Given what you learned about the physical and biological properties of water speculate: what other factors might cause the trends in ice cover data to change over the past century?

Climate Change Proxy
A proxy is an indicator used to measure whether the world’s temperatures are rising or whether the climate is changing. Scientists use data from various sources to uncover whether climate change has occurred.  This essay from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association change explains the types of proxies scientists use. Because it may be happening over the course of decades, if not centuries, scientists have to rely on historical data.  The following dataset shows the duration of ice days calculated as the average number of days that ice covered Cazenovia lake over the time period from 1844-2009.  Ice duration is calculated from the day of first freeze over to the day of ice break up and subtracting the number of days the lake was open between the first day of ice coverage and ice-out.  These data were collected by the Cornell Biological Field Station as part of their DataStar Project (Rudstam, Lars G. and James R. Jackson. 2011).

Click on the data set to open in excel.
Graph the data following the instructions and then answer the following questions:

Step 1: Click on and highlight the two columns of data.

Step 2: Click on Insert and choose line graph from the choices of graphs

Step 3: Click on the title and provide a title for the graph: Ice Cover Caz Lake, choose chart elements and add the titles for the axis – Decade, Average # Days and then submit the excel file along with the answers to the following questions.

1) What is the trend in ice cover for Cazenoiva Lake over the last century?

2) Given what you learned about the physical and biological properties of water speculate: what other factors might cause the trends in ice cover data to change over the past century?

3) Which proxy do you think would be more accurate to determine global climate change?  The ice cover data or the data on blooming times collected by the scientists mentioned in the NPR study we listened to in this module? Why do you think this? Give reasons based on your research into what causes ice to melt on lakes, and what may impact blooming times from the discussions. Cite your sources for full credit.

 

What is the format/type of source article ? Is the author an authority/expert on the topic? Explain how the author is qualified .

Choose sources that are RELEVANT to the course project’s assigned topics: Physical Description, Life Cycle/Reproduction, Structure/Function, Energy Ecology, and Habitat.

After summarizing the source article, it is necessary to evaluate it and state where you found it Briefly answer the following questions in 4-6 sentences:

What is the format/type of source article ?
Is the author an authority/expert on the topic? Explain how the author is qualified .
For subject-matter experts, provide their credentials .
For freelance/professional writers, state if all reference sources are academically and scientifically credible and provide an example.
For undergraduate-student writers , include the subject-matter expert that may have edited or reviewed their work.
If no author is listed, move on to discuss the publishing source.
How is the publishing source credible?
For more help, see this handout on evaluating resources.

Identify an incidence of land conversion near where you live, your home town, your favorite vacation spot – anywhere.

Land Conversion Impacts

Identify an incidence of land conversion near where you live, your home town, your favorite vacation spot – anywhere. Write a 2-3 page paper that includes:

describing the land conversion, outlines the ecological impacts of the land conversion
references/cites the reading materials in this module as well as any you find on your own.

What are the two primary pollutants involved in non-point source pollution? Where do these nutrients originate?

Earth Systems Course Work

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_pollution/02history.html

Explain the impact of humans on the prevalence of pollution.

People began to move to the cities because of improved sanitary conditions and less disease. What was the major side effect?

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_pollution/03pointsource.html

Define point source pollution.

Explain the term “effluent” and its role in point source pollution.

List some of the consequences of unregulated point-source pollution.

Explain how large livestock farms contribute to point source pollution.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_pollution/04nonpointsource.html

Observe the diagram depicting non-point source pollution and formulate a definition based upon the information available.

Explain the cause of most non-point source pollution thoroughly. Why is non-point source pollution so difficult to control?

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_pollution/04nonpointsource.html

Besides runoff, list the other causes of non-point source pollution given.

What are the two primary pollutants involved in non-point source pollution? Where do these nutrients originate?

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_pollution/010nutrients.html

Explain the term eutrophication and the chain of events that may occur.

Explain another harmful effect on both fish and humans.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_pollution/011sediments.html

Explain the importance of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in terms of ecosystems and suspended sediments.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_pollution/012chemicals.html

What are the two methods in which pesticides typically enter a waterbody?’

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_pollution/013bacteria.html

Explain the effects of discarded trash on runoff.

Explain how water activities can also affect bacteria and nutrient levels in the water.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_pollution/015controlling.html

List at least 2 strategies that can be enacted in each of the following areas to eliminate non-point source pollution.

Develop an ecological hypothesis that interests you. Design an experiment that tests your hypothesis in the form of a research proposal. Be sure to include all the sections found in research articles.

These resources will be helpful as you research and draft your paper:
You can schedule a consultation with Rebecca Orozco at https://guides.library.unlv.edu/appointments.
Prompts:
1. Decide on an endangered plant or animal in Nevada. Write about its current habitat. What could make it go extinct? What could potentially save it? Use at least 3 scientific articles as support.
2. Write a critical review or response to an ecological scientific article, making sure to both summarize and evaluate the article. Use at least 3 other scientific articles in building your response.
3. Develop an ecological hypothesis that interests you. Design an experiment that tests your hypothesis in the form of a research proposal. Be sure to include all the sections found in research articles. In lieu of the Results + Discussion sections, comment on what you may expect to find, and current and past experiments in the field that have informed your experiment.

Use at least 3 scientific articles to provide background, inform your proposed methods, and speculate on a potential outcome.

Which car performed the best as far as CO2 emissions are concerned? Which has the worst?

Car emissions internet activity

Increased carbon dioxide in our near atmosphere has been increasing
since the industrial revolution. While some sources of CO2 in the air are perfectly
natural, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has determined that a
significant amount of this CO2 is a direct result of human activity.

Answer the following questions in the same Word document that has your car data.
● What is the Carbon Footprint Score?
● EPA Air Pollution Score?
● Which car performed the best as far as CO2 emissions are concerned? Which
has the worst?
● Was there a trend among cars that had high CO2 output?
● What surprised you about the cars you chose?
● In your opinion, what is the most important output from cars? Why?
● If you had the money, what would be your next car purchase? Why?

Describe why each is a problem and finally, describe ways that each of these sources of water pollution can/could be reduced.

Listed are common Sources of Point Source and Nonpoint Source Water Pollution in the United States. Read through each of the items and in a word or google document state whether each is a point source or nonpoint source water pollutant. Then describe why each is a problem and finally, describe ways that each of these sources of water pollution can/could be reduced.
1. 23 million septic-tank systems 2. pesticides from cropland. 3. storm-water runoff including oil, gasoline, dog feces, and litter from city and suburban streets. 4. highway construction and maintenance, including eroding soil and toxic chemicals 5. 190,000 storage lagoons for polluted waste 6. 9,000 municipal landfills 7. about 2 million underground storage tanks containing pollutants such as gasoline. 8. 50 million tons of fertilizer applied to crops, lawns and golf courses every year. 9. 10 million tons of dry salt applied to highways for snow and ice control every year. 10. thousands of public and industrial wastewater treatment plants.