Natural Resources and Human Impact

What is the result of using fossil fuels more rapidly than they are formed?

• The reserves will be refilled more quickly.

• The reserves will eventually be used up.

• The price of fossil fuels will fall.

• The reserves will not be affected.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS3-4

Salt water is an abundant resource but unusable for irrigation and drinking. As demands on freshwater sources increase, the use of desalination processes to remove salt from ocean water is increasing. A concern of desalinating water is the large amounts of recovered salts that are returned to the ocean. Which of the following describes the most likely impact of desalination on the surrounding ocean environment?

• Methane gas would pollute the ocean environment as shoreline organisms begin to die and decay.

• Alteration in ocean salt levels would cause loss of species and unbalanced populations in marine food webs.

• Nonrenewable resources in the ocean environment would become depleted and upset the ecosystem's balance.

• Increased levels of salts and minerals in the ocean would result in overpopulation of marine bivalves due to strengthened shells

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

DDT and other pesticides used over 50 years ago are still affecting the environment today. Scientists have found these substances in recent glacier runoff. Glacier runoff occurs during the summer, when precipitation that has fallen on glaciers during the winter is released. Ice layers from existing glaciers have been analyzed. The results of this analysis show that the concentrations of DDT and other pesticides were highest about 10 years after the use of these substances was banned. This information shows that

• DDT and other pesticides cause glacier runoff during the summer.

• it takes humans over 50 years to analyze a glacier.

• precipitation helps to break down pesticides.

• the decision of one human generation may have an impact on future generations.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS3-4

A strip mining company wants to lease some land that is currently part of a national park. They promise to reclaim the land should any minerals be mined from the area, and they are willing to pay top dollar for the rights. As an ecologist, what factors would you raise with the local government?

• the threat to local biodiversity

• management of the land after the company leaves

• the new jobs that would be created

• the increased traffic in the area

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS3-4

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

NGSS.MS-LS2-5

The diagram shows the carbon cycle.  If many trees are removed from a forest by logging, what is the most immediate effect on the carbon cycle in that forest?

•  increase in the rates of decomposition

• increase in the rates of atmospheric carbon dioxide

• decreased combustion of fossil fuel

•  increase production of organic compounds

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-6

NGSS.MS-LS2-3

An underground layer of rock that contains groundwater

• Aquifer

• Aqueduct

• Water table

• Artesian Well

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-4

NGSS.MS-ESS3-1

What is happening to the amount of groundwater in the largest aquifer in the United States found under the Great Plains and stretching from South Dakota to Texas?

• it is polluted

• it is shrinking

• it is expanding

• it is gone

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS3-1

A natural resource that can be replaced by nature in a short period of time.

• Renewable resource

• nonrenewable resource

• fossil fuels

• aggregates

Why do we depend on fossil fuels? 

• Electricity, transportation, and heating

• Food

• Sunlight

• Growing, building muscle, calcium

Which of the following is a renewable natural resource?

• Coal

• Natural Gas

• Solar Energy

• Nuclear Energy