<p>Love Canal/ Superfund: basically, sewafe is buried underground of an elementary school. and later is foudn out that this has a fatal consequence on the people there…they have higher risk of health problems…etc; even now the toxic waste that was leaked is still having bad effect on people (e.g birth defect, deform…etc)
this leads to Superfund saying that whoever creates the waste has to pay for it…</p>
<p>Kyoto Protocol limits the use of Co2 and other substance such as SO2 to slow down global warming…</p>
<p>before i go to sleep, let me give out some questions for you to answer (:</p>
<p>1)What’s synergy?
2)What’s cogeneration?
3)Describe the Nitrogen Cycle
4)describe Limiting Factor principle
5)What are the purposes of forest fires?
6) Give some ways of soil conservation</p>
<p>since i’ll b away for a while…pls answer these questions first (: thanks!!</p>
<p>asc3nd - Aquatic environments, not ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems would be simply marine and freshwater, which are broken down into…</p>
<p>Marine: a whole mess of stuff, depending on which book/thing you go by, including estuarine, pelagic, intertidal, neretic, benthic, abyssal, bathyal, etc, etc… (sorry for the typo earlier on estuarine). Zones are apparently somewhat interchangeable with ecosystems, which makes marine a mess. It depends on whether you go by distance from shore, light received, or depth. >.></p>
<p>Freshwater: lentic and lotic.</p>
<p>Kyoto Protocol - an international voluntary treaty to reduce the emissions of criteria gases - six GHGs, one of them being CO2, by various amounts according to which type of country they are.</p>
<p>humus is in the o horizon. O for organic matter.</p>
<p>Answer to difference between global warming and greenhouse (found this online):
These terms are often used to describe the same problem, but actually relate to cause and effect, or problem and consequence. The greenhouse effect is the cause and global warming and climate change are the consequences. </p>
<p>The greenhouse effect causes an accumulation of heat (or energy) in the Earth’s atmosphere. The global climate must then adjust to deal with that extra accumulation of energy, and these adjustments result in global warming and climate changes. </p>
<p>Global warming results from an increase in the temperature of the Earth’s lower atmosphere. Climate changes result from alterations to regional climatic events such as rainfall patterns, evaporation and cloud formation.</p>
<p>1) Synergy is when two or more drugs or chemicals act together and produce an effect greater than that of the separate effects of the agents combined.</p>
<p>2)Cogeneration is when heat and electricity are produced by a power plant at the same time.</p>
<p>3)Nitrogen cycle:
First, nitrifying bacteria convert the nitrogen found in the atmosphere to ammonia, which can be used by the plants.
Second, plants use ammonia in building proteins and nucleic acids in a process known as assimilation.
Then plants die. Bacteria and fungi decompose dead organic matter. Ammonification takes place where ammonium and ammonia are converted to nitrates or nitrites.
Finally, denitrifying bacteria strip the nitrates and nitrites of oxygen and return the Nitrogen to atmosphere.</p>
<p>1)What’s synergy?
2)What’s cogeneration?
3)Describe the Nitrogen Cycle
4)describe Limiting Factor principle
5)What are the purposes of forest fires?
6) Give some ways of soil conservation</p>
<p>Dear gods. Um…</p>
<p>1) Synergy is the positive feedback loop of ecology and other such things - when two activities promote each other to have a stronger effect.</p>
<p>2) Cogeneration is the use of the heat from production (be it electricity or materials) to provide services - for example, when an electrical plant generates heat and electricity through burning, or when a metals purification plant melts raw material. The resultant heat can be used to heat buildings, or funneled to a boiler and turbine to provide more electricity.</p>
<p>3) Oh boy. This is loooong.</p>
<p>i. Nitrogen fixation - Nitrogen in the atmosphere is fixed into the ground by bacteria (often in legumes). N2 + 3H2 => 2NH3; nitrogen mixed with hydrogen yields ammonia.</p>
<p>ii. Nitrification - Ammonia and ammonium in soil is converted by other bacteria to nitrite (NO2-), then nitrate (NO3-).</p>
<p>iii. Assimilation/denitrification - Nitrate is either bacterially disassembled to N2 and CO2 (I think?) by bacteria or is absorbed by plants.</p>
<p>iv. Ammonification - After decomposition, bacteria and fungi convert residues to NH3/NH4+.</p>
<p>Fertilizers enter this process through people adding ammonia and nitrates.</p>
<p>4) I haven’t heard this particular term used as a principle before, but here’s my guess… </p>
<p>Limiting factor principle - that a population may be limited to their carrying capacity by the lack of abundance of resource necessary to expand, or through a corresponding population of predators able to cap the population.</p>
<p>5) Reduction of duff and other detrius so as to prevent the ladder effect and thus, crown fires; aid in succession and thus, biodiversity; creates edges, improving biodiversity; improves soil quality by increasing humus and organic matter.</p>
<p>6) Agroforestry, planting practices (such as terracing, contour planting, alley cropping), creating windbreaks, filling gullies.</p>
<p>Whew.</p>
<p>ok i never understood the differences between the different methods of farming that you can use to be environmentally friendly… like conventional till and alley cropping</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Humus is also present, usually 1-10 percent, in the A horizon. At Envirothon, I was taught that it was predominantly in the O horizon, but several references give it as A horizon (Hippocampus online, Kaplan’s review book). I’m assuming they say that because O horizon’s organic material may not be decomposed enough, as humus is alternately defined as either the residue of decomposition or decomposing matter…Or because O horizons are absent in certain areas.</p>
<p>Like I said, soils is an imprecise subject.</p>
<p>Simple answer to the global warming/greenhouse thing is just that greenhouse effect is the cause, global warming is the effect, like you said, but if that was a free response, I’d expect that you’d have to define them.</p>
<p>However, to define greenhouse effect, one has to stray from what it does and answer how it does it - through radiative forcing, where energy is trapped as heat in the atmosphere instead of bouncing out as infrared light (and NOT how a real greenhouse functions).</p>
<p>omg! u did envirothon?? me2!! yay… ok sorry. we just had states in Delaware like last week. yeah, envirothon is all about o horizon and humus. but i generally focused on forestry.</p>
<p>Edit: ok that was probably an off topic post, so here are some AP environmental science questions.</p>
<p>1) List and explain some methods of farming that are environmentally friendly.
