue on the path to our own extinction, or, preferably, we modify our
behavior toward the global ecosystem of which we are still very much a part. The latter must
happen before the Sixth Extinction can be declared over, and life can once again rebound.
© 2001, American Institute of Biological Sciences. Educators have permission to reprint articles for classroom
use
Notes Page
Causes of Species Extinction
The following information can be found on pages 177-179
Loss/Degradation of Habitat:
Invasive Species:
Pollution:
Overharvesting:
Climate Change:
Notes Page
Conservation Approaches
The following information can be found on your textbook pages 182-189
Endangered Species Approach:
Captive Breeding Approach:
Umbrella Species Approach:
International Treaties Approach:
Biodiversity Hotspots:
Community Based Conservation:
Name ___________________________
Environmental Conservation
MacArthur/Wilson Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography (CD)
Directions:
Put the CD into the computer.
Once it loads, you will need to click on the textbook” Miller Living in the Environment (Far right, top book)
Change the dropdown menu at the top of the page to “Chapter 8: Community Ecology”
Under section 8-1, click on: ”Area and Distance effects Interaction.”
You may also want to use your textbook page 182.
Questions:
1. What is the name of the model developed by MacArthur and Wilson?
2. What two factors determine the equilibrium number for species on an island?
3. What two factors determine immigration and extinction rates on an island?
4. Move the island as close to the mainland as possible and make the island as large as possible. Read the
“gauges” for each of the following:
Immigration rate:
Extinction rate:
Number of species:
5. Now, keeping the island close to the mainland, make the island as small as possible.
Read the “gauges” for each of the following:
Immigration rate:
Extinction rate:
Number of species:
6. Move the island as far from the mainland as possible, and keep the island as small as possible. Read the
“gauges” for each of the following:
Immigration rate:
Extinction rate:
Number of species:
7. Finally, keep the island far from the mainland, but make it as large as possible. Read the “gauges” for
each of the following:
Immigration rate:
Extinction rate:
Number of species:
Using your answers, the animation, and the graphs on page 182, make some generalizations about the
following:
8.
9.
The __________ the island, the more immigration.
The __________ the island, the more immigration.
10.
11.
Extinction rate is affected primarily by the ___________ of the island.
The ________ the island, the faster the extinction rate.
Two islands are equal distance from the mainland, but one is twice as large as the other.
12.
The _________ island will have more richness.
13.
The _________ island will have a higher extinction rate.
14.
The _________ island will have a higher immigration rate.
Two islands are of equal size, with one twice as close to the main land.
15. The __________ island will have a higher immigration rate.
16. The __________ island will have a higher species richness.
17. The _____________ rate will probably be about the same between the two islands.
18. List a reason why a smaller island would have less immigration. (use your book)
19. List a reason why a small island would have a higher extinction rate. (use your book)
20. In what decade did MacArthur and E.O. Wilson conduct their research?
Name _________________________
Aliens!
Objective: Recognize the capability of invasive weeds to spread throughout the United States from a
single source.
Vocabulary:
Invasive species (Noxious weed): Species which have the capability to spread unchecked
throughout a wide range. It does so because of a lack of natural predators, and because it out-competes
native species. The danger of invasive species is that they replace the native ecosystem, forming a
monoculture of that species.
Background:
Hydrilla is a submersed plant that was brought to Florida in the 1950’s from Asia to grow in aquariums. Back
then hydrilla was planted in canals and rivers and picked to sell in pet stores. Hydrilla can grow more than an
inch each day and can fill water bodies that are as deep as 15-20 feet in only one year. When it reaches the
water surface, hydrilla grows across the top of the water forming tangled mats of plants. These mats wrap
around propellers and make boating almost impossible. They also slow water flow and jam against bridges
and dams, which can cause flooding. Hydrilla mats form a cover over water bodies that will not allow light or
oxygen into the water, killing native plants, fish, and other wildlife.
Hydrilla does not form seeds. New plants sprout from the roots and from broken stems. Each piece of
stem can form its own roots and start a new plant. hydrilla also forms buds on the stems and roots. The
root buds, called tubers, can lie in the sand or mud for years before they sprout. Once hydrilla makes
tubers, it is almost impossible to eradicate. Ecosystem managers use biological, mechanical, and physical
controls along with herbicides to control hydrilla so it causes fewer problems. Because hydrilla can cause so
many problems there are now strict laws against owning or planting this prohibited plant in the United
States.
Procedure:
Step 1: Track the spread of the hydrilla since it was brought to Florida 50 years ago. Write the
number next to the state listed below. Color these states red.
For example, using the list below, hydrilla entered Florida first. Color Florida red and put a #1 in the state
of Florida. Repeat the procedure with state number 2, North Carolina.
Step 2: Describe the spread of hydrilla since its arrival. What lessons can we learn from this?
1.
Florida
2. North Carolina
3. Tennessee
4. Louisiana
5. Georgia
6. Virginia
7. Alabama
8. Texas
9. South Carolina
10. Maryland
11. Mississippi
12. Arizona
13. Pennsylvania
14. Delaware
15. California
16. Washington
17. Connecticut
Step 3: List three invasive species which are on Iowa’s noxious weed list that counties are obligated to
remove. You can look on the web: http://www.weeds.iastate.edu/reference/noxiousimages.shtml
1.
2.
3.
_____
Name ____________________________
Environmental Conservation
MacArthur/Wilson Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography (CD)
Directions:
Put the CD into the computer.
Once it loads, you will need to click on the textbook” Miller Living in the Environment (Far right, top book)
Change the dropdown menu at the top of the page to “Chapter 8: Community Ecology”
Under section 8-1, click on: ”Area and Distance effects Interaction.”
You may also want to use your textbook page 182.
Questions:
1. What is the name of the model developed by MacArthur and Wilson?
2. What two factors determine the equilibrium number for species on an island?
3. What two factors determine immigration and extinction rates on an island?
4. Move the island as close to the mainland as possible and make the island as large as possible. Read the
“gauges” for each of the following:
Immigration rate:
Extinction rate:
Number of species:
5. Now, keeping the island close to the mainland, make the island as small as possible.
Read the “gauges” for each of the following:
Immigration rate:
Extinction rate:
Number of species:
