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119 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Coral Reefs
Form barriers from beach erosion
Dangers to Coral Reefs
• Higher temperatures cause coral polyps to die
• Increased CO2 in near-surface ocean waters has resulted in increased acidification and new threat to coralGrowing acidity makes it difficult for marine creatures to fix CaCO3 which dissolves in acidic waters
Wind Waves
waves created in open water by wind that alter the shoreline

--form when wind blows over smooth water causing surface ripples that enlarge over time to form local short steep waves, “chop,” and eventually wind waves
Fetch
the distance along open water that the wind blows
Fully developed sea
– the maximum energy waves can absorb for wind of a given velocity (existing storm conditions)
Swell
- regularly spaced, long waves moving out from an area of strong atmospheric disturbance

 Energy measured with height, length, and the period (wave tip to wave tip)
Wave base
the maximum depth at which waves can erode the sea floor
o Wave Refraction
where waves approach shoreline at angle, earlier parts of wave break first; bending caused when waves approach a shoreline at any angle

 Also, wave refraction causes straightening of irregular shorelines due to sand deposition in embayments
• The Longshore Current
waves seldom approaching parallel to shore= some water is discharged along the beach as a weak current in the surf zone

 Sand becomes suspended in these currents and is pushed from the foreshore down the beach. This beach sand transport is called longshore drift
• Distribution and stability of Bay environments depends on three physical characteristics of the Bay
• Temperature
o most organisms in the Bay are cold blooded and controls how water moves
o affects the rates of chemical and biochemical reactions
o thermal structure of the Bay also effects density and water flow
 spring and summer surface warming results in thermocline
 in fall, surface cooling results in water column turnover
• Salinity
o Measurement of dissolved salts in the water
o Ocean is roughly 35 parts per thousand
o Farther up in the bay the less it is
o Surface isohalines reveal a marked SW-NE tilt
 Most fresh water is coming from the western side and northern side
 The salinity is less on the western side
 Lines of equal salinity are tilted
 Coriolis Effect which brings salty water in along the Eastern shore
• Water is deflected right in the Northern Hemisphere
o Vertically, fresher water tends to float on the more saline water
o Tends to form a halocline at mid-depth
• Circulation
o Together, temperature and salinity dictate the density which is in turn responsible for circulation (thermohaline circulation)
o Two-layer circulation
 Fresh water on the float of top
 Residual flow in at the mouth
 Salt wedge that thins towards the top of the bay
 Occurs about 50% of the time
 Results in a process in which particles are maintained in the Bay
 Coriolis Effect
brings salty water in along the Eastern shore
• Water is deflected right in the Northern Hemisphere

