PCC Dual Enrollment Ecology / Ferguson

Unit 1 Study Guide

The exam may contain a combination of multiple choice, true/false, matching, fill-in-the-
blank, short answer, and essay questions. It will cover the content that we covered so far
this semester. There will be a proficiency section worth 80% of your grade that you are
required to pass as well as an exceeds expectation section that can get you up to a 100%
on the exam. You must pass the proficiency section in order to be able to earn additional
points on the exceeds portion.

Ch. 1
1. What keeps us alive? What is an environmentally sustainable society?
2. How fast is the human population growing?
3. What is exponential growth? Give two examples of exponential growth.
4. Distinguish among environment, ecology, environmental science, and
environmentalism.
5. What is an environmentally sustainable society? Distinguish between
living on the earth's natural capital and living on the renewable biological
income provided by this capital. How is this related to the sustainability of
(a) the earth's life-support system and (b) your lifestyle?
6. What are the earth's main types of resources? How can they be depleted
or degraded?
7. What are the principal types of pollution, and what can we do about
pollution?
8. What are the basic causes of today's environmental problems, and how
are these causes connected?
9. Distinguish between economic growth, gross domestic product, and
economic development. Distinguish between developed countries and
developing countries, and give three characteristics of each category.
10. What are the harmful environmental effects of poverty and affluence?
11. What are sustainable yield and environmental degradation? Give five
examples of environmental degradation.
12. What are four scientific principles of sustainability and how can they help
us build more environmentally sustainable and just societies?
13. Define common-property resources and name three such resources. What
is the tragedy of the commons? Give three examples of this tragedy on a
global scale. List two ways to deal with the tragedy of the commons.

Ch. 3
1. What is ecology? What five levels of the organization of matter do
ecologists focus on? What basic processes keep us and other organisms
alive?
2. Why are insects important for many forms of life and for you and your
lifestyle?
3. Distinguish between organism and species, and give an example of each.
4. What are the major components of an ecosystem?
5. Distinguish among species, population, community, habitat, ecosystem,
and biosphere.
6. What happens to energy in an ecosystem?
7. What are soils and how are they formed?
8. Explain why microbes (microorganisms) are so important.
9. What happens to matter in an ecosystem?
10. How do scientists study ecosystems?
11. Distinguish among the atmosphere, troposphere, stratosphere,
hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere.
12. What three processes sustain life on earth?
13. List five ways in which the sun helps sustain life on the earth. How is this
related to the earth's natural greenhouse effect?
14. What are biomes, and how are they related to climate? What are aquatic
life zones?

Daily Warm-Up Exercises
- Review your answers to the daily warm-up exercises. Several of them will appear on
the exam.
Feedback Loops
- Describe how both positive and negative feedback loops occur in the natural world
and be able to give an example of both a positive and negative feedback loop.
The Parachuting Cats of Borneo!
- Describe how the disruption of a food web in an ecosystem by an abiotic factor such
as DDT can lead to a series of unintended consequences that can unravel a food web
and lead to the deployment of 14,000 parachuting felines!
Finite Resources/Tragedy of the Commons
- Be able to describe what the Tragedy of the Commons is and give an example
related to some finite resource in a forest ecosystem.
BARK
- Know what BARK is, what work they do to protect local forests and the
environment, and how they do it. Review their website if you missed the guest
presentation.
Missoula Floods
- Describe what the Missoula Floods were, how and when they happened, what
evidence we have for them, and how they shaped Oregons current landscape.
Oregons 8 Ecoregions
- Know the general climate, elevation, topography, plants, animals, and major land
use for each of Oregons 8 Ecoregions. Pay special attention to student presentations
for specific information to know for the exam.