6. Move the island as far from the mainland as possible, and keep the island as small as possible. Read the
“gauges” for each of the following:
Immigration rate:
Extinction rate:
Number of species:
7. Finally, keep the island far from the mainland, but make it as large as possible. Read the “gauges” for
each of the following:
Immigration rate:
Extinction rate:
Number of species:
Using your answers, the animation, and the graphs on page 182, make some generalizations about
the following:
8.
9.
The __________ the island, the more immigration.
The __________ the island, the more immigration.
10.
11.
Extinction rate is affected primarily by the ___________ of the island.
The ________ the island, the faster the extinction rate.
Two islands are equal distance from the mainland, but one is twice as large as the other.
12.
The _________ island will have more richness.
13.
The _________ island will have a higher extinction rate.
14.
The _________ island will have a higher immigration rate.
Two islands are of equal size, with one twice as close to the main land.
15. The __________ island will have a higher immigration rate.
16. The __________ island will have a higher species richness.
17. The _____________ rate will probably be about the same between the two islands.
18. List a reason why a smaller island would have less immigration. (use your book)
19. List a reason why a small island would have a higher extinction rate. (use your book)
20. In what decade did MacArthur and E.O. Wilson conduct their research?
Chapter 8 Study Guide
This guide will not be collected or graded. It is simply designed as study tool to
help prepare you for the chapter 8 test. Other study tools include: the website,
the textbook, your labs, worksheets, and notes.
1. What is biodiversity?
2. Briefly describe the following types of biodiversity:
ecosystem diversity
species diversity
genetic diversity
3. List the taxonomy of either a human or a tiger:
Domain:
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Class:
Order:
Family:
Genus:
Species:
4. Explain why the number of species on Earth is so difficult to measure.
5. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index:
6. What does “richness” and “evenness” mean?
7. What is “latitudinal gradient” and how does it relate to species richness?
8. What type of creatures has the most number of species on this planet?
9. Compare and contrast the terms “extinction” and “extirpation.”
10. How many past mass extinctions have occurred in the history of the Earth?
11. What is unique about the proposed mass extinction we might be currently involved
in?
12. Describe the Red List.
13. Describe each of these causes for endangerment of species:
habitat alteration:
Invasive species:
Pollution
Overharvesting
Climate change
14. List at least five benefits of increased biodiversity:
15. List at least two plant species and the medical application of those plants:
16. Define and describe biophilia:
17. Consider MacArthur and Wilson’s Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography and
determine the effect the following will have on species richness, immigration, and
extinction:
small island:
large island:
island close to mainland:
island far from mainland:
18. Answer the following about the Endangered Species Act:
What year was it first passed?
What provisions have been set up by the ESA?
What is CITES?
19. Describe the following “solutions” to endangered/threatened animals and increasing
biodiversity:
captive breeding programs
umbrella species
international treaties
hotspots
community based conservation
20. Define endemic:
Name _______________________
Environmental Conservation
Understanding Exponential Growth
Introduction:
Growing Populations of organisms do not follow linear rates of change. One reason populations
grow very rapidly is that they have higher birth rates than death rates. Each cycle of reproduction has
more offspring than the previous generation. At any point there are more maturing producers than ever
before and the increase in the base population accelerates. Mathematically, such growth is called
exponential.
Problem One:
A math major is home for a vacation break and takes a job (8 hours a day) for 30 days. In
negotiating for a salary, she tells her employer that instead of a wage of $20 an hour, she would accept
one that pays one penny the first day, then doubles to two cents the next day, four cents the third day,
and so on for a month. The employer thinks that this is a good deal for him and hires the math major at
that rate.
1.
Is this deal a good one for the boss? If so, under what conditions?
2. How is this a good deal for the math major?
3. When does the student break even – that is, on what day has she made as much as she would have
earning $20/hour?
4. What is the total difference between the two payment methods over the 30 day period?
5. Explain how exponential growth is so powerful, even though the starting rate was so low.
Problem 2:
Under ideal conditions some common bacteria can divide and double their numbers in less than
one-half hour. Suppose one spring day at 6am, a few such bacteria fall into a can of strawberry syrup
in a broken garbage bag behind a snack bar. These conditions- warmth, moisture, and lots of food –
are perfect for growth, and the population doubles every 20 minutes. But by 6pm, the bacteria are
overcrowded and dry and their food is gone.
As you will discover in your calculations, this story about the bacteria dramatizes the uncertain state
of our natural resources, even in times of perceptible abundance.
1.
At what time did the syrup can become half full?
2. At one point during the day, some forward-thinking bacteria get the idea that they are facing a
crisis. Their numbers are rising exponentially and they are using up their space and food at an
ever-increasing rate. At what time do you think that idea would come? Explain your reasoning.
3. What would awareness of crisis not likely come before 5pm? How much food still remains at 5pm?
4. Three more syrup cans are placed into the garbage. When will these new cans be depleted by the
growing bacteria population?
Read the summary of the work of Thomas Malthus. Summarize what his thoughts were on
population growth and sustainability of that growth.
Thomas Robert Malthus, 1766-1834.
Robert Malthus (he went by his middle name) was born in "the Rookery", a country estate in
Dorking, Surrey (south of London). He was the second son of Daniel Malthus, a country
gentleman and avid disciple of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume (both of whom he
knew personally). Accordingly, Malthus was educated according to Rousseauvian precepts
by his father and a series of tutors. Malthus entered Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1784
and was ordained a minister of the Church of England in 1788. He earned his M.A. in 1791.
Around 1796, Malthus became a curate in the sleepy town of Albury, a few miles from his
father's house. Having been elected Fellow of Jesus College in 1793, he divided his time between Cambridge and
Albury. It was in the course of his interminable intellectual debates with his father over the "perfectibility of
society" thesis then being advanced by William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet, that Malthus's decided to set
