GE100 Test Review 11/1/10

Need to know

Externalities: In a perfect market the price of a good or service will reflect all
possible costs like pollution. In the real market prices are often too low
because they don't take into account externalities.

Niche: role or function that an organism plays in an ecosystem

Range: geographic location on planet
Habitat: Desert, Forest, etc

Are predators a population dependent

largest biomass of herbivores: Tundra, because permafrost melt and creates

a productive ecosystem for birds and insects.

Deciduous Forest vs Temperate Forest (Lose leaves vs climate)

7) Thermocline is the reason for high net-primary production

Net primary production is the total photosynthesis production minus total

respiration expenditure.

Market-based incentives vs command and control

C&C = law passed that mandates a change in policy (efficiency
standards, etc)
Market-based: A tax or tradable permits that will encourage change

Tradable permit vs Cap and Trade

Tradable permit: is a right to pollute, aspect of cap and trade
Cap and Trade: Govt sets total limit, issue tradable permits that allow
companies to trade.

Substitution: (resource optimists) when a resource like copper becomes too

expensive, we substitute a new resource like fiber optics to take its place.

Crude Birth/Death rate: births/deaths per 1000 people

Ex: net increase = 11/1000 which = 1.1%

Energy use per unit output is determined by what TECHNOLOGY you use to
create the energy. BTU/miles traveled or BTU/ton of steel, etc

What latitude are trees most likely to drop leaves? 60 degrees.

Most deserts are at 30 degrees.
Does tech usually help or hurt the environment? A: Varies case by case

Know what type of histogram graphs are associated with different types of
countries.

Wealth comes from stocks, income comes from the flow of stock
With environmental examples like oil and gas mining, the fact that
they are selling a product that is disappearing is not reflected in their
wealth.

Efficiency standards are the most expensive way to alter policy (command
and control) because when politicians pass laws, they don't think of the most
cost-effective solutions that can be utilized.
Command and Control are generally the fastest

Invasive species have no or few checks on their reproductive success rates

Both predation levels and disease rates

Upwelling stuff will be on test, not estuaries or coral reefs

Best First explanation in the 1930s.. ore grade jumped sharply because in
the depression only the high-grade copper mines could stay open.

Edge-Effect: produced by the product of habitat fragmentation. When you

split up big chunks of habitat you increase low-grade conditions along the
edge. Less areas to hide, differences in micro-climate, animals less likely to
cross open fields to search for food, mates. Decreases pop.

Feedback loop diagrams: climate feedback diagram will be on the test.

Study the loops in climate change chapter.
Key to understanding diagrams: + and - = positive and negative
relationship = positive and negative slopes
Assume the system is in equilibrium, then one variable changes
it and the effect is either positive or negative.

Radiative Forcing: refers to the ability of a species of gas in the atmosphere

to absorb thermal energy released by the earth over a given area of the
earth.
Each different type of element has a different absorption rate

CFCs absorb long-wave radiation much more than CO2.

Higher albedo = more reflective

Endemic species = a species that is found in one place and nowhere else.
Ant species that is unique but lives on one specific tree in tropics