What is an ecosystem?
A community of living organisms interacting with non-living components like water, air, and soil in their environment.
What is biodiversity?
A variety of life in an area, critical for ecosystem resilience e.g. pollination and oxygen production.
What human activity has disrupted the water cycle?
Water Pollution
What are the environmental consequences of agriculture?
Monoculture reduces biodiversity, overgrazing leads to desertification
What are the differences between ecocentric, and anthropocentric, and technocentric perspectives?
Ecocentric is nature centered, anthropocentric is human centered, and technocentric is technology centered.
Why is energy transfer between trophic levels inefficient?
Only about 10% of energy transfers to the next trophic level, the rest is lost as heat, waste or used for metabolic processes.
How do the three pillars of sustainability (environmental, social and economic) interrelate?
They must all be balanced for long term sustainability.
Describe the process of energy transfer threw trophic levels in an ecosystem.
Energy transfers through trophic levels via food webs. Produces convert sunlight into energy, passed to herbivores and then carnivores.
How do biotic and abiotic components interact within an ecosystem?
Plants (Biotic) use sunlight (Abiotic) for photosynthesis. Animals (Biotic) rely on water (Abiotic) for survival.
How does deforestation impact the environment?
Loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, disruption of carbon and water cycles.
What are the environmental consequences of urbanization?
Loss of habitats, increased pollution, and heat islands.
How does the water cycle operate, within an ecosystem?
Water cycle: Evaporation-condensation-precipitation-runoff/infiltration
What are the causes of air and water pollution on ecosystems?
Industrial emissions (air) and agricultural runoff (water)