his ideas down on paper. It was eventually published as a pamphlet known as the Essay on Population (1798).
In this famous work, Malthus posited his hypothesis that (unchecked) population growth always exceeds the growth
of means of subsistence. Actual (checked) population growth is kept in line with food supply growth by "positive
checks" (starvation, disease and the like, elevating the death rate) and "preventive checks" (i.e. postponement of
marriage, etc. that keep down the birthrate), both of which are characterized by "misery and vice". Malthus's
hypothesis implied that actual population always has a tendency to push above the food supply. Because of this
tendency, any attempt to ameliorate the condition of the lower classes by increasing their incomes or improving
agricultural productivity would be fruitless, as the extra means of subsistence would be completely absorbed by an
induced boost in population. As long as this tendency remains, Malthus argued, the "perfectibility" of society will
always be out of reach.
In his much-expanded and revised 1803 edition of the Essay, Malthus concentrated on bringing empirical evidence to
bear (much of it acquired on his extensive travels to Germany, Russia and Scandinavia). He also introduced the
possibility of "moral restraint" (voluntary abstinence which leads to neither misery nor vice) bringing the unchecked
population growth rate down to a point where the tendency is gone. In practical policy terms, this meant inculcating
the lower classes with middle-class virtues. He believed this could be done with the introduction of universal
suffrage, state-run education for the poor and, more controversially, the elimination of the Poor Laws and the
establishment of an unfettered nation-wide labor market. He also argued that once the poor had a taste for luxury,
then they would demand a higher standard of living for themselves before starting a family. Thus, although seemingly
contradictory, Malthus is suggesting the possibility of "demographic transition", i.e. that sufficiently high incomes
may be enough by themselves to reduce fertility.
The Essay transformed Malthus into an intellectual celebrity. He was reviled by many as a hard-hearted monster, a
prophet of doom, an enemy of the working class, etc. The ridicule and invective rained down on Malthus by the
chattering and pamphleteering classes was relentless. But a sufficient number of people recognized his Essay for
what it was: the first serious economic study of the welfare of the lower classes. Even Karl Marx, who deplored his
conservative policy conclusions, grudgingly granted him this.
Name ________________________
Environmental Conservation
Human Population Growth
Objectives:
You will create a graph of human population growth that shows exponential growth and use it to
predict future growth. You will also identify factors that affect population growth.
Statistics on Human Population
Year A.D.
1650
1750
1850
1925
1956
1966
1970
1974
1976
1980
1991
2000
2004
Number of People (in
billions)
.50
.70
1.0
2.0
2.5
3.3
3.6
3.9
4.0
4.4
5.5
6.0
6.4
Instructions for creating your
graph.
Place time on the horizontal axis.
Values should range from 1650 to
2020.
Place number of people on the vertical
axis. Values should range from 0 to 20
billion.
Make sure that your graph is a full
page in size and you have the correct
labels for the X and Y axis and a title
for your graph.
Analysis
1. It took 1649 years for the world population to double, going from .25 billion people to .50 billion people. How long did it take for the
population to double once again?
2. How long did it take for the population to double a second time? _______ A third time? ________
3. Based on your graph, in what year will the population reach 8 billion? _____________
4. Based on your graph, how many years will it take for the population of 2004 to double?
The Earth's Carrying Capacity
Prior to 1950, the death rate was high, which kept the numbers of humans from increasing rapidly. In the 19th Century, the agricultural
revolution increased food production. The industrial revolution improved methods of transporting food and other good. As with any
population, humans are also limited by factors such as space, amount of food and disease. The carrying capacity is the number of
individuals that a stable environment can support. Authorities disagree on the maximum number of people that the earth can support, though
the numbers generally range for 8 to 10 billion. As the population approaches its limit, starvation will increase. Some countries have a much
higher growth rate than others. Growth rate is the number of people born minus the number of people that die. Most countries are trying to
reduce their growth rate. Zero population growth means that as many people are being born as there are dying - to achieve zero population
growth, each couple would need to have no more than two children (to replace the parents). Even if this number is achieved, the population
will continue to grow because the parents will still live on for decades, as their children have children and their children have children, and so
forth. The United States reached zero population growth in the 1980's, and yet the overall population of the US still increases.
Analysis
1. What factors contributed to the world's overall population growth in the last 150 years?
2. Why does a population not level off during the same year it reaches zero population growth?
3. If the carrying capacity of the earth was 9 billion people, when would this number be reached (according to your graph)?
4. What will happen when the human population exceeds the earth's carrying capacity?
Name ________________________
Environmental Conservation
Something’s Fishy – Population study lab
Background: In determining populations of a variety of species, one method biologists
use is tagging. This is frequently used in our area with butterflies (namely monarchs)
and fish. Sometimes the “tags” are stickers (in the case of butterflies), ear clips, or
notches made in fins of fish. The purpose of these tags is to track migration patterns,
health, and range as well as to help determine population numbers of species in an area.
Determination of population occurs by capturing and tagging that sample of animals.
Biologists would then release the animals and allow them to naturally “redistribute
themselves.” By then taking random samples and determining the percent tagged,
biologists are able to hypothesize the population of that species in that area.
Procedure:
 Obtain a bowl with your “species” in it. (in this case, “fish” crackers in a pond)
 Do NOT count the number of fish in your pond yet!
 Have one member of your group remove a large handful of fish.
 Count the number of fish you just removed and write that number here:
_________
 Replace these fish with “tagged” fish (in this case, colored “fish”)
 Mix your pond well to redistribute the tagged fish among the other fish.
 One member at a time (and without looking), remove a handful of fish and record
the number of total fish in the sample, the number of tagged fish, and figure
out the percentage of tagged fish. (see chart)
 Return your handful to the bowl!!
 Continue with this until you have taken 20 samples.
Questions:
1. What is the mean (average) of your percent tagged fish from your 20 samples?
