AP Environmental Science Summer Assignment Dear Student, Welcome to AP Environmental Science!

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Jessie Patrick
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1 Dear Student, Welcome to AP Environmental Science! If you flip through your book, you should notice that for the most part, chapters 4-8 are a review of what you learned in the ecology unit this past year in your AP or regular Biology course. In the interest of making this course as new as possible, I am asking that you read four of these chapters this summer (4-7). Attached to this document is a list of reading assignments as well as the concepts you will be expected to understand from chapters 4-7. They are split up into 12 HW-sized assignments. If we assume a conservative 45 minutes per assignment, then it factors out to 540 minutes, or 9 hours. Since much of this is review, I think it should go quicker than that (my guess is 7 or 8 total). Please keep track of how long this takes, and if you hit 9 hours, please stop, and let me know how far you got through it (evann@headroyce.org). When you return in the fall, you will not have to hand anything in, but I will expect that you have read the chapters and checked your understanding of the concepts listed for each of the readings. On first two days of school (8/28 and 8/29), we will review any questions that you may have on the material, and then on Tuesday, September 4 th (the first day back after fall-out) you will be tested on your understanding of it. (Note that isotopic signatures, the rock cycle, and plate tectonics will not be on the test). This test will be worth about half of what a normal test will be worth, and will only be composed of multiple-choice questions. (See the sample MCQs at the end of this attachment to get a sense of the kinds of questions that could be asked). One other thing I would like for you to do is to develop a habit of reading current events about the environment. In doing so, you will develop your reading comprehension skills further, become a more informed citizen, and increase the likelihood of doing well on the AP Exam (it is not uncommon for a current environmental issue to appear as a topic in the FRQ section). To that end, I would like you to also send me three links to articles about the environment that catch your eye. They should be from different sources, include a one sentence description of what the article is about, (written by you), as well as what chapter from the book it best fits under. Here are some reputable sites to check out: Eurekalert! (Atmospheric Science, Earth Science) - Living on Earth (PRI Environmental Magazine) - National Public Radio (Science Section) - New York Times (Science Section - Environment) - Marketplace (Sustainability Desk) - Until then, have a great summer (get outside), and I look forward to seeing you all in the fall! Sincerely, Mr. Vann

2 Chapter 4 - From Chemistry to Energy to Life Read and understand the following: 1. What bioremediation is and how it works. (an extra resource, with a little animation) 2. What Act was passed in response to the spill, and what it did. 3. The different ways in which oil impacts the ecosystem. 4. What phytoremediation is. (an extra resource, with a little animation) 5. How Azaizeh's experiment was designed and what the results showed. 6. How Kertulis-Tartar's experiment was designed, and what the results showed. 7. What some of the shortcomings of phytoremediation are. 8. What the conservation of matter is. 9. Note the two most abundant elements in the earth s crust, the oceans, the air, and organisms. 10. How isotopes are used for radiocarbon dating. 11. How isotopic signatures (ratios) are employed in studying ecosystems. Understand the examples given. (Note: this item will not be on first test) Skim and take notes as needed on the rest of chapter 4 Understand how many more -OH ions are present in a solution with a ph of 8 vs a solution with a ph of 4. (Tree of life video: a fast forward view of evolution) Chapter 5 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology Read and understand the following: 1. Why an understanding of evolution is fundamental to the study of environmental science. 2. Testing Your Comprehension #1 on page The factors that give rise to genetic variation, and the different ways in which the environment can act on this. Understand the differences between these. 4. TYC#2 5. What biodiversity, species, and a population are. 6. TYC#3. (Hint, it does not simply end with geographic isolation...keep going). (helpful animations) 7. How sympatric speciation works, and ways in which reproductive isolation may occur. 8. How cladograms or phylogenetic trees are constructed. 9. What extinction is, and what happened 10,000 years ago on North America that led to the extinction of many species. 10. What makes the golden toad of Monteverde "endemic," and what makes it more susceptible to extinction. 11. What a mass extinction event is, and of those that have occurred on earth, what % of species have been wiped out during each one of them. 12. a) What Alvarezs' hypothesis was as to what the cause behind the K-T mass extinction was, and the information/evidence that supported it. b) How this would have led to the recorded mass extinction. c) The discovery that occurred in 1991 that led to wider acceptance of their hypothesis.

3 (Mass extinction web-page, with comparisons to comets hitting other planets) 13. Note the sequence of Eons and Eras in the Geologic Timescale in Appendix D. Look at the events that occurred, and guess why the words were chosen as names. Then visit this site to understand why they were chosen. Read and take notes on pages (Most of this should be review & understandable) You are responsible for all of it, but here is a little guidance: Note the difference between habitat and niche (oftentimes confused), the different characteristics of populations, and how growth rates are calculated Read and take notes on (Most of this should be review & understandable) You are responsible for all of it, but here is a little guidance: Note how exponential growth works, the factors that account for the different types of population growth curves in Figure 5.17, how biotic potential relate to r and K selected species, as well as some of the traits associated with these types of species, the many effects that global warming had on the ecosystem of the golden toad...and to its likely extinction. (Density dependent growth and carrying capacity animation and interactive) Chapter 6 Species Interactions and Community Ecology Read and understand the following: 1. How phytoplankton and zooplankton are involved in the problems that the zebra mussel has caused in the Great Lakes, and any other problems with this invasive species. (Dynamic map of Zebra mussel) 2. Fundamental vs realized niche. 3. What becomes of energy as it travels up a food chain. 4. What Strayer discovered about how Zebra mussels impact fish communities in the Great Lakes. 5. The concept of a trophic cascade (the term is new, but the concept should be familiar) as it related to keystone species, and how this fits in the context of Estes research on sea otter decline (which should be familiar from last year). 6. The concepts of resilience and resistance in relation to disturbances in ecosystems. (community stability interactive) 7. The different players in and stages of succession. (Succession animation1, animation2, data animation, data and conclusion animation) 7. Clements and Gleason's view of what communities are. 8. Consider the Causes and Consequences and Weighing the Issues questions on page 160 of the text about invasive species. 9. Also consider Weighing the Issues on page 161 about restoration ecology. Read and understand the following: 1. What a biome is, the abiotic factors that shape the kind of biome that is present, and what a climatograph shows. (Know the difference between biotic and abiotic as well). 2. How aquatic biomes can be categorized. 3. What the blue & red lines, and the green & yellow areas mean on the climate diagrams.

4 4. Briefly describe each biome in terms of relative temperature and precipitation (even those that look similar in shape are different in terms of their scale). 5. Consider the biome in which the Bay Area exists. What sorts of events are expected in this biome, and how does human development come into conflict with the characteristics of this area? 6. How altitude impacts vegetation. This site has a better explanation than the book, just scroll down. Chapter 7 Environmental Systems and Ecosystem Ecology Read and understand the following: 1. What hypoxia is, and why the Gulf of Mexico is afflicted by this condition. 2. What a system is, and how positive and negative feedback loops regulate them. 3. What is meant by something being in a state of dynamic equilibrium and its relationship to homeostasis. 4. The concept of components and emergent properties. 5. How eutrophication occurs. (a good animation) 6. What the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere are. Read and understand the following: 1. How the concept of an ecosystem arose. 2. The difference between how energy and matter travel through ecosystems. 3. The difference between gross and net primary production. (primary production site) 4. What David Schindler did in his experiment, and what it illustrated. 5. The concept of an ecotone. 6. How landscape ecology can inform human development in ecosystems. 7. What are metapopulations, and why are they more susceptible to extinction? Read and understand the following: 1. The terms reservoir, flux, sources, and sinks as they relate to biogeochemical cycles, and be able to identify reservoirs and fluxes on the diagrams. 2. How carbon can be stored and released in sedimentary and ocean reservoirs. (carbon cycle animation) 3. The effect that deforestation and fossil fuel usage has on the carbon cycle. 4. Why phosphorus is a limiting factor for plant growth, how this relates to eutrophication, and what we can do to prevent its release. 5. What natural processes are responsible for fixing nitrogen out of the atmosphere. (nitrogen cycle animation) 6. The role that nitrification and denitrification play in the nitrogen cycle. Read and understand the following: 1. How Rabalais showed that the likely causes behind the "dead zone" was fertilizer runoff from the Mississippi, as well as the different solutions proposed to alleviate the "dead zone." (the highlights are on page 195, do not worry about the longer list on 193) 2. What the Haber-Bosch process is, and its impact on the nitrogen cycle. (site showing summary of process)

5 3. The tension between farmers in the midwest and fisherpeople in the Gulf of Mexico, how economics and policy have played into the "dead zone" issue, and what the most recent proposed solutions to the problem are. 4. Understand evaporation, transpiration, precipitation, runoff, aquifers, groundwater, and water table in the context of the hydrologic cycle. 5. How the general overuse of our resources and overpopulation have impacted the water cycle. 6. Though not covered in the text, the sulfur cycle does make the list of topics covered on the AP. Here is an animation to familiarize yourself with it. Read and understand the following: (Note: the following items will not be on the first test) 1. How the rock cycle is relevant to ecosystems. 2. How igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks are formed, and how they connect in the rock cycle. (rock cycle animation1, animation2) 3. What plate tectonics is, as well as divergent plate boundaries, transform plate boundaries, convergent plate boundaries, and subduction (drawing a picture for each is helpful). (UCMP site on plate tectonics, plate boundary animations) Sample MCQs Knowledge (Recall-type) Questions Which of the following is generally true of K-strategist species as compared to r- strategist species? A) They reach sexual maturity earlier B) They have more young C) They are more likely to be invasive species D) They have longer life spans E) Their population cycles are more rapid The origin of all nitrogen in biological tissues is. A) earthquake activities B) volcanoes C) lightning D) atmospheric N 2 gas E) nitrogen weathered from rock Comprehension (a level of understanding beyond recall) Questions The concentration of H+ ions in a solution with a ph value of 4 is how many times as great as the concentration of H+ ions in a solution with a ph value of 7? A) 1 B) 10 C) 100 D) 1000 Biological controls are frequently used to replace persistent chemical pesticides. Which of the following represents the greatest potential risk of using biological controls?

6 A) The control agent attacks not only its intended target but also beneficial species. B) The control agent mutates and is not longer an effective control agent. C) Repeated applications or introduction are required to eliminate the pest population. D) Residual pesticides in the environment kill the control agent before it can eradicate the pest. E) Biological controls prove to be more costly to use than chemical pesticides. Application (applying knowledge or understanding to a new scenario) and Analysis (analyzing data and drawing conclusions) Questions Read the following scenario and answer the questions below. The Kaibab Plateau in southern Utah and northern Arizona is a high, isolated, peninsulalike area about 60 miles from north to south and approximately 15 to 25 miles wide, with elevations up to 10,000 feet. It is bordered by the Grand Canyon on the south and east, by Kanab Creek and Snake Gulch on the west, and by high desert on the north. In the early 1900s, ranchers had been grazing many cattle there for generations, and the land showed some grazing damage. Heavy hunting pressure, in combination with the cattle grazing, had reduced the population of Kaibab deer to only about 4,000. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Grand Canyon National Game Preserve on the Kaibab Plateau in an effort to protect the mule deer from over-hunting by humans and from predation. Deer hunting ceased, and open season was declared on cougars, wolves, and coyotes. Between 1907 and 1923, cattle grazing was greatly reduced, deer hunting was eliminated, and predators were killed. Over 600 cougars, 11 wolves (most had already been killed in the 1800s), and 3,000 coyotes were trapped or shot. In response, the deer herd began to increase. By 1915, the deer were estimated at 25,000; by 1920 at 50,000; and by 1923 at approximately 100,000. The removal of the livestock and predators, and the cessation of hunting in A)changed the environmental resistance, increasing K for the Kaibab deer B)removed the limits on immigration, allowing more deer into the area C)changed the environmental resistance, decreasing K for the Kaibab deer D)increased r, allowing more births among Kaibab deer E)decreased r, allowing more births among Kaibab deer The initial population of Kaibab deer in 1906 was about 4,000. In an area of about 800,000 acres, this works out to an average density of one deer per 200 acres. What is the density in 1923? A)one deer per 20 acres B)one deer per 800 acres C)one deer per 80 acres D)one deer per 0.8 acres E)one deer per 8 acres

Chapter 7: Environmental Systems and Ecosystem Ecology

Chapter 7: Environmental Systems and Ecosystem Ecology Vocabulary words to know: Hypoxia Negative feedback Dynamic equilibrium Emergent properties Lithosphere Biosphere Gross primary production Nutrients