Geography Prelim Notes

Geography approach Exam trace 20 multiple choice skills succinct Answer Questions Bio physiological Inter accomplishments (some or all(a) or how they integ put), population and agriculture integration. Ex goed chemical reaction inseparable imagerys ace or a combination of the four points Geography Preliminary Notes The Biophysical Environment * The Biophysical Environment is the interaction of all abiotic and biotic elements found on the planet. * expressed an some former(a) flair the BPE is made up of all the features of the physical and the built surroundings and how these features interrelate. The BPE is indeed the interactions, which occur surrounded by the Atmosphere, Lithosphere, Biosphere and Hydrosphere. tune * Atmosphere, mixture of swaggeres surrounding any(prenominal)(prenominal) aerial object that has a gravitational athletic field strong enough to prevent the gases from escaping oddly the gaseous envelope of the earth. The principal constituents o f the melody of the earth argon nitrogen (78 percent) and oxygen (21 percent). The atmospheric gases in the remaining 1 percent be argon (0. 9 percent), carbon dioxide (0. 3 percent), varying substances of peeing vapour, and trace amounts of heat content, o regularise, methane, carbon monoxide, helium, neon, krypton, and xenon. * The weewee-vapour content of the piece of cake varies considerably, depending on the temperature and relation humidity. With 100 percent relative humidity the pissing im resolve-vapour content of circulate varies from 190 parts per one million million (ppm) at -40 C to 42,000 ppm at 30 C. piece quantities of other gases, such(prenominal) as ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, and oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, atomic attract turn up 18 temporary constituents of the melody in the vicinity of vol female genital organoes and be pee-washed out of the air by pelting or snow.Divisions of the Atmosphere Without our aura, there would be no demea nor on earth. A relatively nice envelope, the atmosphere consists of grades of gases that bet on life clear get out shelter from harmful radiation. Issues related to the Atmosphere * everyday weather conditions, climatic conditions (seasonal/ scant(p)-term/ pine-term/cyclical) * Global warming, Greenho custom Effect (GHE) * Ozone depletion * deadly rain * Smog, photochemical smog, brown all overcast * Radioactive fallout Atmosphere matchs Oxides and other pollutants added to the atmosphere by factories and automobiles bewilder rick a major c erstrn, however, beca wasting disease of their damaging acquire in the form of acid rain. In addition, the strong speculation exists that the smashed step-up in atmospheric carbon dioxide, in general as the ensue of dodo-fuel combustion over the past century, may affect the earths temper (for compositors case enhanced Greenho design Effect). * analogous concerns be posed by the frizzy increase in atmospheric methane .Methane levels befuddle risen 11 per cent since 1978. or so 80 per cent of the gas is produced by decomposition in rice paddies, swamps, and the intestines of sliver animals, and by tropical termites. Human activities that tend to accele grade these processes accept raising to a greater extent livestock and growing more rice. in like manner adding to the greenhouse effect, methane reduces the volume of atmospheric hydroxyl radical ions, thereby curtailing the atmospheres ability to cleanse itself of pollutants. (for slip photochemical smog) Atmosphere Ozone DepletionThe ozone layer became a subject of concern in the archean 1970s when it was found that chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), were rising into the atmosphere in monstrous quantities because of their use as refrigerants and as propellants in aerosol dispensers. The concern centred on the possibility that these compounds, through with(predicate) the action of lielight, could chemically flame and dest roy stratospheric ozone, which protects the earths airfoil from excessive ultraviolet radiation. HYDROSPHERE * The hydrosphere refers to all liquid and frozen surface urines, ground body of water held in s ceasedal and stimulate, and atmospheric water vapour. Water is the most abundant subject at the surface of the acres. About 1. 4 billion cubic kilometres of water in liquid and frozen form make up the seas, lakes, streams, glaciers, and groundwater. * Central to any intelligence of the hydrosphere is the concept of the hydrologic cycle. This cycle consists of a aggroup of authors containing water, the processes by which water is transferralred from one reservoir to a nonher (or exchangeed from one soil to some other), and the rates of transfer associated with such processes.These transfer paths penetrate the entire hydrosphere, extending upward to astir(predicate) 15 kilometres in the Earths atmosphere and descending(prenominal) to depths in the order of five kilom etres into the pertness. * Although water storage in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere is small, the rate of water circulation through the rainriveroceanatmosphere system is relatively rapid. The amount of water discharged each stratum into the oceans from the land is approximately equal to the broad(a) mass of water stored at any instant in rivers and lakes. The biosphere, though in general H2O in composition, contains very elflike of the total water at the global surface, solitary(prenominal) roughly 0. 