2. Using the following formula, determine an estimated population for your pond:
population size = (number originally tagged/mean of the sample %’s) x 100
3. Now, actually count the number of fish in your bowl: ____________ fish
4. Find your percentage error by using the following formula:
(difference between your guess and actual / actual population) x 100
5. What concerns should a biologist have about a species’ habits before (s)he uses this
method to approximate the size of a population?
Original number of tagged fish: ___________
Sample
#
# of tagged
fish
total fish in handful
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Mean % of tagged
fish:
% of tagged fish in
sample
Name __________________
Environmental Conservation
Isle Royale Population Study
Background: Isle Royale is a small island (45 miles long by 9 miles wide) located in Lake Superior. In roughly
1949, due to a thick ice pack on Lake Superior, timber wolves crossed the ice pack and began to live on Isle
Royale. In 1958, one of the longest wolf/moose interaction studies began. Far more information can be found
at: www.isleroyalewolf.org or www.wolf.org . Isle Royale is one of the locations for the W-SR Wilderness
Studies summer trip.
Procedure: You will use the population data to graph the interaction between wolf populations and moose
populations at Isle Royale. Put both these lines on the same graph; use a different color for wolves and moose.
Make sure to note the y-axis location for each!!
Data:
Year
Wolves
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
22
17
18
20
23
24
31
41
44
34
40
43
50
30
14
23
24
22
20
16
12
12
15
12
12
13
17
16
22
24
14
25
29
19
17
19
29
Moose
1042
1268
1295
1439
1493
1435
1467
1355
1282
1143
1001
1028
910
863
872
932
1038
1115
1192
1268
1335
1397
1216
1313
1590
1879
1770
2422
1163
500
699
750
850
900
1100
900
700
Now this is the Law of the Jungle – as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the Law runneth forward and back –
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
From The Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
2005
30
500
Questions:
1. How much of a time lag does there appear to be between a moose peak and a wolf peak?
2. During what year was there a large wolf die off? Hypothesize what might have been the cause of
this dieoff.
3. During what year was there a huge moose die off? Hypothesize what might have been the cause of
this dieoff.
4. Read the article “Moose, Wolves Cling to Isle Royale.” What was the true cause of the wolf die off
after 1980?
5. Based on the article, what was the true cause of the moose die off in 1996?
6. Using what you’ve learned about the wolves and moose of Isle Royale from the article, list at least
two density dependent factors for population
7. Other than their food source, what other factors contribute to the limitation of moose population?
8. Using what you’ve read in Chapter 4 and the Isle Royale article, describe some of the problems that
have occurred with the wolves due to a lack of genetic diversity.
9. Hypothesize and defend your opinion about what will happen to the wolves of Isle Royale in
the next 10 years.
Thursday, June 12, 2003: Printed in The Detroit News
Moose, wolves cling to Isle Royale
Animals have been studied on the island for about 45 years
By Anita Weier
ISLE ROYALE -- Moose came to this remote island in Lake Superior at least 100 years ago,
probably swimming from the mainland to enjoy a tree-filled paradise without predators.
Then, in about 1949, timber wolves padded across the ice to join them on the 45-mile-long, 9-mile-wide
island.
In 1958, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Durward Allen launched a study to find out exactly how the
two species would interact in an isolated environment. Would the wolves kill off the moose? Would the wolves
survive? Would either species develop problems from interbreeding?
Rolf Peterson, a professor of wildlife ecology at Michigan Technological University, has continued the study
since 1970, making lengthy visits to the island every year.
Here is a little of what they have learned from what is probably the world's longest-running predator-and-prey
research project.
For some years, there was equilibrium between the species. The moose population would build to a high level
and then crash if there was a very harsh winter. Wolves would proliferate for about 10 years after a moose peak,
as the moose aged and became vulnerable to attack by wolf packs, Peterson explained.
But in the early 1980s, a dog was among the visitors to the island, though they are not allowed. The animal
was the apparent source of parvovirus, a dangerous new virus that decimated the wolves, which are still
struggling to replenish their numbers: There were 50 in 1980, but now there are only 19.
A moose die-off occurred in 1996, when two-thirds of the 2,000 moose starved to death during an extremely
bad winter.
Currently there are about 900 moose on the island, Peterson estimated. The moose will face problems when
the balsam fir trees that provide most of their food die off. "Those old trees crash to the ground after 100 years,"
Peterson said.
Moose are also being infested by tens of thousands of ticks per animal, which has caused many to rub off or
bite off much of their hair.
The cow moose defend their offspring against wolves by swimming to smaller, nearby islands to give birth,
so the calves are protected from wolves when they are vulnerable.
If attacked, moose back up to a protected area and use their hooves. Wolves try to clamp onto a moose's back
legs and latch on until the animal topples. Isle Royale wolves often have broken bones and other injuries from
being kicked and bashed against rocks.
"That's how they get their ribs broken. It takes a lot to unclench their jaws," Peterson said of the wolves.
But, on average, just one of every 19 wolf attacks succeeds, usually against the very old or young moose. The
predators have better luck with beaver and other smaller creatures.
Throughout the years, the researchers have watched for signs of deterioration in wolves or moose due to
inbreeding. No new bloodlines have arrived, so all have common ancestors and are interrelated to some extent.
"Moose were isolated here 100 years ago. Most of the genes are still here, but they have a large enough
population (to compensate). There are so few wolves that they have lost genetic variability. The scientific
dogma suggests that they are not going to make it," Peterson said.
Only 12 wolves were on the island in the 1990s, but three older females produced enough to keep the packs
going.
The wolves have also been helped by natural selection along the way, because the least fit animals die while
the strong reproduce.
But a few abnormalities have occurred in wolves in the last two years, Peterson said.
One had asymmetrical neck vertebrae, though the right and left vertebrae should be the same. And one had
two fused toes on his two front feet. "He was killed by the pack," Peterson said.
Anita Weier writes for the Capital Times in Madison, Wis. This report was distributed by The Associated
Press.
What is Rabbits and Wolves?
This game allows the user to simulate how nature keeps its balance and shows how wolves and rabbits would behave in
their natural setting. The general rules of this applet are:

