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117 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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How much of corn crop is turned into ethanol? |
40% |
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How much of American corn is used for human food? |
less than 3% |
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Define biogeochemical process |
pathway by which chemicals/materials move through various biotic and abiotic compartments |
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Is earth an open or closed system? |
Closed with the exception of sunlight |
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Who was Thomas Robert Malthus |
An English cleric and scholar. He was influential in economics and demography. |
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Who was known as 'pop malthus' |
Thomas Robert Malthus |
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What did Thomas Robert Malthus believe? |
The amount of resources available must at some point limit the population of humans |
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How did the industrial revolution change population dynamics for humans? |
Lowered death rates, raised birth rates, more medical care etc. |
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What is carrying capacity? |
The max population an environment can sustain. |
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Populations grow, shrink or remain stable depending on what factors? |
rates of birth rates of death immigration emigration |
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In the past 200 years the population grew from 1-6 billion. How? |
1. increasingly efficient food and water production 2. green revolution 3. increase in medical technology 4. increase birth and survival rate/decreased death rates |
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What 4 factors do birth rates depend on? |
1. number of offspring per reproduction 2. chances of survival until reproductive age 3. frequency of reproduction 4. age at which reproduction begins |
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Who thought the carrying capacity of the Earth was ~4Billion? |
Paul Ehrlich |
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What did Paul Ehrlich believe? |
That the carrying capacity of the Earth was ~4 billion, and that by the 1970's millions of people were going to starve to death. |
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What is the 10% rule? |
material lost during transfer, respiration, or imcmplete digestion is ~10% |
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Name 3 reasons to conserve biodiversity |
ethical, evolutionary capital, functional importance in ecosystems |
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Define ecosystem services |
The services that an ecosystem does directly for humans |
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What are the 4 ecosystem services? |
1. cultural services 2. regulating services 3. provisioning services 4. supporting services |
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What are the 4 ecosystem services and describe them. |
1. Cultural services; non-material benefits 2. regulating services; waste breakdown, CO2 regulation 3. provisioning services; food and products from environment 4. supporting services; maintenance of all other services |
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What is the value of the worlds ecosystem? |
$33 trillion |
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In an environment where each species is independent of each other, what would their ecosystem function-biodiversity graph look like? |
Linear |
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In an environment where the species have some niche overlap and somewhere interact with each other, what would their ecosystem function-biodiversity graph look like? |
Redundancy |
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In an environment with a lot os species interaction, what would their ecosystem function-biodiversity graph look like? |
Keystone |
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What is the Rivet Hypothesis? |
Biodiversity is like rivets on a plane. If you lose 1, there will not be very much noticeable change, but as you continue to lose species, the more change will be noticed, leading to catastrophic failure. |
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What are the 3 "mechanisms"? |
1. Niche complimentary 2. Facilitation 3. Portfolio Effect |
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Describe Niche Complimentary |
Organisms must be different from each other in order to co-exist. Species differ in their use of microhabitats and so they compliment each other functionally. |
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Describe Facilitation |
Species have similar niches and help each other out with functions |
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What is Portfolio Effect? |
If species fluctuate independently, their net biomass (or function) may not fluctuate much as individual fluctuations may cancel each other out. |
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Biodiversity does what to ecosystem functioning? |
increases it |
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What are renewable resources? |
Biotic and Abiotic materials sich as solar, water, wind, wood. |
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What are non-renewable resources? |
metals, fossil fuels, ores, minerals. |
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What is GDP? |
Gross Domestic Product is the sum of all good and services that a country produces in a year. |
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What does the GDP of a country reflect? |
their economy |
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Globally, what are the top 3 sources of energy? |
Fossil fuels, renewable, nuclear |
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In Canada, what are the top 3 sources of energy? |
Fossil fuels, renewable, nuclear |
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What is energy? |
The ability to do work
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What are the 4 types of energy? |
Kinetic (moving/potential) Thermal (heat) Radiant (light) Chemical (released when fuel burns) |
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What are fossil fuels? |
Oil, Natural Gas, Coal |
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Where do fossil fuels come from? |
originally living matter in early oceans. They died and settled to the bottom where they got burred in sediment, where they became hydrocarbons. |
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What is Kerogen?
