Exam Questions

1)      List and describe all six possible soil horizons.

Answer:

-The O layer is made up of undecomposed and decomposed organic material and humus.

-The A layer contains a high proportion of organic matter and is a leached mineral horizon.

-The E layer is lightly colored and is the zone of maximum leaching

-The B layer is the maximum zone of accumulation of weathering products like clay, silicate, and carbonates

-The C layer is relatively unaltered and is made of unconsolidated parent material

-The R layer is considered the hard bedrock layer

2)      Briefly explain the differences between C3, C4, and CAM plants and give some examples of each.

Answer:

-C3 plants have 2 molecules of three-carbon acid as the initial products of Carbon fixation. Most land plants are C3 plants. Examples: wheat, cotton, most trees

-C4 plants have a 2 stage strategy that keeps CO2 high and O2 low in chloroplast in order to maintain a vigorous Calvin cycle. This strategy uses malic acid and has a stage in the mesophyll cell and a stage in a bundle sheath cell. These plants can handle hot, dry conditions. Examples: Sugar cane, corn, crabgrass

-CAM plants are similar to C4 plants but their 2 stages are done at different times of the day. At night, the stomata open and malic acid is created and stored. During the day, the stomata are closed and the malic acid is used in the Calvin cycle. Examples: cacti, orchids, pineapple

3)      List the 4 dominating ecological processes in the dynamics of a system and determine which parts of the following situation fall under which ecological process:

A deer hunting plan has been put into place to control the density of the deer population in the state. The deer population eventually drops to an alarmingly low level. A change is made to the deer hunting plan to limit harvesting of the deer. The deer population begins to rise again.

Answer: The 4 processes are rapid growth, conservation, release, and reorganization. The deer hunting plan being put into place is the “rapid growth” stage. The population dropping to a low level is the “conservation” stage. The change made to the hunting plan is the “release” stage. The population growing in response is the “reorganization” stage.

Envisioning Environment at UVM - Undergraduate Level

The report I reviewed is “Envisioning Environment” at UVM. The purpose of this report is to develop an inventory and make recommendations about environmental research, education, and outreach at UVM.  The task had a broad focused on “environment, sustainability, and health” or ESH. I learned that the five major recommendations are to develop an ESH institute, create an associate provost ESH position, coordinate ESH graduate and undergraduate programs, expand graduate support, and finally to create an “environmental commons” or a physical and web-based place for ESH activity.

For the purposes of this blog, I focused my reading on the undergraduate education. I agree with the strengths related to ESH when it comes to undergraduate education. Being a part of the Rubenstein School, it is clear to me that we have many majors, minors, and classes related to various subjects relating to environmental health and its importance. There are many opportunities presented to students to become involved in the subject. I believe that we have a head start in that sense. I think it would also make sense for UVM to focus some time on marketing for our environmental education that we already have and try to spark some interest in the incoming students. I for one am very glad that I was drawn to the Rubenstein School and I think it is an area that will continue to expand and grow in the future. Something I’m not sure that I agree with, however, is that it is confusing to explain the range of options to incoming students. Sure, it can be confusing trying to decide on a major when you are coming into college, but I think all the information you need about each major is online. I think a “comprehensive advising map” would just be a waste of the school’s time and money when it comes to ESH.

It was helpful to see the view of UVM that this work group of people has and where we are in terms of environmental health. I think being in the Rubenstein School makes it easy for me to sort of assume that the whole school is constantly thinking about the environment and sustainability, but I have been reminded that isn’t the case and it is important that the awareness is spread.

Vegetation and Project Thinking

In my remote sensing class last semester, we did a lot of lessons using imagery from satellites to look at vegetation. A few of the corrections we focused on had to do with vegetation health. This reminds me of the MODIS images we looked at today in lecture showing the LAI values of different areas in South America. Until today I haven’t really been thinking about what I want to do for my project for this class, but I knew after taking remote sensing, the most interesting parts were always about vegetation.  Vegetation is always such an important topic because the basis of the carbon cycle, our source of oxygen and clean air, and even an indicator of soil, water, and air quality in an area. If there is a change at all in vegetation, it is something worth looking into.

I think it would be interesting to create a model to see how vegetation in a certain area changes over time. Whether vegetation levels decrease or increase is important, but it would also be interesting to see if the composition changes at all. Maybe natural species are slowly moving out while new species are slowly moving in or maybe the composition is staying the same. I’m still unaware of all the things Dinamica can do and all the possibilities the program has, but if there is a way to see how the species composition changes in an area over time, I think that would be an interesting project topic.

Talking about the movement of plant species also makes me wonder what exactly makes a plant an “invasive species”. The definition I know of invasive species is a species that is non-native to the ecosystem under consideration. We’ve heard over and over that ranges of plants and animals are changing with respect to climate change. If a plant that is not currently in Vermont suddenly slips over the border of a neighboring state into Vermont, is it an invasive species? Must it naturally occur in Vermont, or could it just be part of the natural movement patterns of the population? There was a time when no sugar maples or red oaks or any other plant for that matter existed in Vermont, so they all had to come in at some point…but that doesn’t make any of them invasive species?

Soils

The topic of soils was never all that interesting to me, to be honest. I have not taken a soils class in college, my only experience with learning about soils comes from a brief overview in biology and a high school earth science class. The only things I remember learning from these classes about soil is the different soil horizons and the differences between those horizons. In class on Tuesday was the first time I have ever heard about soil orders and those made the topic of soil a little less boring. It was interesting to see the effects that climate, weather and placement has on the soil and that those three things are essentially the deciding factors for which order of soil you will find in an area. It would be interesting to see the effects of climate change over the years on the soil types. Would they change at all and is it possible for the order of the soil to change?

                Another aspect of the soils that I found fascinating was the serious of slides showing the “black soils” of the south. At one point in the Cretaceous period, that area of Georgia and Alabama was the shore which caused the soils to be different than the surrounding soils. Even after the shoreline moved outward, the soils remained the same and the graph showed that this was the area with the best cotton crop and with a higher African American population. Eventually, the people living in this “black soils” ring became more democratic and voted for Obama while surrounding areas did not. It was very interesting to see the correlation between all these things and soils because it is something I never would have thought would be related. It just shows that where you are raised and the soils you live on have an impact on who you are. I have learned that soils are much more important in countless aspects than I ever thought.