Questions and Answers

Describe a sustainable resource as one which is produced as rapidly as it is removed from the environment so that it does not run out

Explain how fish stocks can be conserved using education, closed seasons, protected areas, controlled net types and mesh size, quotas and monitoring

Explain how forests can be conserved using education, protected areas, quotas and replanting

Discuss reasons for conservation of species with reference to: (a) maintenance of biodiversity (b) reducing extinction (c) protecting vulnerable environments

Describe the harmful effects of: (a) water pollution by untreated sewage and nitrogen-containing fertilisers leading to eutrophication, limited to: (i) increased availability of nitrate and other ions (ii) increased growth of producers (iii) increased decomposition after death of producers (iv) increased aerobic respiration by decomposers (v) reduction in dissolved oxygen (vi) death of organisms requiring dissolved oxygen in water (b) air pollution by greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane), contributing to global warming and its likely effects (c) pollution due to insecticides and herbicides (d) non-biodegradable plastics in the environment, in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

Describe the impacts humans have through: (a) over-harvesting of plant and animal species (b) introducing a non-native species to an ecosystem

Outline the causes and describe the consequences of deforestation, limited to its effects on: biodiversity, extinction, loss of soil, flooding and concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere