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Discover how nature provides essential services like oxygen, water purification, food production, and more. Learn about environmental indicators and the impacts of human activities on ecosystems. Explore global scale indicators like biological diversity, food production, and human population, and understand the importance of healthy ecosystems for sustainability. Dive into topics like species diversity, habitat destruction, climate change, and the effects of resource depletion on our planet.
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Bell Work • What services and products does nature provide for us? • Oxygen production • Water purification • Food production • Pollination • Fuel production • Soil formation • Flood regulation • Climate regulation. • Define what you think an Environmental indicator is.
Environmental Indicators and Sustainability • What Environmental Scientists Investigate: • Is the planets natural life-support system being degraded by human induced changes? Ecosystem Services – processes by which life supporting resources such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops are produced Do we take a healthy Ecosystem for granted? When? We only notice a degraded ecosystem when it no longer produces the goods and services we need. Goal? Be able to measure the health of an Ecosystem prior to degradation.
Environmental Indicators • Describe the current state of an environmental system. • Five Global Scale Environmental Indicators: • Biological Diversity • Food Production • Average Global Surface temperatures and Carbon Dioxide concentrations in Atmosphere • Human Population • Resource Depletion
Group activity • You will be assigned one of the five key global indicators. • You will use the web or textbook to find data that support the recent trend in each indicator. • Example. Biological diversity = large number of extinctions can be supported by the estimate of more than 1000 species going extinct each year.
Biological Diversity Diversity of life forms in an environment. Genetic Diversity – measure of genetic variation among individuals in a population. Why is Genetic Diversity important? Populations are better able to respond to environmental change
Species Diversity • Species – group of organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring • 2 million cataloged; estimate 5-100 million exist (common estimate 10million) • Species diversity – number of species in a region or in a particular type of habitat
Species Diversity cont… • Ecosystems with higher species diversity are: • More productive and resilient and better able to recover from disturbance
Species diversity cont… • Environmental Scientists often focus on species diversity as a critical environmental indicator. • Example: number of frog species • Indicator of environmental health bc frogs are exposed to both water and air in their ecosystem Can species go extinct naturally?
Species Diversity cont… • Background Extinction – • The average rate at which species become extinct over the long term Under conditions of environmental change/ biological stress…. Estimate about 1000 species are going extinct a year. 500 times the background rate of extinction
What are common causes of species extinction? • Habitat destruction/ degradation • Climate change • overharvesting, • Pressure from introduced species Which do you think is major cause?
Ecosystem Diversity Measure of the diversity of ecosystems or habitats that exist in a given region Healthy and Productive Ecosystems = Health Environment Measures of Biodiversity are given in terms of “Land Area”
Converting Between Hectares and Acres • Land area is expressed in hectares • 1 Hectare (ha) is 100 meters x 100 meters. • United States land area is usually expressed in acres • 1 ha = 2.47 acres Problem: 1) If a nature preserve is 100ha, what is it size in acres? 2) A particular forest is 10,000 acres. Determine its size in hectares
Food Production • Ability to grow food to support human population • Wheat, corn, rice provide more than half the calories and protein humans consume • Human population is straining ability to grow and distribute adequate food.
Food production cont… • What factors influence the amount of grain produced in the world? • 1. climatic conditions • 2. quality land/ soil/ irrigation • 3. human labor/ energy to plant, harvest, and bring grain to market
Food Production cont… • Because production is not keeping up with population growth we have other issues: • 1. soil degradation • 2. crop diseases • 3. unfavorable weather (drought/ floods) • 4. demand out paces supply.
Average Global Surface Temperatures and Carbon Dioxide Concentrations • Stable climate is needed for biodiversity and food production for human life. • Atmosphere keeps temps constant • Greenhouse gases – gases in earth’s atmosphere that trap heat near the surface • Most important CO2
Average Global Surface Temperatures and Carbon Dioxide Concentrations • CO2 is greater than 400 parts per million (ppm) • This situation is what is considered Anthropogenic: • What is Anthropogenic? • Human activities duh!
Human Population • Another factor to indicate health of our global environment • Current population 7.2Billion • 387,000 infants are born in 24 hours while 155,000 people die • How many additional people every 5 days?
Resource Depletion • As population continues to increase demands for natural resources increases • Affects our environment in many ways: land degradation from mining, waste, air pollution Renewable and Non- renewable resources
Resource Depletion cont… • Development – improvement in human well-being through economic advancement. • Only 20% of worlds population lives in developed countries • Black = developed • Red = non developed • Automobiles • 87%/13% • Meat and fish • 45%/55% • Energy • 58%/42% • Paper • 84%/16%
Human well-being depends on sustainable practice • Five Key Environmental indicators help analyze the health of the plane. • This guides us toward Sustainability Sustainability? Living on Earth in a way that allows humans to use its resources without depriving future generations of those resources.
Impact of Consumption on the Environment • Developed nations consume far greater share of the world’s resources • Large populations degrade environment • How can we continue our current level of resource consumption without jeopardizing the well being of future generations?
Easter Island • Read Easter Island Scenario
Impact of Consumption on the Environment • What most environmental scientists believe: • 1. limits to supply of clean air and water • 2. limit nutritious foods • 3. no longer able to maintain a stable climate
Impact of Consumption on the Environment • To live Sustainably: • Requirements: • Environmental systems must not be damaged beyond their ability to recover • Renewable resources must not be depleted • Nonrenewable resources must be used sparingly. • Sustainable Development: balances current human wellbeing and economic advancement with resource management for the benefit of future generations. Living Sustainably means acting in a way such that activities that are crucial to human society can continue. Ex. Not eating chicken six times a week.
Defining Human Needs • Wants vs. Needs • Essentials that sustain human life are needs: air, water, food, shelter And…. Biophilia? Love of Life • Biophilia – connections that humans subconsciously seek with the rest of life • Natural areas, for beauty, and for social connections are considered as vital to our well being and long-term goal of sustainability.
Ecological Footprint • Ecological Footprint is a measure of how much an individual consumes, expressed in area of land. • Method used to assess whether we are living sustainably is to measure the impact of a person or country on world resources.