ESS evaluation

An EVS is a worldview that shapes the way individuals or groups perceive and evaluate environmental issues, influenced by culture, religion, and socio-economic factors.

1. Ecocentric: Nature-centered; emphasizes minimal impact and intrinsic value of ecosystems.

2. Anthropocentric: Human-centered; focuses on managing resources sustainably for human benefit.

3. Technocentric: Technology-centered; believes technology can solve environmental problems.

• Ecocentric: Advocates conservation and a holistic view of nature.

• Technocentric: Emphasizes innovation and human ingenuity to manage resources.

• Ecocentric: Reducing consumption and preserving forests.

• Technocentric: Developing renewable energy technologies like solar panels.

It is a social or political movement aimed at protecting the environment. Example: Greenpeace.

A global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green, just, and joyful future.

A system is a set of interrelated components working together. Key components: inputs, processes, outputs, and feedback.

1. Open: Exchanges matter and energy with surroundings (e.g., ecosystems).

2. Closed: Exchanges only energy, not matter (e.g., Earth as a whole).

3. Isolated: No exchange of matter or energy (theoretical).

Feedback is a process where the system's outputs influence future functioning.

• Positive feedback: Amplifies change (e.g., melting ice reduces albedo, increasing warming).

• Negative feedback: Stabilizes the system (e.g., predator-prey dynamics).

A transfer moves energy or matter without changing its form (e.g., water flowing in a river), while a transformation changes the form or state of energy or matter (e.g., photosynthesis).

The hypothesis proposed by James Lovelock suggesting that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change forms.

Steady-state equilibrium involves small fluctuations around a stable point, while static equilibrium involves no change over time.

Using resources in a way that meets current needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet their needs.

Environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

Crop rotation to maintain soil fertility and reduce pesticide use.

EIAs evaluate the potential environmental impacts of proposed developments, helping to minimize harm.

things that only happen when all the parts work together, and you can't see them by looking at the parts on their own.

The capacity of an area to create a steady supply of renewable resources and absorb wastes produced in the process.

“Silent Spring”

1. Lag phase: Slow growth.

2. Exponential phase: Rapid increase.

3. Transitional phase: Growth slows.

4. Plateau phase: Stabilization at carrying capacity

A community of interdependent organisms and their physical environment, interacting as a system.

• Biotic: Living components (e.g., plants, animals).

• Abiotic: Non-living components (e.g., sunlight, water).

1. Predation

2. Competition

3. Mutualism

4. Parasitism

5. Commensalism

Birth rate, death rate, immigration, emigration, and environmental resistance (e.g., food scarcity).

A group of organisms that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring.

The environment in which a species lives.

A habitat is where an organism lives, while a niche is the set of resources, abiotic and biotic factors in which a species can survive and interact with them.

No two species can occupy the same niche indefinitely without one outcompeting the other.

Trophic levels are feeding levels in a food chain or web, starting with producers and moving up to primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers.

A diagram showing the number of organisms at each trophic level, which may not always be pyramid-shaped.

1. Biomass: Shows total mass at each trophic level; may be inverted.

2. Energy: Shows energy flow; always decreases up the pyramid due to energy loss.

• Bioaccumulation: Build-up of toxins in an organism over time (e.g., mercury in fish).

• Biomagnification: Increase in toxin concentration up the food chain (e.g., DDT in birds).

1. GPP: Total energy captured by producers through photosynthesis.

2. NPP: Energy remaining after respiration, available to consumers.

The largest amount of a resource that can be harvested without depleting the stock in the long term.

A group of interacting populations of different species in a given area.

Producers (autotrophs) make their own food, consumers (heterotrophs) eat others, and decomposers break down organic matter.

Only about 10% of energy is transferred to the next trophic level, with the rest lost as heat.

how many individuals of a species an ecosystem can sustain based on its resources

an organism that helps define an entire ecosystem. Without its keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different