also results in a tilted two layer system
 Salt gradient is not parallel to the purpose
 Salt water is reflected to the left
• Beaches seasonally change shape
o Winter: High-energy waves erode the upper part, or berm, of the beach, forming sandbars offshore
o Summer: low energy waves come back, sandbar sands are redeposited and the berm rebuilds itself
o A beach is stable when
the sand supplied to it by longshore currents replaces the amount of sand removed by waves
 Tombolo
sand feature where a breakwater is built so close to shore that sand deposits in form of a wave “shadow” behind the breakwater connect it to the land
• Estuaries
basins open to the sea in which fresh water mixes with seawater
o Coastal-plain estuaries
drowned river valleys (Chesapeake Bay)
• Greenhouse Effect
The warming of the atmosphere by an increase in the amount of certain gases in the atmosphere, primarily CO2 and CH4, which increase the retention of heat that has been reradiated by Earth.
• Greenhouse Gases (what types?)
o Trace amounts of H2O (water vapor), CO2 (carbon dioxide), CH4 (methane), N2O (nitrogen oxide), and CFCs (chloroflourocarbons) that trap heat in the atmosphere
• Natural Causes of Today’s Global Warming
Stratospheric volcanic sulfate aerosols, climate variability, solar radiation
Causes of Today’s Global Warming: Human Activity:
 Greenhouse gases – mainly CO2, but also CH4, NOx, and CFCs
 Anthropogenic sulfate aerosols (from coal-burning power plants and industry and by motor vehicles)
• Atmosphere
envelope or membrane of air around the planet
• Troposphere
inner layer around the around the planet which contains the air, mostly nitrogen (78%), and oxygen (21%)
• Stratosphere
the next layer above troposphere, it’s lower portion filters out many of the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays
• Hydrosphere
consists of the Earth’s water; liquid, ice, and water vapor
• Lithosphere
Earth’s crust and upper mantle
• Biodiversity
biological wealth or capital that keeps us alive and supports our economy
• Trophic level
– an organism’s feeding level producers, primary consumers, then secondary consumers are the third level. Decomposers feed on all trophic levels.
• Ecological efficiency
percentage of useable biomass transferred as energy from one trophic level to another
• International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)/aka World Conservation Corps- coalition of the world’s leading conservation groups
published annual Red Lists, the world standard for listing the world’s threatened species
• World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-
researchers identified 794 species in danger of imminent extinction in 2006
• most important causes of premature extinction: HIPPO:
Habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation; Invasive (nonnative) species; Population growth (too many people consuming too many resources; Pollution; and Overharvesting
Invasive Species
-Deliberately Introduced Species
-Accidentally Introduced Invasive Species
Solutions: Reducing Threats from Invasive Species
-prevention
-wholesale removal is almost impossible
-step up inspection of imported goods, identify major harmful invader species and pass international laws, etc
Protecting Wild Species: The Sanctuary Approach:
• Wildlife Refuges and Other Protected Areas
• Gene Banks, Botanical Gardens, and Wildlife Farms
Reconciliation Ecology
• Sharing the World with Other Species
Change and Human Activity on Atmoshpere
• Troposphere has undergone prolonged periods of global cooling and global warming know as glacial and interglacial periods
• Since the industrial revolution human actions have lead to significant increases in the tropospheric concentration of three greenhouse gases, CO2, CH4, and N20
• Oceans help global warming
moderate average temp
Ozone
• A layer of ozone in the lower stratosphere keeps about 95% of the sun’s harmful UV radiation from reaching the earth’s surface
• Upwelling
-an upward movement of ocean water,
-mixes the water and brings up nutrients that are essential to feed the populations living at the surface
• Ways to reduce damage from tree diseases
o inspect imported lumber
o remove diseased and infected trees
o use chemicals and natural predators (usually other bugs) for pest control
The Chesapeake Bay STUDY
• largest US estuary in the US
• funnel shaped basin, semi enclosed by a barrier peninsula
• coastal plain drowned river estuary
• 1/2 water volume from freshwater (50-60% from Susquehanna River), ½ Atlantic Ocean
• salinity regimes subject to seasonal change (salt/freshwater boundary is seasonally variable)
• brackish water becomes more saline with drought and either polyhaline or mesohaline with lots of rain or snow
• highest species diversity of Chesapeake Bay
the Bay’s mouth, salty tributaries, and in freshwater
• Lowest species diversity of Chesapeake Bay
brackish water
Oysters in the Chesapeake Bay:
• in middle salinity ranges
• Mesohaline region
o Mid-salinity
o Slow currents
o High sedimentation and flocculation
o Turbidity is at its maximum
o Clays flocculate and high concentrations of suspended sediment settle to the bottom
Boundary Zones
• The intertidal land-sea boundary of variable landscape morphology and hydrology creates favorable conditions for extensive wetland areas surrounding the Bay
characteristics of the Chesapeake bay by area, sedimentation rates
• High sedimentation rates presently characterize the shallow, fluvial-dominated upper Bay
-modest rates characterize the middle Bay,
-and modest to high rates characterize the marine-dominated lower Bay
• Asymmetric tides
play a central role in net near-bed transport to influence the morphology of small well-mixed tidal embayments
Top-Down Structuring
• The system has been adjusting and co-evolving with biota for millions of years

• Extreme fluctuations in weather deliver high or low freshwater volumes over extended periods of time
• Storms bring extensive precipitation that radically changes salinity
Bottom-Up Structuring
• Bay biota respond to sea-level change and to sedimentary-erosional processes over relatively short time scales
• Organisms build marshes, seagrass beds, and oyster reefs that bind sediment, buffer erosional forces, alter current flows, and provide habitat
SAV
Submerged Aquatic Vegetation
Factors contributing to loss in resiliency of chesapeake bay
1. Decreases in water clarity due to algae and sediment overloads
a. Algae blooms decrease clarity which in turn decreases SAV growth
2. The loss of filtering Bay grasses and marshland
a. SAV remove substantial amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous from the water column thru assimilation and by trapping sediment particles
b. Reduced grasses means more N and P, thus continuing cycles of mass algae growth
3. Struggling populations of oysters, menhaden, and other water-filtering animals
a. Impt. Habitat for crabs and other larval fish
4. Sea level rise
Virginia has three basic types of ‘beaches’:
• Open ocean beach
• Barrier island coast
• Chesapeake bay beaches
• Longshore drift
sand movement by swash and backwash

