Assignment

1) Choose an environmental issue from your textbook, or from your own personal experience, and explain how this environmental issue directly affects you. What is the role of environmental science in addressing this issue? What challenges do you believe are the obstacles that would hinder the recommendations of environmental scientists to address this environmental issue from being successfully implemented?

2) Use the topic material "What's My Carbon Footprint" to determine your personal footprint. Report the result of your personal footprint assessment. What factors do you think had the most effect on your footprint? What can you do to change your footprint? (Note: For those students using a Screen Reader refer to the Directions for Screen Reader Users.)

3) View the Biome Explorer in the topic materials. Click on an ecosystem and a scenario. How might this scenario affect the genetic diversity of the population? Would this be good or bad for the population? Then explain another topic (not listed in the scenarios) that can impact a species population within the ecosystem. Why?

4) Select an example of a global biome and an example of an ecosystem found in that global biome (grassland, forest, desert). What kind of animals and plants would you expect to make up that ecosystem? Provide one symbiotic relationship example within your selected ecosystem (such as mutualism, commensalism, and predator prey).

There are different types of relationships:

1. Mutualism - Individuals of both species benefit (i.e., ox-pecker, a type of bird, eating parasites from rhinoceros)

2. Parasitism - Individuals of one species feed from individuals of the other species, causing them harm without necessarily killing them (e.g., tape worm, ticks, bot flies). This also is sometimes grouped with predation because both are consumption.

3. Predation - Individuals of one species kill and consume individuals of the other species.

4. Commensalism - Individuals of one species benefit, but the other is not hurt or harmed (e.g., a bird nest in a tree doesn't hurt the tree, a scavenger that eats the left overs that have been abandoned by a predator).

5. Competition - Individuals of both species use either the same food, water, or shelter type, so they are competing with each other like a sports game.

6) Refer to the section "Population Growth and the Environment" in the textbook. What are the factors that influence the size of the human population? How does population size and structure impact a country's economy?

7) There are many different ways toxins are introduced into the environment. Using the textbook or another authoritative source chose a toxin that people can be exposed to and answer the following questions:

1. What is the toxin and what is it primarily used for?
2. How are people exposed and what are the potential problems?
3. How can toxin exposure be prevented or what are known obstacles to prevention?

8) In farming there are best practices to have a successful crop and protect the environment. What is one way farmers are protecting the environment? What is one way farmers could harm the environment?

9) Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have potential benefits and consequences. Answer the following questions.

1. What is one benefit of GMO?
2. What is one potential problem with GMO?
3. Which side of the argument do you find more persuasive and why?

Make sure to support your answers with authoritative sources such as the textbook or other readings.

10) What is the difference between endangered, threatened, and extinct species? How would you balance the concerns of these species while focusing on cost first? What are some of the areas that would need to be prioritized?

11) Trying to balance human needs and wants with biological considerations requires resource management - looking at land management, species preservation, and resource use. What can individuals and resource managers do to meet the demands of multiple use? Be sure to refer to your book for ideas.

12) Read the "Sunset Crater Volcano" article from the National Park Service, and the "Sunset Crater Volcano" article from Arizona Geology.
Based on the articles and your understanding of ecosystems and populations from this course, explain the following:

1. How do volcanoes destroy ecosystems?
2. How do volcanoes rejuvenate ecosystems?
3. What is another geological risk that could have positive and negative impacts? Why?

13) Drilling for oil in the Arctic, off the coast of California, and in the Gulf of Mexico is a controversial issue. Based on the 2010 British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, provide reasons both for drilling and against drilling in these locations. Which side of the argument do you find more persuasive? Why?

14) Read the topic material "Drinking Water Treatment." The reading explains a typical water treatment process for tap water.

1. With this knowledge please obtain a water quality report from your local municipality within the last two years.
2. Post a short description of what you found.
3. What are your thoughts about your tap water after reading the report you obtained?
4. If you were in charge of your local municipality, and the report indicated organic impurities within the water supply, what technique (s) for water management (water pollution control, remediation, or water legislation) would you employ to address this problem?

15) Describe the hydrologic cycle and various methods of water use and management. What changes might occur in the hydrologic cycle if our climate were to warm up or cool down significantly?