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a waxy organic material, complex mixture of long-chain polymers. |
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Gas hydrocarbons produce what? |
Methane, ethane |
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Liquid hydrocarbons produce what? |
Octane |
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Solid hydrocarbons produce what? |
Bitumen, coal |
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What is coal? |
organic matter compressed under high pressure to form dense carbon structures |
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What is Natural Gas? |
Primarily methane, CH4. Produced by bacteria near surface and heat/pressure deep below ground |
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What is Crude Oil? |
Sludge like mix of hundreds of types of hydrocarbon molecules. Forms at temps found 1.5-3km below ground. |
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Where is liquid oil found? |
In pores in rock deep underground |
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What are alkalines? |
Saturated hydrocarbons |
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How do we get oil/gas from crude oil? |
It is put through a refraining process where hydrocarbons boil in a distillation column, isolating different weights of oils. |
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What are the pros of Fossil Fuels? |
- extremely high in energy density - inexpensive to extract - easy to transport - stable at normal temp ranges |
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What are the cons of fossil fuels? |
-polluting to burn - extensive health/environmental impacts - toxic oil spills - source of anthropogenic CO2 - no easy way to transport oil safely |
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How much crude oil does NA import each year? |
382 million tonnes |
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How much crude oil does the middle east export? |
715 million tonnes |
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Give an example of a petroleum product |
bike helmet, water bottle, plastics |
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At what level is most of the footprint from coffee found at? |
the retail level (~50%) |
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Which countries have the most oil? |
Saudi Arabia, Canada, Venezuela |
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Which countries have the most Natural gas? |
Russia, Iran, Qatar |
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Which countries have the most coal? |
USA, Russia, Chian |
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What is conventional oil? |
oil and gas extracted from drilled wells. (easy to get) |
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What is unconventional oil? |
petroleum extracted rom techniques other than oil wells |
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What are some examples of unconventional oil? |
shale oil, oil sands, coal based liquid fuels, biomass based petroleum |
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What is shale oil? |
Long chain hydrocarbons extracted from shale rock, oil chemically converted into usable synthetic forms |
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What are the oil sands? |
sand and clay mixed with heavy viscous hydrocarbons, tar-like properties |
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What are some problems related to the oil sands? |
energy intensive sulfur dioxide emissions huge waste disposal ponds habitat fragmentation GHG emissions |
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What is bitumen? |
semi-solid form of oil, mix of hydrocarbons |
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Where are the largest known deposits of oil sands in the world? |
Alberta |
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What are the two ways to extract oil from the oil sands? |
In Situ Open Pit Mining |
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What is In Situ? |
a way of extracting oil sands by steam assisted gravity drainage. Steam is injected in one well to liquify oil, oil then pumped from nearby slightly lower well. |
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What is open pit mining? |
a way of extracting oil sands by stripping away ~100m of overburden, use trucks to transport material for processing. |
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How much is open pit mining and in situ used? |
In situ = 80% open pit mining = 20% |
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What is EROEI? |
Energy return over energy invested |
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How much land is reclaimed from the oil sands? |
0.2-22% |
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What is a problem with the "reclaimed" land from the oil sands? |
Wetland and forrest vs wood bison pasture. The land was not restored the way it used to be. |
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What is the EROEI of the oil sands? |
3:1 |
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What is hydraulic fracking? |
techniques used to release natural gas from shale rock. Well is drilled, mixture of sand, water and chemicals injected under pressure and forces natural gas to move upwards. |
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What is peak oil? |
The point in time when the max rate of extraction of petroleum is expected to enter terminal decline.