2) Explain environmental impacts to aquatic ecosystem and surrounding areas if a hydroeletric dams are implemented.
3) List one famous hydroelectric dam.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Conventional till is what you DON’T want to do. It’s just breaking up the land, then smoothing it over, leaving the soil all loose and prone to eroding away. Oh, and it buries O and A layers, so your soils end up all fouled up, since your B layer is closer to the surface, and requires more fertilizer.</p>
<p>Conservation tillage uses special tillers to loosen subsurface soil - the B horizon, so that the roots can penetrate - without drastically disturbing the A and O (if present; agriculture often precludes an O horizon).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yep, I’m an Envirothon kid, VA. Soils is my focus, but I’m picking up current issues and tree ID for conifers, oaks, and compound-leaved trees, too… Ashes and walnuts are confounding the HECK out of me. Our state competition is next weekend, and we’re going to get our butts kicked by the Fort Defiance team. =( Bet they get overall championship again this year, anyway, like they did in 2006. We barely won over them last year, anyway, so it’s no surprise.</p>
<p>Oh, well. Nationals last year was a blast, and since I’ve already gotten $1,400 from them, I’m happy enough anyway. :D</p>
<p>EDIT: NO, I WASN’T IN IT FOR THE MONEY.</p>
<p>…I was in it for the trip to New York! XD</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>1) Well, I already defined conservation tillage, but here are a few more.</p>
<p>Agroforestry, AKA alley cropping, is planting shrubs and whatnot in lines with crops to provide shade (reduce loss of water) and root framework that prevents soil erosion.</p>
<p>Contour planting plants in line with the contours of a hill so that the crops provide an obstacle to flowing water from rain.</p>
<p>Strip cropping is like alley cropping, but with different crops rather than with trees and shrubs.</p>
<p>2) Dams change a riverine system to a lacustine system, which changes the ecosystem from a lentic to a lotic one. DO content of the water drops, and sediment builds up behind the dam where free-flowing water had once carried it away. Thermal stratification occurs, and since a dam’s turbine draws water from the bottom of the dam, may lead to an abnormal stratification where warmer water lies at the bottom of the reservoir. Water released is often warmer and low in DO, affecting downstream DO. All of this makes drastic changes in aquatic life populations.</p>
<p>Flooding of the area submerges floodplains, footslopes, and possibly other areas, and shifts a riparian habitat’s location and make-up. Downstream, less sediment deposition and lower DO/flow results in less arable land and less water to use.</p>
<p>BLAHBLAHBLAH I could go on because the NY training lecture went on and on about the dam at Niagara, but anyone reading this is bored already, and probably way too much information.</p>
<p>3) Hoover. Three Gorges. Aswan. There, I named three! XD</p>
<p>Hmph. I join and the thread dies.</p>
<p>Q: What is urban sprawl, and what are some of its detrimental effects on the environment?</p>
<p>The urban sprawl is when a ton of people moved from cities into suburbs, or rural areas because of the amount of pollution in cities. Thus the urban sprawl lowered population density. However, its detrimental effects is that there’s road (or bridge or freeway) congestion, consumes open space, and leads to decay in central cicties.</p>
<p>Q: Explain the Endangered Species Act (ESA)</p>
<p>guys, anyone want to get an aim study chat going tonight??</p>
<p>The ESA, enforced by the US Fish and Wildlife Service…</p>
<ul>
<li>lets the agency determine if a species should be listed as endangered or threatened</li>
<li>prohibits the unauthorized “taking”, sale, transportation, and possession of listed species</li>
<li>lets the government acquire land using conservation funds to protect the species’ habitats</li>
<li>allows the designation of critical habitats of listed species</li>
<li>something about a recovery plan, but I forgot</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m probably missing stuff, but I hope I’m not too far off.</p>
<p>Q: What was primarily responsible for the thinning of the ozone layer, where was the greatest impact (and why was it greatest there), and what was enacted to counteract it?</p>
<p>CFC’s, or chlorofluorocarbons, are the major culprit in thinning of the ozone layer. The greatest impact was over Antarctica and southern Australia. The Montreal Protocol [1987] was enacted to prevent further release of CFC’s into the atmosphere. </p>
<p>Next Question: What is the cleanest type of fossil fuel? [very easy question]</p>
<p>no idea lol</p>
<p>natural gas duh!</p>