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Environmental Challenges

ConceptsMedia Resources

45.1 Sustainability

 
1. Sustainability is the careful use of natural resources in a way that does not deplete them for future use.Essential Study Partner
Introduction

Essential Study Partner
Resources

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Environmental Issues

45.2 The Air

 
2. Pollution is any change in the environment that harms living organisms.Essential Study Partner
Urbanization
3. Air pollutants include heavy metals, particulates, and emissions from fossil fuel combustion in automobiles and industries. Some of these pollutants react in light to form photochemical smog.Essential Study Partner
Air Pollution
4. Acid deposition forms when nitogen and sulfur oxides react with water in the upper atmosphere to form nitric and sulfuric acids. These acids return to earth as dry particles or in precipitation. Acidification of lakes changes aquatic communities. In terrestrial ecosystems, acid deposition kills leaves and releases toxic aluminum from soils.Animation
Acid Rain

Essential Study Partner
Acid Rain
5. The Clean Air Act improved air quality in the United States.Essential Study Partner
Pollution Control
6. Use of chlorofluorocarbon compounds has thinned the stratospheric ozone layer, which protects life from ultraviolet radiation. These compounds are among thousands of persistent organic pollutants that harm the environment.Animation
Ozone Destruction
7. The greenhouse effect results from CO2 and other gases trapping heat near Earth's surface. Agriculture, burning fossil fuels, and destruction of tropical rain forests generate greenhouse gases. The greenhouse effect may contribute to global warming. Shifting vegetation patterns, species ranges, and egg-laying schedules are responses to global warming.Animation
Greenhouse Gases

Essential Study Partner
Air

Art Quiz
Greenhouse Effect

45.3 The Land

 
8. Deforestation is the destruction of tree cover from forested areas. Subsistence-level agriculture contributes to the removal of tropical rain forests.Essential Study Partner
Tropical Forests

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Temperate Forests
9. Draining lakes to irrigate crops and cattle grazing cause and hasten desertification, the expansion of desert into surrounding areas.Essential Study Partner
Rangelands

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Land Degradation

45.4 The Waters

 
10. Organic and inorganic toxins, sediments, heat, heavy metals, and excessive nutrient levels pollute aquatic ecosystems. Water quality in the United States has improved in recent decades.Essential Study Partner
Water

Animation
Biological Magnification

Art Quiz
Biological Magnification
11. Dams and levees alter river ecosystems. 
12. Preserving estuaries is important because they are breeding grounds for many species. 
13. Fishing with cyanide and dynamite, excessive nutrients, and hurricanes threaten coral reefs. 
14. Loss of coastal habitat and overharvest contribute to declines of populations of valuable ocean species. 
15. Plastic and oil contaminate surface waters. 
16. Human activities and climatic fluctuations contribute to the spread of infectious disease among many ocean inhabitants.Essential Study Partner
Water Use

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Water Quality

45.5 Loss of Biodiversity

 
17. The diversity-stability hypothesis proposes that an ecosystem with many diverse species is better able to survive stresses than a species-poor ecosystem.Essential Study Partner
Species
18. After habitat destruction, biological invasion is the top cause of decreasing biodiversity as nonnative species displace native organisms.Essential Study Partner
Extinction





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