Study Guide Unit 1 Part 1

Human Impact on the Environment

2011
 What and How to Study
Study the PowerPoint lectures and their review
questions.
Read the chapters assigned in the text.
Know the key vocabulary terms (lists at the end
of each chapter and/or the glossaries).
Prepare frequently prior to the test. Review the
film study questions where applicable.
These statements apply to all of the unit tests
and exam.
 Please Note
• The study guide question project is a work
in progress, and accordingly, it is
incomplete. Therefore none of the study
question sets should be considered a
“substitute” for a complete and exhaustive
test preparation. This applies to all four of
the study guide question sets.
Human Impact on the
Environment
 Human Impact on the
Environment
• Open the file: Human Impact on the
Environment Glossary and study these
terms.
• On test 1, you will see some of these
again in a matching format ,as well as, in
some multiple choice questions.
 Question 1
1. Define: pollutant.
 Answer 1
1. Define: pollutant.

• Substances with which an ecosystem has

had no prior evolutionary experience

• No adaptive mechanisms are in place to

deal with them
 Question 2
2. List 4 air pollutants.
 Answer 2
2.
List 4 air pollutants.
Carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur
dioxide and sulfur trioxides.
 Question 3
3. What is a thermal inversion?
 Answer 3
3. What is a thermal inversion?

• Weather pattern in which a layer of

cool, dense air is trapped beneath a
layer of warm air.
 Question 4
4. Complete the following “acid rain”
equation:

Nitric acid + limestone yields ? +? +?

 Answer 4
4. Complete the following “acid rain”
equation:

Nitric acid + limestone yields ? +? +?

2 HNO3 + CaCO3  Ca(NO3)2 + H2O +CO2

Nitric acid + limestone yields calcium nitrate

+ water + carbon dioxide
 Q5
• What chemicals are major components of
acid rain?
 A5
• sulfur and nitrogen oxides. These react
with water to product acids.
 Q6
• What are major sources of these
components?
 A6
• Coal-burning power plants and motor
vehicles are major sources of sulfur and
nitrogen oxides.
 Q7
• What is (are) the effect(s) of ozone
thinning?
 A7
• Increased amount of UV radiation reaches
Earth’s surface
• UV damages DNA and negatively affects
human health
• UV also affects plants, lowers primary
productivity
 Q8
• What is the recipe for ozone loss?
 A8
• “The polar winter leads to the formation of the polar vortex which
isolates the air within it.
• Cold temperatures form inside the vortex; cold enough for the
formation of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs). As the vortex air
is isolated, the cold temperatures and the PSCs persist.
• Once the PSCs form, heterogeneous reactions take place and
convert the inactive chlorine and bromine reservoirs
to more active forms of chlorine and bromine.
• No ozone loss occurs until sunlight returns to the air inside the
polar vortex and allows the production of active chlorine
and initiates the catalytic ozone destruction cycles. Ozone
loss is rapid. The ozone hole currently covers a geographic region a
little bigger than Antarctica and extends nearly 10km in altitude in the
lower stratosphere”
 Q9
• How can the ozone layer be protected?
 A9
• CFC production has been halted in
developed countries, will be phased out in
developing countries
• Methyl bromide will be phased out
• Even with bans it will take more than 50
years for ozone levels to recover
 Q 10
• About ______ of the garbage produced is
______.
 A 10
• ½; paper
 Q 11
• Introduction of mechanized agriculture and
practices requires ……..
 A 11
• Introduction of mechanized agriculture and
practices requires inputs of pesticides,
fertilizer, fossil fuel
 Q 12
• What is happening to the water tables in
India? Why?
 A 12
• The International Water Management
Institute (IWMI) estimates that withdrawals
of underground water are double the rate
of aquifer recharge.
• As a result, water tables are falling almost
everywhere.
 Q 13
• What is the effect of these changes?
 A 13
• Falling water tables are now also
threatening India's food production.
 Q 14
• Define deforestation.
 A 14
• Removal of all trees from large tracts of
land.
 Q 15
• What are some effects of deforestation?
 A 15
• Increased leaching and soil erosion
• Increased flooding and sedimentation of
downstream rivers
• Regional precipitation declines
• Possible amplification of the greenhouse
effect
 Q 16
• Where are major regions of deforestation?
 A 16

• Rates of forest loss are greatest in Brazil,

Indonesia, Mexico, and Columbia
• Highly mechanized logging is proceeding
in temperate forests of the United States
and Canada
 Q 17
• Who is Wangari Maathai ? Why is she
famous?
 A 17
• She is a Kenyan Nobel peace laureate;
her tree-planting campaign
 Q 18
• What is biodiversity? Who is it affected by
deforestation?
 A 18
• American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source
bi·o·di·ver·si·ty        (bī'ō-dĭ-vûr'sĭ-tē)   
n.  
• The number and variety of organisms found
within a specified geographic region.
• The variability among living organisms on the
earth, including the variability within and
between species and within and between
ecosystems.
• Deforestation lowers biodiversity.
 Q 19
• What is desertification?
 A 19

• Conversion of large tracts of grassland to

desert-like conditions.
 The End of the “Human Impact”
Study Guide Questions
• Please be sure to master the entire
lecture!