• Caused by wind driving the waves hitting the beach at an angle, it moves material up the coast and then drags the material back
• Hard Stabilization
rigid, permanent structures that try to keep the shoreline at a fixed location. Hard stabilization includes seawalls and bulkheads, riprap, groins, and jetties
o Problems:
 Seawalls and buildkheads are vertical wall built to separate land and sea, but they do not absorb wave energy
 Instead, the energy is reflected onto the beach and back offshore
 Increased energy in the beach and surf zone causes removal of sand from the shore
Our Laws of Thermodynamics:
1st law- conservation of energy
o Changes form or transfers between bodies, but it is not lost
o The energy input equals the energy output
• 2nd law- disorder increases
o Some energy degrades into unusable forms
o “you can’t break even”
Boundaries of Ecosystems:
• Edge:
: place where two communities meet
• Ecotone
transition between two structurally different communities (diversity of species is highest here)
• Net Ecosystem Production (NEP)
o How much carbon there is in the system
o Grasses return first
Wetlands Systems:
edge systems.

o Where aqueous systems meet terrestrial systems
How old is the bay
10,000 yrs.

• Glacial retreat
• Distribution and stability of Bay environments depends on three physical characteristics of the Bay
• Temperature
o most organisms in the Bay are cold blooded and controls how water moves
o affects the rates of chemical and biochemical reactions
o thermal structure of the Bay also effects density and water flow
 spring and summer surface warming results in thermocline
 in fall, surface cooling results in water column turnover
• Salinity
o Measurement of dissolved salts in the water
o Ocean is roughly 35 parts per thousand
o Farther up in the bay the less it is
o Surface isohalines reveal a marked SW-NE tilt
 Most fresh water is coming from the western side and northern side
 The salinity is less on the western side
 Lines of equal salinity are tilted
 Coriolis Effect which brings salty water in along the Eastern shore
• Water is deflected right in the Northern Hemisphere
o Vertically, fresher water tends to float on the more saline water
o Tends to form a halocline at mid-depth
• Circulation
o Together, temperature and salinity dictate the density which is in turn responsible for circulation (thermohaline circulation)
• Floodplains
last place for significant sediment to be stored before reaching the Bay (up to 90%)
Ecological importance of estuaries: STUDY
• Trap and filter sediments
• Detoxify
• Groundwater recharge
• Sediment accumulation (form new land)
• Breeding, nesting, and staging areas
• Nurseries for economically important fish, crustaceans, and mollusks
• SAV’s
o Prescribed burning
been used to restore marshes, bogs, and other habitats
o Drainage ditches
dug through GDC to dry out the swamp, but this led to greater fires and peat ignition. Restoration of the natural hydrology (avg water depth 8-12”) allows more plant diversity and better trees
climate
o Average weather and its fluctuations for a given region
• What causes climate change?
o Change in solar output
o Change in absorption by the upper atmosphere
o Change in net out-going energy
o Change in the amount of heat held by the oceans
 Continents tend to reflect most solar energy
• Earth’s atmosphere , purpose
main control on climate, but it does much more: Sustains life, filters out harmful radiation, seals in most moisture, protects from constant showers of small meteors
The Gaia Hypothesis:
• Interactions between the hydrosphere and the biosphere have fundamentally changed the relative abundance of atmospheric gases
• Water vaporhydrologic cycles
• CO2oceans
• CO2plants, which give off oxygen
• Increase in acidity of precipitation
o Comes from mixing with emissions that then makes the rain more acidic
o Virginia is downwind of the Midwest (Ohio River Valley, the rust belt) but some is generated in VA but VA is using “scrubbers” and low-sulfer coal mixed with limestone
o Particles provide surfaces for chemical reactions
o “hydroscopic”- the particles are attracted to the water
o Leads to acid rain
o Acid rain is natural but it also is caused by humans: CO2, SO2 (volcanoes and fossil fuels, especially coal), and NOx (lightening and fossil fuels)(nitrogen oxide, nitrous oxide, etc.)
ozone in stratosphere w/ global warming
depletion
ozone in troposphere w/ global warming
increase
Ozone (O3):

