Name
Date
Period / APES
Unit 4

Unit 4 Free-Response Questions

Answer the following questions in essay form. Outline form is not acceptable. Labeled Diagrams may be used to supplement discussion, but in no case will a diagram alone suffice. It is important that you read each question completely before you begin to write. Your answers may be hand written or typed. You may use your notes and textbook to answer the question, but you may not discuss or write the question with anyone else. You will receive a zero for the assignment if there is any evidence that this is not your own work.

  1. Coastal and inland wetlands serve important ecological and economic roles globally. Despite their value, the United States has lost over half of its wetland area in the last 100 years.
  2. Identify and describe two important functions wetlands play in the environment both ecologically and economically.
  3. Describe two reasons wetlands are on the decline globally and in the United States.
  4. Identify a major wetland area in the United States include the state(s).
  5. Discuss two solutions to protecting or restoring wetlands.
  1. Species such as the dusky seaside sparrow, the passenger pigeon, and the wooly mammoth are extinct. Populations of other species have declined to the point where they are designated as threatened or endangered.
  2. Identify one threatened or endangered species and explain why its population has declined.
  3. Describe three characteristics of organisms that would make them particularly vulnerable to extinction.
  4. Present three arguments in favor of the maintenance of biodiversity.
  5. Name and describe one United States federal law or one international treaty that is intended to prevent the extinction of species.
  1. Forests are an example of natural capital by providing many valuable economic services. However, due to harvesting forests for these resources we have greatly reduced the important ecological services they also provide to the ecosystem.
  2. Identify two ecological services that forest ecosystems provide.
  3. Explain how clear cutting is an example of a positive feedback loop for erosive processes.
  4. Describe two environmental impacts deforestation practices have on the ecosystem.
  5. Discuss how human activities are threatening the survival of available forested area.
  6. Identify a potential economic impact of losing our forests.