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Who theorized the observed rise, peak, fall and depletion of production rate in oil over time |
M. King Hubbert |
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The vast majority of fossil fuels are used for what? |
transportation |
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Where does most of Canada's electricity come from? |
Hydroelectricity |
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What is nuclear energy primarily used for? |
Electrical generation (ENP) |
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What place in the world is Canada in production of ENP? |
6th |
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What place in the world is Canada in production of hydroelectricity? |
2nd |
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Canada is one of the few countries to export nuclear energy via what? |
CANDU reactor |
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What are the 3 ways to produce nuclear energy? |
fission, fusion, nuclear decay (geothermal heat niches) |
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Nuclear fission accounts for how much of global energy? |
5.7% |
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What type of Uranium is used in nuclear energy? |
235U |
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Where does Canada mine U? |
Northern Saskatchewan |
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What is nuclear fission? |
energy released by splitting apart uranium nuclei by bombarding them with neutrons. |
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What is produced as a bi-product of nuclear fission? |
several extra neutrons |
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What is used to absorb the extra neutrons produced with nuclear fission? |
a metal rod |
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How does nuclear fission work? |
nuclear reactor, fission process, enormous tea is produced, steam turns turbines, generates electricity |
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What are the pros of nuclear power? |
no GHG emissions no pollution (except mining) minimal land disturbance high energy output with minimal input lots of fuel |
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What are the cons of nuclear power? |
storage of nuclear waste expensive public trust older systems economic losses associated with accidents |
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How many nuclear plants are open today and how many have closed? |
437 open, 115 closed. |
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Where is nuclear power mainly being made? |
central europe, NA, Japan, |
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What is nuclear fusion? |
fusion of two low mass H nuclei |
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What are some problems with nuclear fusion? |
difficult to sustain high pressure needed to generate fusion. plasma dissociated with atoms |
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List 7 renewable energy sources |
Hydro Wind Solar Nuclear Oceans Biomass Geothermal |
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How much does hydropower account for in canada within our renewable energy usage? |
72% |
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In order, what are the win sources of energy canada uses? |
FF, hydro, nuclear, wind, solar |
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How do we obtain hydroelectric power? |
water is dammed, runs down through intake channels, turns turbines which creates electricity and water leaves through other side. |
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What are the two largest hydroelectric produces worldwide? |
China, Canada |
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What is run-of-river hydroelectric? |
electrical generation where little to no water stooge is provided |
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What are the pros of hydropower? |
renewable clean (no GHG) |
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What are the cons of hydropower? |
dams disrupt environments disrupt local cultures not permanent. will fill with sediment |
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What is the fastest growing power source? |
Wind |
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By surveying with _________ to measure wind speed, we can determine best sites for turbines |
anemometers |
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How do wind turbines work? |
wind spins the blades which turn a gearbox, which turns the generator to produce electricity |
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In Alberta, how much power do we get from each wind turbine? |
enough o power at least 250 homes |
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What are the pros of wind power? |
renewable no emissions substantial input to local economy costs low (except for initial investment) impact low |
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What are the cons to wind power? |
not everywhere is windy wind is not consistent environmental impacts to bird and bat populations high start up costs |
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What is geothermal energy? |
radioactive decay of elements dee in Earth's core create heat that rises towards the surface. |
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How is geothermal electricity produced? |
geothermal heat heats up natural hot springs which create steam which creates electricity |
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What are the pros of geothermal heat? |
direct use loses hardly any energy in conversion renewable low GHG can be inexpensive |
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What are the cons of geothermal heat? |
may run out of heated water salts in water corrode equipment limited geographically can be expensive if poorly designed |
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What is conventional geothermal heat? |
where substantial movement of water into hot rock formations flow to surface. |
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What is non-convetional geothermal heat? |
low heat gradients, low rock permeability. Old mine shafts, shallow geothermal heat pumps |