3 environmental impacts
• In the stratosphere, ozone protects us from UV radiation
o Until there was enough built up in the stratosphere, the earth was not suited to life
o It is good thing here
• In the troposphere, ozone is a photochemical oxidant (smog)
• It is also a greenhouse gas in the troposphere, leading to rising temperatures
• Ozone degradation in the stratosphere
o NO + O3NO2+O2
o Ozone production comes from...
NOx pollutants
• Ozone formation
o Major sources
 Combustion of fossil fuels
 Industry
 Vegetation
o VOCs can cause ozone to increase in the stratosphere
voc's
volatile emitted compounds, bad for enviro
 “5-S” Framework provides a methodology for developing effective, science-based, conservation strategies
 Systems
 Stresses
• All systems have their own unique stresses
 Sources
 Strategies
 Success measures
• What is urban sprawl?
o Inefficient use of land
o Scattered development
o Disruption of natural systems of resources
Perpetual resources
 Direct solar energy
 Winds, tides, flowing water
o Renewable resources
 Fresh air, fresh water, fertile soil, plants and animals (biodiversity)
o Non-renewable resources
 Fossil fuels
 Metallic minerals (iron, copper aluminum)
 Non-metallic minerals (clay, sand)
o Strip or ribbon development
 A thoroughfare (road) and follow those comer corridors with our development
 E.g. 29 North
o Leap frog
 People don’t want to live in the urban area so they move out farther leaving a greenbelt in between and go out to satellite villages/towns
o Scattered growth urban sprawl
 No systematic pattern
 No real relationship between adjacent uses
 Very inefficient
• What causes urban sprawl?
o Economic development (e.g. cheaper land for developers)
o Developer influence (money influences decisions)
o Political willpower (or lack thereof)
o Decentralization of cities
• What are the impacts of sprawl?
o Economic- higher taxes, decline of downtown business districts, increased unemployment in central city, loss of tax base in central city
o Land and biodiversity- loss of cropland, loss of forests and grasslands, loss of wetlands, loss and fragmentation of wildlife habitats, increased wildlife road kill, increased soil erosion
o Human health- contaminated drinking water and air, noise pollution, sky illumination at night, traffic congestion
o Energy, air, and climate- increased energy use and waster,
o Water- increased runoff, etc.
• Airshed
a source region for material being deposited at a specific place
watershed
the land area that contributes water to a stream
• Acid Deposition Effects (visibility, materials)
o Reduces visibility
o Can dissolve monuments (acid + limestonesmaller statue)
o Stream response to acidic deposition
vulnerability of surface waters to acidification is mainly determined by properties of watershed soils (and the underlying geology from which they were derived) that affect the balance between acids and bases
o Acid Neutralizing Capacity (ANC)
 Water can neutralize some amount of acid (unless it is distilled)
 It won’t drive the pH down until the buffer is passed
 Acid Neutralizing Capacity= Sum of Base Cations – Sum of Acid Anions (ANC= SBC- SAA)
• Response of Fish to Acidified Waters (lethal and sub-lethal)
o Hydrogen ions retard fish development during the egg stage
o Most fish species don’t have a problem with the H+
o They have problems with the aluminum solution which retards the ion exchange across the gill surface which kills them
o Siliceous Rocks
 Basically sandstone, low in minerals
 Hard to buffer acid rain
o Mafic rocks
 Volcanic
 More buffering
Felsic rocks
intermediate protection
o Native species
a species that occurred in NA prior to European settlement
o Alien (exotic) species
- a species bought to NA from elsewhere (e.g., Europe, Asia)
• Plants try to compete each other through “chemical warfare”:
they excrete chemicals into the soil that other species cannot tolerate
• Virginia’s Most Unwanted invasive species
o Lythrum salicaria- purple loosestrife
o Pueraria lobata- Kudzu
 Introduced by the USDA to help stabilize the soil around highway projects
 Doesn’t have an intensive root system and just grows on top of the ground
 Failed as a cattle feed as well
o Hydrilla verticillata- hydrilla
dagwood story
o Cornus florida (flowering dogwood is state tree and flower) and cornus kousa (Kousa Dogwood)
o Kousa dogwood had a fungus it was adapted to but it jumped to the other dogwood and it began to get sick
biophilia hypothesis
recognizes that our need for nature goes beyond our immediate survival; it is a biologically based need essential to our spiritual and intellectual development
 Utilitarian (what can bugs do for us)
• Biocontrol of pests and weeds
• Nutrient circulation and soil quality
• Waste decomposition
o Dung beetles and dung flies
• Pollination and seed dispersal
o Bees, moths, and other insects all pollinate
o Most have hairy bodies
• Human food (not so common in our part of the world)
• Industrial and medicinal products
o Blister (oil) beetle reverse bleeds out a caustic chemical that causes blisters
• Bioindicators
o Presence or absence of certain insects, especially in water environments, can indicate the nature of the environment
Rivanna Watershed
• One of the finest freshwater systems and piedmont hardwood forests (at least 10,000 acres) remaining in the SE
(Rivanna River)
o Threats:
excessive sedimentation, excessive water withdrawals

