GEOG 1111: Physical Geography
Summer 2012
Exam 1 Study Guide
Tips for success on the first exam:
1. Do not make flash cards. By the time you finish making them, it will be time to take the
test and you won’t have had time to learn them.
2. Do not Google definitions. You will end up with a really long definition that you will
never remember. Instead, write your own definitions. Think about how you would
explain what these terms are to your grandma.
3. Go over your notes once a day. Don’t wait until the night before the test to start studying.
Bring your completed study guide to class Friday, June 7th to use on the bonus quiz (worth 10
pts on the first exam). You may not share a study guide with someone else. You many not use
the internet during the quiz. You may write the study guide out on additional pieces of paper, use
notecards, or your laptop.
I. Identify the following terms:
1. carrying capacity
2. sustainability
3. sustainable resource harvest
4. sustainable ecosystem
5. sustainable global economy
6. precautionary principle
7. science
8. scientific method
9. system
10. feedback
11. environmental unity
12. population
13. species
14. age structure diagram
15. zero population growth
16. Malthus
17. life expectancy
18. biogeochemical cycle
19. geologic cycle
20. hydrologic cycle
21. carbon cycle
22. carbon sink
23. materials economy
24. externalized cost
25. planned obsolescence
26. perceived obsolescence
27. trophic level
28. autotroph
29. keystone species
30. biological diversity
31. genetic diversity
32. habitat diversity
33. species diversity
34. keystone species
35. biological evolution
36. food chain
37. autotrophs
38. detrivores
39. herbivores
40. carnivores
41. omnivores
II. Short answer:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What are the 6 major themes of Physical Geography? Briefly describe them.
Explain the relationship between illegal immigration and the environment.
Name and describe three ways in which human population can be significantly decreased.
Explain the 4 characteristics of a sustainable economy. Based on these characteristics,
does the US have a sustainable economy?
5. Explain how a sustainable economy can be achieved.
6. What is Earth’s main environmental problem? What is the solution (or goal)?
7. Give an example of how the precautionary principle can be applied.
8. Can science be used to answer the following questions:
a. Red cars have more accidents than blue cars.
b. Lake Carroll is shrinking.
c. The Gulf Coast has the best beaches.
d. Brittney Spears is pretty.
9. Explain the 2 failures regarding the scientific method illustrated by crop circles.
10. Name and describe the 2 types of systems.
11. Name and describe the 2 types of feedback.
12. Give 2 examples of environmental unity and describe them.
13. Name and describe the 3 things that make problem solving in environmental science
difficult.
14. Name and describe the 5 key properties of a population.
15. Name and describe the 3 distinct phases of a populations’ life cycle.
16. Describe the 4 major periods of human population growth.
17. Describe some of the limiting factors of human population.
18. Name and describe the 6 major classes of human impacts and disturbance of ecosystems.
19. Name and describe 4 of the factors that increase biodiversity.
20. Name and describe 4 of the factors that decrease biodiversity.
III.
Diagrams.
1. Illustrate the cycling of a chemical through an ecosystem.
2. Illustrate the geologic cycle.
3. Illustrate the hydrologic cycle.
4. Illustrate the carbon cycle.
Attach the question sheet from The Story of Stuff to this study guide.
Study all current events we discussed in class.