AP Environmental Science Semester 1 Exam Review

Biodiversity is such a critical concept that students often lack details in for lack of a better term, students just don't remember the three levels of biodiversity and they don't specify them on frqs so if you if you have an frq as part of your final and you can incorporate biodiversity loss or biodiversity being impacted in some way, to an frq especially if it's about human impacts on a given ecosystem being able, to actually link it to one of these, three levels of biodiversity is really key.

Estuaries are places where the river meets the ocean, and they're going to be highly highly productive for a couple reasons one, they're a mix of salt and fresh water so, organisms have to be uniquely adapted to, those conditions that's an important, thing to remember, but also they're bringing so many, nutrients down the river and dumping, them into this area.

The carbon cycle is a really important cycle, biogeochemical cycle that is to, understand in unit one so with the, carbon cycle you want to remember here, that sources are things that are giving, off carbon dioxide to the atmosphere or, any form of carbon really you could give, off methane as well and a sink is a, reservoir so something that stores, carbon.

The biggest mistake that students, make is that it is a rate, of energy production so it's not just, photosynthesis it's an actual rate of, energy production and we express that in, energy per area per time so kilocalories, per meter squared per year.

Biodiversity is such a, critical concept that students often, lack details in for lack of a better, term, students just don't, remember the three levels of, biodiversity and they don't specify them, on frqs so if you if you have an frq as, part of your final and you can, incorporate biodiversity loss or, biodiversity being impacted in some way, to an frq especially if it's about human, impacts on a given ecosystem being able, to actually link it to one of these, three levels of biodiversity is really, key.

Ecosystem Services first of all are ways, that ecosystems benefit humans, monetarily or financially, so they have to have some what's called, instrumental value or clear demonstrated, value to us.

Island biogeography in a nutshell we're, going very quickly here for Island biogeography, basically as you get closer to the, mainland and larger in size you're going, to have a higher species richness you're, going to support more total species one, due to Greater ecosystem diversity but, two due to Greater ease of migration, from the mainland to these Island, habitats on the other side as you get, smaller in Island size or as you get, further away from the mainland you're, going to have lower species richness for, the opposite reason lower ecosystem, diversity lower fewer available niches.

The big thing with an El Nino you to, remember if you can remember this it, makes everything so much easier, you have to remember that the trade, winds reverse course, they weaken and, in certain instances they do actually, reverse directions but rather than, strong east to west we get a weakening, and potentially even the movement from, west to east of of winds.

When you clear cut you remove all of the, vegetation in an area you retrieve you, remove all of the trees Roots so now the, soil can easily erode away into the, river.

GMOs are genetically modified crops, that can be genetically engineered to, grow faster grow larger more yield per, acre they can also be genetically, modified to resist pests so BT Corner BT, crops are a great example, pests don't eat them because they have, this genetic trait that allows them to, actually Create A protein that the pest, is killed when it eats eats the plant so, it's deterred from doing that.

Eutrophication is the process of too, many nutrients or excess nutrients, entering a body of water so when you use, synthetic fertilizer on your crops as a, farmer it's very possible and in fact, likely for that rainfall to carry that, nitrate off of your fields and into, nearby Waters which leads to an algae, bloom covers the surface and uses up, oxygen when these algae die because the, decomposers do this aerobic, decomposition and use up that oxygen so, that can lead to a dead zone.

The big thing we need to, know here is that meat is inefficient, when it comes to land energy and water, use and the reason for this is the, second law of thermodynamics.

Sustainable agriculture here, and talk about wind breaks because they, are a great way to do sustainable, agriculture the only problem, is for some reason, these slides that I have up just don't, have, the sustainable agriculture stuff in, them, so let me see if I can pull them up, in the meantime though a Windbreak is, going to do what it sounds like it's, going to break the wind so that those, trees or that those shrubs that got hit, with the wind prevent some of that wind, from carrying away soil with it.

Urban stormwater runoff very, important concept unfortunately because, I'm not in present mode some of my, slides are covered up here, but you guys get the idea that all of, the pollutants that are on an urban, surface because it's impermeable, meaning that the water can't sink in and, infiltrate down beneath it are going to, be carried into a storm drain and then, entered into a body of water in this, case the Chesapeake Bay.

The rain shadow, effect basic idea is when you have prevailing, winds coming in off a body of water, they're picking up a lot of moisture, from that water through evaporation, and they're going to deposit that, moisture onto land because that air is, going to in this case hit a mountain and, rise up and it's going to start to cool, now air that's cooler can't hold as much, moisture and so that moisture is going, to be lost it's going to rain down on, this windward side of the mountain the, side that's facing the wind.