drains to james river
(riparian buffers)
o Put forests on the sides of the river to help trap sediment and settling it before it hits the waterbed
conservation easement
agreement that stops development on land
• Strategy: Stream Restoration
o Restore badly degraded stream beds due to excessive sedimentation
• Strategy: Replicate Forest Function
o Try to replicate the function of the forest

o Roofs and gutters are a big problem because they get the water away as fast as possible
• Curitiba, Brazil has been called an “internationally acclaimed model of urban planning and sustainability….”
o The city’s 1969 decision to focus on mass transportation systems to reduce car use (led to the world’s best bus systems)
o The mandate stating that , near bus routes, only high-rise apartment buildings are allowed, with two bottom floors devoted to stores (which limits people’s needs to travel as often)
o The addition of bike paths throughout the majority of the city
o A very high level of recycling in the city (recycles are collected three times a week from homes, where it is pre-sorted into papers, metals, glasses, and plastics)
o The use of old busses as travelling classrooms (to train poor people with basic job skills so that they will be able to find work), health clinics, soup kitchens, and day-care centers
o The addition of free medical, dental, and child care to the poor people, and 40 feeding centers for homeless children
o The supply of electricity, drinking water, and trash collection to homes
-education
• Urban areas can grow in two ways:
1. By natural increase – more births than deaths
2. By immigration – mainly people moving from rural areas
• There are five major trends that are important in understanding the problems and challenges with urban growth:
1. The proportion of the global population living in urban areas is increasing
2. The number of large urban areas in mushrooming
3. The urban population in increasing rapidly in developing countries
4. Urban growth is much lower in developed countries than in developing countries
5. Poverty is becoming increasingly urbanized as more poor people migrate from rural to urban areas, mostly in developing countries
• There are six major factors which cause urban sprawl in the United States:
1. Ample land was available for most cities to spread outward
2. Federal government loan guarantees for new single-family homes for World War II veterans stimulated the development of suburbs
3. Low-cost gasoline and federal and state funding of highways encouraged automobile use and the development of once-inaccessible outlying tracts of land that were affordable for many Americans
4. Tax laws encouraged home ownership by allowing deduction of interest on home loans (but not on rent) from income taxes
5. Most state and local zoning laws required large residential lots and separation of residential and commercial use of land in new communities
6. Most urban areas consist of numerous political jurisdictions, which rarely work together to develop an overall plan for managing and controlling urban growth and sprawl
• urbanization costs:
o Unsustainable systems
o Urban areas have large ecological footprints
o Lack of plants
o Water problems – as cities grow and water demands increase, expensive reservoirs and canals must be built and deeper wells must be drilled
o Pollution and health problems
full-cost pricing
levying a tax on gasoline to cover the estimated harmful costs of driving
cluster development
which high-density, housing units are concentrated on one portion of a parcel, with the rest of the land (often 30-50%) used for commonly shared open space
new suburbanism
• A similar pattern is also being used in suburbs and exurbs, in what is called new suburbanism, consisting of villages and small towns that are neither city nor sprawl
The Ecocity Concept
• An ecocity allows people to walk, bike, or take mass transit for most of their travel, and it recycles and reuses most of its wastes, grows much of its own food, and protects biodiversity by preserving surrounding land