Two rabbits cannot occupy the same section of grass.

Two wolves cannot occupy the same section of grass.

Each rabbit can only eat grass when he has not reached his maximum food capacity. (The maximum food capacity
can be modified).

A wolf will not eat a rabbit if the rabbit will make him surpass his maximum food capacity. (The maximum food
capacity can be modified).

Rabbits and wolves can only reproduce when they reach a certain age and have a sufficient amount of food. (The
age of reproduction and amount of food required to reproduce can be modified).

A rabbit cannot reproduce if there is a wolf around her.

Rabbits and wolves can only move up, down, left, or right one space at a time.

Rabbits and wolves die if they get too old or if there is insufficient food. (Maximum age can be modified).

The grass growth rate is 1. (This growth rate can be modified).
The rules for the births and deaths of rabbits and wolves are a bit more detailed. Let's begin with rabbits which have the
following (adjustable) default parameters:

Maximum food capacity: 45 units

Metabolism rate: 3 units/stage

Reproduction age: 10 stages

Probability of reproduction in a suitable environment: 50%

Minimum food requirement to reproduce: 40 units

Maximum age: 25 stages

A rabbit gives a food value of 10 to the wolf that eats it.
Using this information, along with the general rules, the computer will determine whether each rabbit will live, die, or
reproduce during each stage.
Wolves have the following (adjustable) default parameters:

Maximum food capacity: 200 units

Metabolism rate: 2 units/stage

Reproduction age: 10 stages

Probability of reproduction in a suitable environment: 50%

Minimum food requirement to reproduce: 120 units

Maximum age: 50 stages
Using this information, along with the general rules, the computer will determine whether each wolf will live, die, or
reproduce at each stage.
How To Use This Activity:
This activity allows the user to see how wolves and rabbits would behave in their natural setting as an example of how
nature keeps its balance.
Controls and Output:

The Start Simulation button on the top-left of the applet begins animating the interactions between the different
elements (rabbits, wolves, and the grass) of the grid. It becomes the Pause Simulation button when pressed. There
is also a Step Simulation button in the top-center of the applet that allows you to see the simulation step by step.
(Avoid Step Simulation – it takes too long!)

The Pause Simulation button allows you to pause the simulation and look at the current state of the grid. It
becomes the Resume Simulation button when pressed. The Resume Simulation button allows you to resume the
simulation after it has been paused. It becomes the Pause Simulation button when pressed.

The Reset Simulation button sets up a new simulation based on the current parameters.

The Forest Size menu allows you to select the size of the forest. (adjust how you want)

The Speed scroll bar allows you to speed up and slow down the rate at which the applets displays the simulation.
(Set the speed as fast as it can go!)

The Forest Border menu allows you to choose between toroid and island. Toroid allows the rabbits to move off the
screen on one edge and wind up on the opposite edge of the forest. Island does not allow them to move this way.

The View Population Graph button opens a window that displays a graph of the number of rabbits, wolves,
and grass per iteration.

In the Population Graph window there is the Display Tabular Data button that allows you to see the numbers for
the last 250 iterations.

The View Cumulative Stats button allows you to view the population statistics for the current stage of the
simulation.

The View/Modify Parameters button opens a window that allows you to modify various settings of the
simulation.

The View Simulation Key button opens a window that displays a legend for the grid.
Questions from the Rabbits and Wolves Game
Go to: www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/RabbitsAndWolves/ and play around with
the game. Set the speed on fastest it will go. Adjust the parameters as you see fit. Your
ultimate goal is to create a stable ecosystem between the grass, bunnies, and wolves.
1. What affect does a high population of bunnies have on the grass?
2. What affect does a high population of bunnies have on the wolves?
3. What affect does a low population of grass have on bunnies?
4. What affect does a low population of grass have on the wolves?
5. What affect does a low population of wolves have on the bunnies?
6. What affect does a low population of wolves have on the grass?
7. What would happen if there were lots more wolves than there are bunnies? Would the
wolves take over and live forever?
8. What would happen if there were lots more bunnies than there were wolves? Would the
bunnies take over and go on forever?
9. Were you able to create a stable ecosystem between the grass, bunnies, and wolves? If so,
list your parameters:

