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• Limiting factor

  Anything that hinders the growth, abundance or distribution of an organism in an ecosystem
• Density dependent limiting factors

  • Availability of food
  • Parasitism
  • Predation
• Density independent limiting factors

  • Natural disasters
• Predation

  Predators stabilize the population by consuming vulnerable prey, leaving more food for healthy prey
• Effect of light intensity on rate of photosynthesis

  1. Substrate binding

  2. Transition state facilitation

  3. Catalysis

  4. Release
• Human activities that impact ecological succession

  • Logging or clearing land to cultivate, which destroys habitats and reduces species diversity
  • Excessive fishing or livestock grazing, which changes the biological community
• Species diversity

  The number and relative abundance of species found in a community
• Energy transfer in an ecosystem

  1. Photosynthesis by autotrophs produces energy

  2. Autotrophs are consumed by herbivores

  3. Herbivores are consumed by carnivores

  4. Energy is lost as heat at each trophic level
• Ecosystem stability

  The capability of the ecosystem to return to a steady state after environmental disturbances
• Demographic transition

  The transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as a country develops
• Negative environmental impacts of pollution

  • Affects biodiversity and water quality
• Negative environmental impacts of exotic species

  • Can become competitors or parasites to native species
• Measures to mitigate impact of exotic species

  • Education and sensitization programs to reduce populations
• Natural resources

  Materials created in nature that are useful to humans
• Tools used for natural resource management and conservation in Forest Hills

  • Sustainable agriculture practices
  • Reforestation and fire trace maintenance
  • Education workshops
• Education workshops on natural resource management

  Improves appreciation and conservation of natural resources
• The environmental hazards in Forest Hills were greatly reduced, with forest fires completely eliminated and concerns about landslides and drought decreasing
• Major categories of natural resources in the Caribbean

  • Biodiversity
  • Ecosystems
  • Water
  • Minerals and hydrocarbons
  • Soil
  • Landscape and seascape
• Examples of natural resources in the Caribbean

  • Terrestrial ecosystems like forests
  • Aquatic ecosystems like coral reefs
  • Waterfalls
  • Rivers
  • Bauxite
  • Gold
• Renewable resource

  A resource that can be replenished at a faster rate than it is consumed
• Inexhaustible resource

  A resource that will never be exhausted
• Solar energy is both a renewable and inexhaustible resource
• Importance of gold as a natural resource in Guyana

  • Provides employment and income
  • Generates foreign exchange
• Negative environmental impacts of gold production

  • Mine tailings contaminate water and soil with toxic heavy metals
  • Contaminants can bioaccumulate in the food chain