What You Need to Know....
SC.912.L.17.20 Predict the impact of individuals on environmental systems, and examine how human lifestyles affect sustainability.
Students will predict how the actions of humans may impact environmental systems and/or affect sustainability.
Students will evaluate possible environmental impacts resulting from the use of renewable and/or nonrenewable resources.
Students will identify ways in which a scientific claim is evaluated (e.g., through scientific argumentation, critical and logical thinking, and/or consideration of alternative explanations).
Example Questions
Salt water is an abundant resource but is unusable for irrigation and drinking. As demands on freshwater sources increase, the use of desalination processes to remove salt from ocean water is increasing. A concern of desalinating water is the large amounts of recovered salts that are returned to the ocean. Which of the following describes the most likely impact of desalination on the surrounding ocean environment?
A. Methane gas would pollute the ocean environment as shoreline organisms begin to die and decay.
B. Alteration in ocean salt levels would cause loss of species and unbalanced populations in marine food webs.
C. Nonrenewable resources in the ocean environment would become depleted and upset the ecosystem’s balance.
D. Increased levels of salts and minerals in the ocean would result in overpopulation of marine bivalves due to strengthened shells.
2. Which of the following is not one of the top five greenhouse gases?
A. Methane
B. Water vapor
C. Carbon monoxide
D. Ozone
3. You have a beautiful saltwater aquarium. However, you have a shark that is getting too big for the tank, and you must get rid of the shark. What would be the best thing for you to do?
A. Release the shark in a nearby lake.
B. Release the shark into the ocean.
C. Give the shark to a friend.
D. Take the shark back to a pet store.
4. When water lowers in temperature and allows water droplets to form, this is called ___.
A. Transpiration
B. Condensation
C. Evaporation
D. Precipitation
5. New fuels are being produced by converting corn and grasses into compounds containing alcohols that can be broken down for energy in various engines. The purpose of this research is to
A. reduce the use of nonrenewable resources.
B. increase the rate of air pollution.
C. reduce the rate of homeostasis in organisms.
D. cause a loss of biodiversity in the rain forests.
6. The northern elephant seal was almost hunted to extinction in the 1800s. By the late 1890s, approximately one hundred seals were left, reducing the gene pool of the population. What will be the consequence of this reduction?
A. Competition within the population will increase.
B. The surviving elephant seals will be better able to adapt.
C. Inbreeding will be less frequent among the remaining population.
D. The elephant seals will be more vulnerable to environmental change.
7. When fertilizers run off farmland into streams and ponds, the nitrogen content of the water increases. This can lead to rapid growth of algae in a process called eutrophication. How can this process affect other organisms in the water?
A. Oxygen is used up as algae is decomposed, reducing the amount available to other organisms.
B. The water becomes better able to support aerobic organisms.
C. The algae provide food for fishes and other organisms, leading to decreased algae populations.
D. The extra nitrogen provides additional food for the other organisms, increasing their population.
Answer Key:
1. D. Increased levels of salts and minerals in the ocean would result in overpopulation of marine bivalves due to strengthened shells.
2. D. Ozone; Earth's greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the planet. The main gases responsible for the greenhouse effect include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor (which all occur naturally), and fluorinated gases (which are synthetic)
3. D. Take the shark back to a pet store.
4. B. Condensation
5. A. reduce the use of nonrenewable resources. The use of nonrenewable resources has negative effects for many ecosystems as well as human beings. New ways to use renewable resources for energy are now being developed.
6. D. The elephant seals will be more vulnerable to environmental change. The more genetic variation a population has, the more easily the population can deal with environmental change. If the gene pool decreases, genetic variation decreases.
7. A. Oxygen is used up as algae is decomposed, reducing the amount available to other organisms. Algal blooms, often caused by high levels of nitrogen in water lead to low dissolved oxygen levels and the death of many species in these ecosystems.