HASS geography

• habitat


  area of environment in which an organism LIVES
• atmosphere 


  mixture of gases that surround the earth
• lithosphere


  mixture of rocks that makes up the earths mass
• hydrosphere


  the water on the earths surface in any form (vape, liquid or solid)
• biosphere


  regions of the earth where living things exist
• degradation 


  the reduction of quality and health of a natural environment due to natural processes and human activity
• climate


  long term weather trends in the weather conditions of a place
• ecosystem


  a community of living and non living components within an environment
• biodiversity


  the variety of species on earth
• how are land environments classified

  climate, elevation, vegetation, typography and soil types
• land environment


  the physical land covering the earths surface ; vegetations, water ice and soil
• what factors cause distribution of environment

  latitude, how far or close the coastline is, elevation, landforms
• two examples of land environments

  tropical rainforest & tundra
• environmental worldview


  an opinion, belief, idea or thinking about the value of the environment
• what determines a persons worldview:

  PME (personal experiences, media & education)
• how can our environmental worldview affect our responses to environmental issues

  it can reflect our behaviour towards environmental issues e.g local regional and national scale
• 2 ways environment can change

  natural disturbances (natural disasters) and human induced (extensive agricultural practices)
• climate change


  refers to the changes in the pattern of weather over larger scales
• is climate change natural or human induced


  can be both naturally or human induced
• greenhouse effect


  an effect by which there is an increase of amount in carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere, which is believed to be the cause of gradual global warming of the earths surafce
• 3 most common types of greenhouse gases

  carbon dioxide (burning fossil fuels), methane (production + transportation of coal and agricultural practices), nitrous oxide (agricultural and industrial practices)
• how is greenhouse effect different to enhanced greenhouse effect

  green house effect is naturally processed by the earth and nature itself, whilst enhanced is caused by humans (anthropogenic)
• 6 factors that influence environmental change

  social, historical, economic environmental, political, technological
• sustainability


  the practice of using natural resources responsibly so its available for future generations
• 4 different approaches that assess + manage environmental change

  preventing change, monitor and assess, reversing previous changes, artificial solutions
• preventing change


  manages threats like pests, and attempts to prevent introduction of new threats
• monitor and assessment


  doesn't directly influence changes to the environment, but rather essential part of guiding management practices through technology (GIS)
• Reversing previous changes


  reversing previous management, policies and practices (technology and opinions of local residents)
• artificial solutions


  often used to enable a natural process to continue within a changed environment. Which allows a compromise for ecosystems that still function within a human environment
• how did aboriginal environmental management can assist with modren techniques

  they introduced traditional burning techniques, fish traps, and hunting practices -> controlled burning gets vegetation to evolve and adopt to fire, generating and increase biodiversity
• how is the effectiveness of an environmental management response measured?


  ->is it likely to hit its target/goal?

  ->affordable?

  ->fair for stakeholders?

  ->has it hit it's goal?

  ->economically, socially and environmentally stable?
• Quokka environmental change


  Predators (foxes and feral cats), deforestation for urbanisation, transport and agricultural practices & climate change (different vegetation patterns, higher density of weeds & drierbm/hotter conditions)
• Impacts of change


  Decline of population if quokkas due to land clearance + climate change = increase of predators like feral cats and foxes, threatening the distribution of quokkas
• Quokka Environmental management 


  The WAD of environment and conservation released a 10 year recovery plan for the quokkas, aims to improve the conservation status of quokkas by captive breeding to maintain population and implement the return of quokkas