Maximum food capacity: Rabbit __________

Metabolism rate: Rabbit __________

Reproduction age: Rabbit __________

Probability of reproduction in a suitable environment: Rabbit ____

Minimum food requirement to reproduce: Rabbit ______

Maximum age: Rabbit _______

A rabbit gives a food value of ____ to the wolf that eats it.
Wolf ___________
Wolf ___________
Wolf ___________
Wolf ________
Wolf_____
Wolf ________
Name ____________________________
Environmental Conservation
Global Population Trends
Introduction:
In this project you will analyze human populations by sex, age, and economic development to refine
your predictions, based on a variety of possible historical events taking place. You will be analyzing
population pyramids, also known as age-structure diagrams and determining what is occurring within the
population of each nation you analyze.
Population pyramids, such as the one shown below, break down populations by gender (horizontal
axes) and by age group (vertical axes). The age groups can be further broken down into three categories:
pre-reproductive, reproductive, and post-reproductive
Procedure:
Access the U.S. Census Bureau Website at: www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbpyr.html . At this site,
choose three nations – one that is categorized at underdeveloped, one that is developing, and one that is
developed. (See the list for assistance) Use the default settings for the three years 2000, 2025, and
2050, then print out your nine population pyramids. You may select the “small” graph size option for this
activity.
Examples of Underdeveloped (Low-income developing)
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Benin
Bhutan
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo, Dem. Rep
Congo, Rep.
Cote d'Ivoire
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gambia, The
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Haiti
India
Kenya
Korea, Dem Rep.
Kyrgyz Republic
Lao PDR
Lesotho
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Moldova
Mongolia
Mozambique
Myanmar
Nepal
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
Somalia
Sudan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Timor-Leste
Togo
Uganda
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen, Rep.
Zambia
Zimbabwe
El Salvador
Fiji
Georgia
Guatemala
Guyana
Honduras
Indonesia
Iran, Islamic Rep.
Iraq
Jamaica
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kiribati
Macedonia, FYR
Maldives
Marshall Islands
Micronesia, Fed. Sts.
Morocco
Namibia
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Romania
Samoa
Serbia and Montenegro
Sri Lanka
Suriname
Swaziland
Syrian Arab Republic
Thailand
Tonga
Tunisia
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Vanuatu
West Bank and Gaza
Greece
Greenland
Guam
Hong Kong, China
Iceland
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Japan
Korea, Rep.
Kuwait
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Macao, China
Malta
Monaco
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
San Marino
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
Examples of Developing
Albania
Algeria
Angola
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Cape Verde
China
Colombia
Cuba
Djibouti
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt, Arab Rep.
Examples of Developed
Andorra
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Bahamas, The
Bahrain
Belgium
Bermuda
Brunei
Canada
Cayman Islands
Channel Islands
Cyprus
Denmark
Faeroe Islands
Finland
France
French Polynesia
Germany
1. Analyzing the pyramids for each of the three countries in turn, discuss how the pyramids vary in the
youngest segments of the population:
Underdeveloped: _______________________________________________________
Developing: ___________________________________________________________
Developed: ____________________________________________________________
2. Analyzing the pyramids for each of the three countries in turn, discuss how the pyramids vary in the
oldest segments of the population:
Underdeveloped: _______________________________________________________
Developing: ___________________________________________________________
Developed: ____________________________________________________________
3. What patterns do you see in the differences and changes in the male/female ratios?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
4. Analyze the population pyramids for each of your three countries. Roughly sketch the shape of the
“pyramid” for each type of country:
Underdeveloped
Developing
Developed
5. Using the chart on the following page, mark how you think each event might affect the population of
that particular country. Use the following codes:
Population likely to increase:
Population likely to decrease:
Population likely to be unaffected:
Event unlikely to happen:
X
Event
Famine
War
Lowering of marital age
Development of
effective birth control
Outbreak of cholera
epidemic
Severe, chronic air
pollution
Lowering of infant
mortality
Start-up of a social
security system
Economic boom
Economic depression
Legislation of child labor
laws
More employment
opportunities for women
More education for
women
Avian flu epidemic
Developed
Developing
Underdeveloped
Chapter 4 Study Guide
This guide is for study purposes only – it will not be collected or graded. When preparing for the
test, utilize the webpage, your notes, labs, readings, worksheets, and the text book.
1. Explain the role natural selection plays in evolution.
2. Explain the role adaptations play in natural selection and/or evolution.
3. Describe and give examples of selective breeding or artificial selection.
4. Give a definition for the following terms:
species:
population:
endemic:
speciation:
5. Explain the steps and causes of allopatric speciation:
6. Discuss what a phylogenetic tree is and how the fossil record plays a role in phylogenetic trees.
7. Describe the following types of ecology:
ecology:
population ecology:
community ecology:
8. Define the following:
habitat:
niche:
specialists:
generalists:
9. Describe the levels of ecological organization. Use the terms organism, community, ecosystem,
biosphere, population.
10. Describe the following types of population distribution and give an example of each.
Random distribution:
Uniform distribution:
Clumped distribution:
11. List the four factors that determine a population growth or decline:
12. List the formula for finding growth rate and the formula for listing it as a percent.
13. Compare and contrast exponential growth with logistical growth.
14. Describe and list examples of density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors.
15. Define and explain carrying capacity and what factors might affect the carrying capacity of a
species.
16. Compare and contract r-selected species to K-selected species. Describe the biotic potential and
other traits of each.
17. Sketch 4 graphs that show: logistic growth, exponential growth, population oscillation, and a
population crash
Name _____________________
Environmental Conservation
Eating at a Lower Trophic Level
Background information: A trophic level, or feeding level, is made up of all the organisms whose
energy source is the same number of consumption steps from the sun in a given ecosystem. The
trophic level of plants or producers is 1 while that of herbivores is 2 and that of animals that
eat herbivores is 3. Higher trophic levels can exist for animals even higher on the food chain.
Typically you will see a 90% drop in available energy for each level up from producers.
Problem:
The owner of a soybean farm raises guinea hens for food and insect control. Guinea hens
will eat grasshoppers and other insect pests. The farmer allows hens free range in his fields
during the day and provides roosts for them at night.
Assumptions:
 The farmer lives on 1 hen per day
 1 hen eats 25 grasshoppers per day
 1,000 grasshoppers have a mass of 1 kg
 1 grasshopper requires 30 g of soybeans per year
 1 human requires 600 grasshoppers per day
 Dry soybeans have about 3.3 calories per gram
1. Calculate the number of grasshoppers a hen needs per year to live.
2. How many grasshoppers are needed for a year’s supply of hens for the farmer?
3. What is the total mass, in kilograms, of the grasshoppers needed to feed all the hens for one
year?
4. How many kilograms of soybeans are needed to feed all the grasshoppers for one year?
5. The farmer needs to consume 3000 calories per day. If he ate only soybeans instead of hens
