Unit 5 – Land Use – Test Study Guide – ANS KEYTextbook Pages 226-230, 261-278.

Some of these questions are released FRQs from previous AP tests. Their rubrics can be found online to check your answers.

  1. Forests across the globe, both plantation and old growth, provide several ecosystem services to humans, yet humans continue to log them unsustainably for economic gain.
  2. Discuss TWO characteristics of forests that change when logging operations occur within them.
  3. Describe TWO economic services provided to humans by forests.
  4. Describe TWO ecological services provided to humans by forests. Explain how illegal logging would affect each ecological service you describe.
  5. Suggest TWO methods of logging that would be most sustainable and explain why.
  1. For decades, forest fires in the United States have been suppressed. In 2003 legislation was passed under the Healthy Forests Initiative (HFI) in response to the record-breaking wildfires that had occurred in the early 2000s. Some environmental and conservation groups fear that negative impacts could result if timber companies are encouraged to harvest medium- and large-size trees in federally owned forests while clearing away the smaller trees and underbrush.
  2. Identify TWO characteristics of forests that develop when fires are suppressed, and explain why the practice of fire suppression does not reduce, but actually increases, the risk of intense and extensive forest fires.
  3. The effects of the HFI are expected to extend beyond fire reduction. Excluding fire reduction, describe ONE positive and ONE negative effect likely to result from the implementation of the provisions of the HFI.
  4. Describe TWO ecosystem services provided for humans by forests. Explain how clear-cutting would affect each ecosystem service you describe.
  1. The active ingredients in many pesticides are chemical compounds that kill organisms such as insects, molds, and weeds. Proponents claim that the use of pesticides improves crop yields and thus protects land and soil by reducing the conversion of forests and wetlands to cropland. Opponents of pesticide use claim that pesticides degrade water and soil quality and that other modern agricultural techniques and practices are responsible for the improved crop yields in recent years.
  2. Design a laboratory experiment to determine whether or not a new pesticide (product X) is toxic to minnows, a type of small fish. For the experiment you design, be sure to do all of the following.
  3. State the hypothesis.
  4. Describe the method you would use to test your hypothesis.
  5. Identify the control.
  6. Identify the dependent variable.
  7. Describe experimental results that would lead you to reject your hypothesis in part (a)(i).
  8. Describe why IPM would be a better solution than Pesticide X.
  9. One environmental consequence of agriculture is runoff. A 10 acre field in Brentwood receives 400 mm/yr of rainfall. 50% of this rainfall is infiltrated into the soil, and 50% leaves the field as runoff. The runoff contains dissolved inorganic fertilizer residue. A drainage system is able to treat 80% of the runoff, the remaining 20% flows into a nearby stream. The runoff treated by the drainage system has an average lead concentration 0.5 g/m3. It costs $20/m3 to treat the runoff. Assuming one acre is equal to 4000 square meters, determine:
  10. The volume (in m3) of the water infiltrated through the field each year.

400mm x 1 m = 0.4 m (height)

1000mm

10 acres x 4000 m2 = 40,000 m2 (area)

1 acre

Volume = height x area = 0.4 x 40,000 = 16,000m3x 0.5 (infiltrate) = 8000 m3

  1. The mass, in kg, of lead deposited into the nearby stream. (Given that the lead concentration in the runoff is 0.5 g/m3)

8000 m3 runoff x 0.2 to stream = 1600m3 to stream x 0.5g = 800 g

m3

800 g x 1 kg = 0.8 kg Pb

1000g

  1. The annual cost of treating the runoff from the drainage system.

8000 m3 runoff x 0.8 treated = 6400 m3 treated x $20 = $128,000

m3

  1. Why are rangelands considered to be a prime example for “Tragedy of the Commons”?
  2. Describe rangelands. What characteristics make them qualify as commons?
  3. Describe Tragedy of the Commons. Give another example.
  4. What needs to be done in order to protect rangelands?
  1. Most of the coal mined in the US today comes from surface (strip) mines. In surface mining, the vegetation, soil and rock covering the coal (referred o as overburden) are removed and set aside. After the coal has been hauled away, good conservation practices require that the overburden be replaced and the surface be restored to its original condition. Land restoration may be difficult in some regions, due to factors such as the local climate, the thickness of the coal seam, the extent of the overburden, and the sulfur content of the soil.
  2. Describe the steps that should be taken to restore the land after the overburden has been replaced.
  3. Explain why restoration of the land would likely be more difficult in an arid climate.
  4. Describe one environmental impact that the tailings would have on the reclamation process and suggest a possible remedy.
  5. Compare strip mining to open-pit mining and mountaintop removal. What environmental impacts are the same between the three, what impacts are different/unique to each one?
  1. Urban sprawl is difficult to define but people usually know it when they see it.
  2. What are some common characteristics of urban sprawl?
  3. Identify three causes of urban sprawl.
  4. Describe four ways that urban sprawl negatively impacts the environment.
  5. Why is urban sprawl considered a positive feedback loop?
  6. Smart growth is considered a possible solution to urban sprawl. Describe 3 characteristics of a smart growth plan – one should be social, one economic, and one environmental.