environmental change and management

• What is the anthropocene?

  The new age of mankind due to the impacts of humanity on the planet
• What is an epoch?


  A unit in the geological timescale that existed from the beginning of the earth
• What are sources (provisioning services)?

  Natural products that can be converted by humans for use
• What are sinks (regulating services)?

  Processes in the natural environment that absorb our waste
• What are services?

  Things done for us by the natural environment that don't produce consumable resources
• What are cultural services/spirituality?

  Deep connection to the land or natural environment and a sense of wellbeing
• Hydrosphere

  All the water on earth
• Lithosphere

  Rocks, soils, and crust
• Atmosphere

  Layer of gases surrounding the earth, determines weather and climate
• Biosphere

  All living things
• Geographical processes in the lithosphere

  Erosion, weathering, nitrogen and phosphorus cycle, tectonic processes
• Geographical processes in the hydrosphere

  Precipitation, infiltration, run-off, evaporation, transpiration, condensation, transportation deposition
• Geographical processes in the atmosphere

  Absorption (light), reflection (light), scattering (light), aeolian (winds), transportation, deposition
• Geographical processes in the biosphere

  Oxygen cycle, food chains, photosynthesis, evolution, extinction, migration
• Processes related to the lithosphere involve the movement of tectonic plates and the weathering and erosion of rocks and cycles within the soil
• The Earth's crust is divided into tectonic plates that float on top of the semi-molten rock of the mantle
• The lithosphere is more brittle than the asthenosphere
• The asthenosphere controls the movement of tectonic plates through temperature and mantle convection
• Three types of tectonic plate boundaries:

  
  

  Transform: movement against each other, often resulting in earthquakes

  Divergent: collision into each other, often resulting in mountain ranges

  Convergent: movement away from each other, often resulting in valleys and trenches
• Geographical processes are processes which work in our biophysical environment to transform our world.
• Monoculture: the cultivation of a single crop in a given area
• Overgrazing: excessive grazing which causes damage to grassland
• Pesticides: substances used for destroying insects or other organisms harmful to cultivated plants or to animals
• Sinkholes: cavities in the ground, especially in limestone formation, caused by water erosion and providing a route for surface water to disappear underground
• • Tailing dams: earth-fill embankment dams used to store byproducts of mining operations
• Salinisation: the process by which a non-saline soil becomes saline, as by the irrigation of land
• Soil waterlogging: when there is too much water in a plant’s root zone, which decreases the oxygen available to roots
• Compaction of soil: when soil particles are pressed together, reducing pore space between them
• Exotic species: a plant species or an animal species that is non-native
• The greenhouse effect is the name given to the natural process that causes the Earth to be warmer than it would be in the absence of an atmosphere.
• A greenhouse gas is anything that absorbs heat in the atmosphere. The Ozone Layer is not a greenhouse gas.
• Egocentric – people who see themselves and their needs as the most important factor to consider
• Anthropocentric – these people acknowledge that humans have a variety of needs and wants that often must be placed above the desire to protect environments
• Stewardship – worldview recognises that although humans need to make use of environments for survival and development, they have a responsibility to care for the Earth to ensure that future generations will have access to environments of similar quality
• Biocentric – worldview recognises the significant role that the Earth and its environments play in sustaining life, including human life. It strives to minimise the impact of human activities on environments and species
• Ecocentric – a worldview that places the preservation of environments above all other needs and wants