or grasshoppers, how many people would his soybean crop feed (use your answer to #4 to
determine how big the crop was)
6. Draw a Biomass Pyramid using the data you have developed to this point.
7. List two pros and two cons to eating at a lower trophic level:
Pros:
Cons:
8. On average, cows produce 19 kilograms of protein/acre/year and soy produces 200kg of
protein/acre/year. Relate this information to the fact that people in less-developed countries
usually eat at lower trophic levels than those in developed countries.
9. Why do you think that omnivores (animals that can eat meat or plant materials) are typically
more stable in their populations?
10. List five foods you have eaten in the past few days and identify the trophic level it comes
from:
1. _____________________
trophic level: ______________
2. _____________________
trophic level: ______________
3. _____________________
trophic level: ______________
4. _____________________
trophic level: ______________
5. _____________________
trophic level: ______________
Name ______________________
Environmental Conservation
Food Web Diagram
Directions: Look at the organisms below that can be found in a deciduous forest biome
(like the ones we have here in Waverly). Draw in arrows showing the food web that can
be created from these creatures. Make sure your arrows are going the right direction!
fox
mouse
corn
grasses
human
owl
wolf
squirrel
deer
chipmunk
Walnut
Tree
eagle
snake
cow
Questions – use your food web and your book pages 101-105.
1. List two producers from your food web.
2. List two secondary consumers from your food web.
3. List at least one tertiary consumer from your food web. Also list the food chain that
tertiary consumer is a part of.
4. Why is it so rare to have a fourth or fifth trophic level?
5. Generally speaking, what percent of the energy from a trophic level is passed on to
the level directly above it?
6. Describe the difference between a food chain and a food web.
7. Describe how invasive species can alter a food chain or food web.
Name _________________
Environmental Conservation
Species Interactions
Using your book pgs 98-101 and class discussion fill in the following information:
Predator/Prey Relationship:
Define predator
Define prey
What effect does the relationship have on the predator?
What effect does the relationship have on the prey?
List at least three examples of this type of relationship:
Parasitism:
Define parasite:
Define host:
What effect does the relationship have on the parasite?
What effect does the relationship have on the host?
List at least three examples of this type of relationship:
Mutualistic Relationship:
Define symbiosis:
What effect does the relationship have on each participating species?
Give at least three examples of this type of relationship:
Herbivory relationship:
Define herbivory
What effect does the relationship have on the herbivore?
What effect does the relationship have on the plant?
Name at least three examples of this type of relationship:
Commensalism:
What effect does the relationship have on one of the species?
What effect does the relationship have on the other species?
Give at least three examples of this type of relationship:
Where in the World is my Biome?
You will be assigned one of the following biome types:
 Desert
 Tropical Rain Forest
 Savannah/Grassland
 Deciduous Forest
 Tundra
 Taiga/coniferous forest
 Mountains
Your job is to act as a travel agent or promotion specialist for your biome. You will design a
brochure, booklet, pamphlet, or poster about your biome. Your finished product must include:
 Where this biome is located
 Typical climate information (ave. temps, precipitation, severe weather, etc)
 List and describe several animal species (fauna) that are native to this biome
 List and describe typical plants (flora) that are native to this biome
 List any important products and resources that may have economic value to that
biome
 Describe any environmental concerns that exist for your biome.
 Pictures of your biome, animals, maps, etc should be included for visual appeal!
You will present your information to the class at the conclusion of this project.
You will be given time in the computer lab to research and develop your project.
Due date for your project: ________________________
Grading sheet for Biome Project-Environmental Conservation
Student name: ___________________________
Biome: __________________________________
Project type: _____________________________
Required information:
______ (5 pts) Location of biome
______ (10 pts) Climate information (temps, precip, severe weather, seasons, etc)
______ (5 pts)Fauna
______ (5 pts)Flora
______ (5 pts)Products and resources of biome
______ (10 pts)Environmental Concerns
______ (5 pts)Visuals (pictures, maps, etc)
Presentation:
______ (5 pts) Easy to hear/understand
______ (5 pts) Knowledge about biome demonstrated
Finished product:
_____ (5 pts) Appearance
_____ (5 pts) Organization
_____ (5 pts) Creativity
Total:
________ (70 pts)
Comments:
Notes Page - Desert region
Where it is located globally:
Climate information:
Fauna (animal species):
Flora (plant species):
Products, resources, economic value:
Environmental Concerns:
Notes Page – Tropical Rain Forest region
Where it is located globally:
Climate information:
Fauna (animal species):
Flora (plant species):
Products, resources, economic value:
Environmental Concerns:
Notes Page – Savannah/Grassland/Prairie region
Where it is located globally:
Climate information:
Fauna (animal species):
Flora (plant species):
Products, resources, economic value:
Environmental Concerns:
Notes Page – Deciduous region
Where it is located globally:
Climate information:
Fauna (animal species):
Flora (plant species):
Products, resources, economic value:
Environmental Concerns:
Notes Page – Tundra region
Where it is located globally:
Climate information:
Fauna (animal species):
Flora (plant species):
Products, resources, economic value:
Environmental Concerns:
Notes Page – Taiga/Coniferous/Boreal region
Where it is located globally:
Climate information:
Fauna (animal species):
Flora (plant species):
Products, resources, economic value:
Environmental Concerns:
Notes Page – Mountain region
Where it is located globally:
Climate information:
Fauna (animal species):
Flora (plant species):
Products, resources, economic value:
Environmental Concerns:
Chapter 5 Study Guide
This paper is for your use only. It will not be collected or graded, but is simply a tool to help you begin to
prepare for your chapter 5 exam. As always, you will want to use other study tools as well: re-read the
chapter, look over your notes, worksheets, labs, and use the website.
1. What is a zebra mussel and where is it native to?
2. When did the zebra mussel first appear in the US and how do scientists believe it arrived in the area?
3. Explain the difference between and give examples of interspecific and intraspecific competition.
4. Explain resource partitioning.
5. Describe and give examples of each of the following types of species interactions:
mutualism:
commensalisms:
herbivory:
predation:
predator:
prey:
parasitism:
parasite:
host:
6. Describe and give an example of the following ways that prey avoids being eaten by a predator:
Cryptic coloration:
Warning coloration:
Mimicry:
7. Describe and give examples of the following trophic levels:
Producer:
Consumer:
Primary consumer:
Secondary consumer:
Tertiary consumer:
Detrivore:
Decomposer:
8. About how much energy (%) is passed onto the next trophic level?
9. Compare and contrast food webs and food chains.
10. When drawing a food web or chain, which direction does the arrow point?
11. Which would result in the ability to feed more people – using 20 acres to grow crops for eating, or using that land
to feed cattle to be slaughtered? Explain why.
12. What is a keystone species? Are keystone species typically predators or prey? Are they usually large or small?
13. Compare and contrast resistance and resilience.
14. Draw a flow chart of primary succession. Make sure to include the words “pioneer species, climax community,
shrubs, hardwood trees, softwood trees, grasses.”
15. Using the above flowchart, indicate where secondary succession would start. List things that could cause
secondary succession.
16. Draw a flowchart showing aquatic succession.
17. Explain why invasive species can so easily take over an area.