00004 per cent. Yet, the biosphere plays a major role in the transport of water vapour back into the atmosphere by the process of transpiration. Impact of Human Activities on the Hydrosphere * The activities of modern society be having a severe electric shock on the hydrologic cycle. * gentleman alter the rude(a) functioning of the water cycle through quantitative or qualitative changes to the cycle. For poser the dynamic steady state is being disturbed by the discharg e of toxic chemicals, radioactive substances, and other industrial wastes and by the seepage of mineral fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides into surface and subsurface aquatic systems. inadvertent and deliberate discharge of petroleum, improper sewerage disposal, and thermal pollution also atomic number 18 seriously affecting the smell of the hydrosphere. * man alter the quantity of water lendable through by a plod of activities such as the construction of Dams.Weirs, irrigation schemes, aqueducts, reservoirs, dam &038 levee schemes and land reclamation projects. * In more subtle shipway charitables through enhancing the Greenhouse Effect may be changing regional climates and therefore rainwater patterns at bottom regions. * While great outstrip dams can mitigate flood damage, provide Hydro-electric vigour and reliable water supply they also present significant environmental and ecological costs. * People alter the whole step of water in some(prenominal) ways su ch as through domestic, agricultural, technical and industrial pollution. The pollution of waterways is classified match to point or non-point pollution. * Pollution in waterways can mean the quality of water is unfit for compassionate consumption (toxic to humans) or of a low enough quality to seriously impact on the environmental science of the water system. LITHOSPHERE * The Earths outermost rigid, flint layer is called the lithosphere. It is broken, like a meagerly cracked eggshell, into about a cardinal separate rigid blocks, or carapaces. there be two types of plates, oceanic and continental.An example of an oceanic plate is the Pacific carapace, which extends from the eastern hemisphere Pacific Rise to the indistinct-ocean trenches bordering the western part of the Pacific basin. The North American Plate exemplifies a continental plate. * The upper layer of the lithosphere is termed the crust. * The earths crust is comprised of bedrock stuff and nonsense in con glomerate situ * Rocks be commonly divided into terzetto major classes according to the processes that resulted in their formation.These classes argon (1) igneous rocks, which impart back solidified from break up material called magma (2) sedimentary rocks, those consisting of fragments derived from pre-existing rocks or of materials precipitated from solutions and (3) metamorphic rocks, which nonplus been derived from either igneous or sedimentary rocks under conditions that ca apply changes in mineralogical composition, texture, and internal structure. * Elements of weathering, erosion and gradational forces over sequence then shape these rock components into landform.This is known as the geomorphological process. * such forces as tectonic plate movement, fluvial action, gradational forces and the action of the wind and sun shape landform features. * Tectonic plates move in three main ways relative to each other. Translation, seduction and convergence (Spreading). The res ults of this plate movement is a great deal seen as volcanic activity (eruptions, geysers, hot springs) as earthquakes or tremors and in subsidence, land slips and slumping. * Fluvial action is the process of water eroding, transporting and depositing rock material. finish up can erode rock material by blasting, patch the sun estrus up rock and the rock alter can break it down in a process call exfoliation. The cover charge three soil issues confronting Australia are 1. button of valuable topsoil due to over-clearing and succeeding erosion 2. Soils salinity as result of over-clearing and or irrigation rasing the water table and speech salt to the surface. 3. Acid Sulfate soil exposure as a result of construction and mining exposing acid sulfates locked up in soil and these sulfates leaching into topical anesthetic waterways. BIOSPHERE The Biosphere is delineate as the relatively thin life-supporting stratum of the Earths surface, extending from a few kilometres into the atmosphere to the deep-sea vents of the oceans. * The biosphere is a global ecosystem still of living organisms (biota) and the abiotic (nonliving) factors from which they derive energy and nutrients. * The biosphere can be broken down into segments of abiotic and biotic components, called ecosystems. Oceans, lakes, and wetlands are examples of aquatic ecosystems, while forests, deserts, and tundra are examples of terrestrial ecosystems.Through these systems, energy flows and chemicals essential to life are cycled in what is known as biogeochemical cycles. * The biosphere itself can be studied as a general ecosystem through which the interconnection of all life and life-supporting systems on the Earth can be understood. * The earths biodiversity (total known stock of varying species of animal and flora on the planet) is classified into some(prenominal) major Biomes. Each Biome is made up of a multitude of interconnected and interrelating ecosystems. An ecosystem is defined as t he complex of living organisms, their physical environment, and all their interrelationships in a ill-tempered unit of space. * An ecosystem can be categorised into its abiotic constituents, including minerals, climate, soil, water, sunlight, and all other nonliving elements, and its biotic constituents, consisting of all its living members. Linking these constituents together are two major forces the flow of energy through the ecosystem, and the cycling of nutrients inside the ecosystem. Cycles within ecosystems which transfer / transform energy and egress are known as the Biogeochemical cycles (eg. Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, phosphorous etc.. ) * The biosphere supports between 3 and 30 million species of plants, animals, fungi, acellular prokaryotes such as bacteria, and acellular eukaryotes such as protozoans. Of this total, only about 1. 4 million species have been named so far, and fewer than 1 percent have been studied for their ecological relationships and their role in ecosystems. * A subaltern more than half the named species are insects, which look across errestrial and freshwater communities worldwide the laboratories of systematises are filled with insect species notwithstanding to be named and described. Hence, the relationships of organisms to their environments and the roles that species play in the biosphere are only beginning to be understood. BIOPYSICAL surroundings Impacts of Humans on the Biophysical Environment * The biosphere supports between 3 and 30 million species of plants, animals, fungi, single-celled prokaryotes such as bacteria, and single-celled eukaryotes such as protozoans. Of this total, only about 1. million species have been named so far, and fewer than 1 percent have been studied for their ecological relationships and their role in ecosystems. * A teensy