Environmental Sustainability

EnvironmentalSustainability

General Topics• Explain the Carbon Cycle, giving a local example of how and

where it occurs• Describe your carbon footprint, along with knowing how to

make changes to minimize your own footprint.• Describe food webs and food pyramids, along with discussing

how energy is lost as we go to higher order consumers.• Describe how living organisms adapt to change• Describe different characteristics which makes living

organisms unique• Explain the theory of evolution and how it is occurring around

us at the moment

Carbon Cycle

• Almost all life on earth is based on Carbon. Plants get energy through turning Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into Oxygen (O2).

• Like water, Carbon is recycled continually. It might be in the air, in an animal, in the ground as oil or even in a tree.

• When humans use energy, we use carbon. As such, we should try an reduce how much energy we use to reduce our use of carbon.

More Information

• Read Page 313 of Biology for You.• Most carbon is stored in living things or in the ground

(coal, gas, oil).• Too much Carbon in the atmosphere (air) is a major

problem as it causes Global Warming (heating of earths temperature)

• Carbon in air is mainly removed through photosynthesis (plants) and being absorbed by Limestone (rocks)

• Carbon makes its way into the air through respiration (living things breathing) and burning objects)/

Local Example

• The sun shines.• Grass grows thanks to carbon in the air, nutrients

in the soil and water.• Peter eats the grass and makes Carbon Dioxide as

he breathes.• Sean hunts Peter and then eats him. His left overs

are left on the ground to decompose (分解 ).• The carbon goes into the ground and makes Coal

in a could of hundred of thousands of years.

Carbon Footprint

• Your Carbon footprint is how much Carbon you use in your normal day.

• Every time you eat something or use energy, you are using Carbon Dioxide.

• Using too much Carbon Dioxide helps global warming which heats up the earth.

• Completing some small changes can help reduce the amount of Carbon you use.

Carbon Footprint Continued

• Ways to reduce your Carbon Footprint include:– Save hot water– Turn off lights when not needed– Sort your recycling at home, plus recycle!– Plant trees– Buy appliances that use less energy– Only replace objects when the really need to be

replaced. A lot of energy is used to make new objects!

Continued

– Walk or use public transport when possible.– Save energy. Do you really need you play

computer games until 1AM every morning??– Turn off appliances at the plug.– Get your car serviced regularly and don’t

accelerate to red lights!!– When cooling, set the temp at 26 Degrees and 20

Degrees when heating.

Food Webs & Food Chains

• All energy on earth starts with the sun. Plants get energy from the sun.

• Animals that eat plants are called herbivores (草食動物 ).

• Animals that eat herbivores are called carnivores (肉食動物 ).

• Animals that eat plants and animals are called omnivores (雜食動物 ).

Food Webs Cont..

• A food chain/web shows how plants and animals eat each other for their own survival.

• The main thing to notice is that the higher up the food chain you go, the less living things there will be.

• This is because a large amount of energy is lost between the energy found in grass and a carnivore.

More Information

• Please read the following pages from Biology for You Page 303-305.

• Producers make their own energy.• Primary consumers get energy from the

producers.• Secondary consumers eat the primary

consumers (carnivores) etc.

Adaptions

• When living things have offspring (子孫 ), they sometimes have mutations (突變 ).

• If these mutations give that animal an advantage, then that living thing has adapted.

• Some living things can also adapt (適應 ) to change quickly. This gives them a good advantage if the temperature, water, predators or prey change quickly

Adaption Examples

• There are rabbits and Bilbys. Both eat the same food but rabbits breed quicker. If it rains and there is more food, the rabbits have an advantage.

• There are two types of finches. One has a slightly larger beak that can eat small and large seeds. The plant which makes small seeds has a major disease and no longer makes seeds. The finch with a smaller beak then dies due to no food.

More Information

• Read Page 267-269 in Biology For You.

Different Characteristics

• There are two main types of cells. They are:– Prokaryotes: These are single celled organisms

which have no nucleus. They do everything themselves – including digesting food, movement, getting rid of waste etc. They can live in a colony or by themselves.

– Eukaryotes: These are multi celled organisms that have a nucleus. Most cells specialize to complete a certain job (like skin cell, heart cell etc).

Prokaryote

Eukaryote

Characteristics Cont.

• Many living things reproduce through mitosis (sexual reproduction). This allows for many differences in the characteristics different living things have.

• Different characteristics are needed for a healthy population. A lack of different characteristics may lead to problems. For example, European Royal Family and Pharaohs.

More Information

• More information on P222-237. Just have a general read of this.

Evolution

• Evolution is the gradual development of different species from a common ancestor.

• It states that life on earth has changed over time.

• Charles Darwin first suggested that different species of the same animal came from a common ancestor.

Examples

• One examples can be seen in Giraffes. It’s common ancestor had a shorter neck.

• However, over time some mutations occurred and gave that animal a competitive advantage.

• That animal ended up replacing the shorter giraffes.

Other Examples

• Locusts (蝗蟲 ) are like Jaren, they eat everything around them. Sometimes locusts need to travel long distances to get to food in countries like the United States.

• As such, the locusts which can travel longer distances will have an advantage and will have more offspring.

• Those insects will then replace or become the dominant ones of the species.

Extra Information

• Read Pages 264-273 in Biology for You.