18. Define biome.
19. Describe each of the following biomes. Include information such as where it is found globally, plants and animals
found in each area, precipitation and climate.
Biome
Deciduous Forest
Temperature
Grasslands (Prairie)
Tropical Rainforest
Savanna
Desert
Tundra
Taiga/Boreal Forest
Location
Precipitation
Climate/Weather Plants/Animals
Semester One Topics and Concepts
Environmental Conservation
Chapter 1: Introduction to Environmental Science
Environment/Environmental science
Natural resources (renewable and non-renewable)
Agricultural revolution
People: Thomas Malthus, Paul Erlich, Garrett Hardin, Aldo Leopold, Gifford Pinchot, John
Muir, President Roosevelt
Tragedy of the Commons
Ecological Footprint
Scientific Method
Independent/Dependent variable
Control/treatment groups
Quantitative data
Manipulative experiment/natural experiment
Peer review
Environmental ethics
Anthropocentrism
Biocentrism
Ecocentrism
Preservation Ethic
Conservation Ethic
Sustainability
Chapter 2: Environmental Economics and Policy
Economic systems
Subsistence economy
Captialistic Market economy
Centrally planned economy
Ecosystem services/non-market values
Existence value
Aesthetic value
Educational value
Economic Views
Classical economists
Neoclassical economists
Ecological economists
Environmental economists
External costs
Legislation/regulation
Three waves of US Environmental Policy and Acts
Important Acts:
Homestead Act
Mineral Lands Act
Timber Culture Act
National Environmental Policy Act
Clean Air Act
Organizations
World Bank
United Nations
Chapter 2: Environmental Economics and Policy (continued)
European Union
World Trade Organization
Nongovernmental Organizations
Silent Spring/Rachel Carson
How a bill becomes a law
Green taxes
Marketable Emissions permits
Ecolabeling
Chapter 3: Environmental Systems: Chemistry, Energy, and Ecosystems
Dead zone in Gulf of Mexico (hypoxic)
Negative/Positive feedback loops
Chemistry review
Element
Atom (proton, neutron, electron)
Isotopes
Ions
Molecules/Compounds
pH (acid/base)
Biology review
Protein/amino acids
DNA/RNA
Carbohydrates
Lipids
Cells (prokaryotes/eukaryotes)
Autotrophs/producers/photosynthesis
Cellular respiration
Heterotrophs
Physics review
First law of thermodynamics
Second law of thermodynamics
Nutrient cycles
Carbon cycle
Phosphorous cycle
Nitrogen cycle
Hydrologic cycle
Rock cycle
Plate tectonics
Divergent/convergent boundaries
Transform plate boundaries
Subduction
Chapter 8: Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
Diversity
Ecosystem diversity
Species diversity
Genetic Diversity
Taxonomy (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species)
Shannon-Weaver biodiversity index
Background rate of extinction
Chapter 8: Biodiversity and Conservation Biology (continued)
Extirpation vs. extinction
Mass extinctions
Causes of biodiversity loss
Habitat alteration
Invasive species
Pollution
Overharvesting
Climate change
Benefits of biodiversity
Ecosystem services
Food security
Drugs/medication
Ecotourism/recreation
Biophilia
Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography
Endangered Species Act
Conservation
Captive breeding
Umbrella species
Treaties and Acts
Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES)
Convention on Biological Diversity
Biodiversity hotspots/endemic
Community Based conservation
Waterfowl Unit
Puddle duck (Dabbling) vs diving duck
Parts of a body and wing
Flyways
Flyway councils
Ducks vs Geese
Waterfowl management objectives
Flight patterns
Nesting success
Identification
Chapter 4: Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology
Evolution/Natural Selection
Charles Darwin/Alfred Wallace
Mutations/Adaptations
Artifical Selection
Speciation
Allopatric
Phylogenetic
Causes of population isolation
Ecology (population and community)
Levels of Ecology Organization
Biosphere, ecosystem, community, population, organism
Habitat
Chapter 4: Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology (continued)
Niche
Specialist/Generalist
Population density
Density dependent/ density independent factors
Population distribution
Random
Uniform
Clumped
Age structure diagrams/population pyramids
Growth rate formula
Exponential vs. Logistic growth
Limiting factors
Carrying capacity
K-selected vs. r-selected species
Chapter 5: Species Interactions and Community Ecology
Competition
Intraspecific vs interspecific
Resource partitioning
Predator/prey
Mutualism
Symbiosis
Commensalism
Parasitism/host
Coevolution
Herbivory
Trophic levels (primary, secondary, tertiary consumers)
Producer vs consumer
Detritivore
Decomposers
Food chains and webs
Keystone species
Invasive species
Resistence vs resilience
Succession
Primary succession
Secondary succession
Pioneer species
Climax community
Biomes
Deciduous forest
Tropical rain forest
Grasslands/savanna
Desert
Tundra
Taiga/Boreal forest
Mountains
Name __________________
Environmental Conservation
Population Investigation
Procedure: You will need to use a computer and visit the following website:
www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/ . Once you are at the website, click on “Country
Summary.”
Select the countries indicated and then fill out the chart below using data from
the current calendar year. The data for the first 6 categories will be found on
the website, the last category you will need to consider what you know about
Demographic transition and determine which stage that country might be in (page
132 will help you).
United
States
Population
Growth Rate
(percent)
Total
Fertility Rate
Life
Expectancy at
Birth
Infant
Mortality
Rate
Under 5
Mortality
Rate
Crude Death
Rate
Where in
Demographic
Transition?
Questions:
Venezuela
Cameroon
Chad
Japan
Afghanistan
1. Using the Rule of 70 and your above data, what is the number of years it will
take to double the population of the US?
2. Using the Rule of 70 and your above data, what is the number of years it will
take to double the population of Afghanistan?
3. Looking at your grid of data, what do you notice about the relationship
between fertility rate and infant/under 5 mortality rates?
4. Looking at your grid of data, what conclusion can you draw about the
relationship between life expectancy and the stage of demographic transition?
5. Using your textbook, give a definition of “total fertility rate.”
6. Choose ONE of the countries besides the US and analyze the population
pyramid. Sketch the basic shape and determine whether it shows:
an increasing/decreasing/stable population growth over time
if the life expectancy would be high or low
if it has a high or low infant/child mortality
whether it would be an underdeveloped, developing, or developed country.
Chapter 6 Study Guide
This guide is for study purposes only – it will not be collected or graded. When preparing
for the test, utilize the webpage, your notes, labs, readings, worksheets, and the text
book.
1. What is the approximate population of the Earth today?
2. What is the IPAT model? What does the I, P, A and T stand for?
3. Discuss what “affluence” is and how it can have an affect on the environment.
4. Give a definition of demography.
5. What type of population distribution is shown by humans?
6. Describe two or three major events/changes that allowed humans to raise their global carrying
capacity.
7. Describe the basic shape of an age pyramid of a:
underdeveloped country:
developing country:
developed country:
8. How does sex ratio affect population? What country currently has a skewed sex ratio with
more males than females?
9. Define total fertility rate.
10. Define replacement fertility.
11. What is the current replacement fertility rate?
12. Which type of country (underdeveloped, developing, developed) typically has a higher TFR?
13. Which type of country (underdeveloped, developing, developed) typically has a higher life
expectancy?
14. Which type of country (underdeveloped, developing, developed) typically has a higher
infant/child mortality rate?
15. Describe what is happening in the following stages of demographic transition. Try to include
descriptions of birth rate, death rate, quality of life, etc):
Pre-industrial stage:
Transitional stage:
Industrial stage:
Post-industrial stage:
16. List some factors that can cause a nation to lower its TFR.
17. Which of these contributes to a larger ecological footprint: a person living in poverty or a
person living in affluence?
18. Describe the “rule of 70” in terms of doubling time of populations.