more than half the named species are insects, which dominate terrestrial and freshwater communities worldwide the laboratories of systematises are filled with in sect species yet to be named and described. Hence, the relationships of organisms to their environments and the roles that species play in the biosphere are only beginning to be understood. Management Strategies for human impacts on BPE Management strategies can be found on a number of approaches such as reactionary, precautionary or proactive solicitude. * As many issues have multiple causal factors at a variety of scales any victorful management strategies must be designed with this in mind. Often the real measure of success of a management strategy is a direct reflection of effectiveness or otherwise of a co-ordinating authority. * An example of this consume for a co-ordinated response to management can be seen through reviewing the Murray high-priced drainage area Commission (MDBC).This authority must finagle management strategies in literally hundreds of sub-catchments of the Murray Darling river and across local, state and federal levels of jurisdiction. Natural vision s Definition of a Natural Resource A graphic election is any part of the biophysical environment that can be employ in some way to satisfy human needs. For example air, water, forests, minerals. They can either be either renewable or NON-RENEWABLE. RENEWABLE RESOURCES Renewable resources are those that are inbornly renewed within a sufficiently short time span to be useful to human beings. in that respect are two categories of renewable resources * Non-critical zone resources * Critical zone resources Non-critical zone renewable resources * These types of natural resources remain renewable no matter of how much and how often humans use them * Some examples include solar energy, tides, wing, waves, water and air. Critical zone renewable resources * These are resources that naturally renew within short periods of time but can be affected by how much and how often humans use them, That is humans use them sooner they can be renewed. * Examples include fish, forests, animals, soil, underground water (aquifers)NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES * These are resources that have postn millions of years to form * These are resources that are deemed to be in flash-frozen supply that is once they are utilize they can never be replaced. There are two categories of non renewable resources * CONSUMED BY USE and * RECYCLABLE OR theoretically RECOVERABLE Consumed by use Non-renewable * These are resources that once used they can not be replaced. These are basically the fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal. There are called fossil fuels because they were once living organisms million years ago. * Because of the rate of use in recent times these resources could ace exhaustion. It is predicted that after 2008 that oil allow reduce as we have used it up. Recyclable or Theoretically retrievable Non-renewable * These are the metallic minerals that are mine such as iron ore, atomic number 13 copper, gold, silver etc. These also take millions of years to be created and onc e used they too cannot be replaced the significant divergency is that these resources can be reused or recycled. commemorate of aluminum cans or metal scrap yards. What constitutes a resource? For these resources defined sooner several conditions must exist before it can actually become a resource. 1.It must be recognized as being a resource indirectly or directly. 2. There must be the skills, equipment and social organization present to transform the resource into something useful. 3. The transformation must be achieved at a cost and stratagem that make it more appropriate than an alternative. 4. The unfavourable impacts generated by the activity must be acceptable to society. What a natural resource is, depends on a number of factors 1. frugal what is the cost of extraction e. g. , extracting petroleum out of deep-sea deposits is expensive and risky the deep sea well in the play of Mexico. 2.Cultural What is a resource for one culture might not be for another e. g. Kanga roo meat. 3. Technology the resource might not be technologically possible at the moment e. g. fusion power 4. administrational governments might promote exploitation of natural resources for strategic, scotch &038 political reasons e. g. the cotton sedulousness in Australia is a result of government policy in the 1960s that cherished to reduce our reliance on import cotton. 5. Environment and health factors concerns about the impact on the environment and the health of muckle and ecosystems may effect the nature and rater if resources exploitation.Environment + Impact Statements (EIS) are often used to prise the impact on ecosystems of the exploitation of a resource. Economic &038 political issues related to the use of natural resource, their self-possession and management 1. footstep of use Supply and Demand * Economically, natural resources will be used at a higher rate while that resource is in demand. * If demand is cut back over time it could have frugal repercus sions for the country that relied on its sale pertinent to the economic well being of many developing countries. They take out large loans to help develop their country based on the performance of selling their natural resources * Once demand decreases their ability to accept back the loan is minify which then makes the country more in debt. * coin made from selling the resources is used to pay off interest on the loans and little is put back into the country to make it better off. 2. Continued demand for a resource * Can jeopardise economic prosperity due to economically unsustainable practices * masterless exploitation may jeopardise long term production levels.A good example of this is fishing. * May cause stocks to be reduced * Threat to the preservation of the fish species * application and jobs would be lost * Boat owners would retrieve increasing debts * Food supplies would be threaten by high prices and limited accessibility Political Issues 1. Opposing views * Pol itical issues of resource use can arise when competing groups esteem to use the same resources. * Countries who dispute ownership of a major resource e. g. the water of a river that flows through more than one country. * Subgroups within a society