2. UNIT 4: Sustainability of Ecosystems
Chapter 7: Factors that Affect Sustainability
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems

3. Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Vernal pools are a type of wetland. They are usually found in or near forests and do not have permanent streams or water flowing into or out of them.
What kind of organisms might be found in and around vernal pools?
Sample answers: ferns, trees, worms, snails, fairy shrimp, crustaceans, insects, frogs, salamanders, turtles, amphibians, snakes, birds, and mammals
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4. 8.1 How Our Understanding of Ecosystems Has Changed
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
8.1 How Our Understanding of Ecosystems Has Changed
Throughout history, humans have depended on Earth’s systems, including ecosystems, for resources such as water, food, and raw materials for energy, shelter, and clothing.
Many people took the attitude that the supply of resources was endless.
Conservationists and environmental scientists have warned us that humans are overusing, overexploiting, and destroying the resources that humans need to survive.
What are some historical examples of the overuse of resources?
Sample answers: use of trees for firewood or commercial purposes until there are no more trees left, leading to soil erosion and loss of forest habitat. Mining of underground resources (coal, different ores) until none are left. Fishing for cod and other species until few are left, and the population collapses. Trapping of beaver until few are left, and the population collapses.
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5. Ecosystem Services UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem services are the benefits sustainable ecosystems provide that are experienced by living organisms, including humans.
Ecosystem services are the natural result of all the activities that occur in the biosphere.
Without sustainable ecosystems, Earth would lose most of the services that ecosystems provide.
Ecosystem services allow ecosystems to function, which is a requirement of sustainability.
Examples of services include: Forests take up carbon dioxide, release oxygen, and maintain soil fertility. Watersheds and plants in wetlands clean and filter water.
Ecosystems maintain populations of organisms that are necessary for pest control, pollination, waste management, and other processes.
Ecosystem services include the cycling of nutrients and balancing the processes of growth and decomposition.
Ecosystems not only provide habitat for the diversity of two million known species on Earth, they are also a source of beauty and spirituality for many people.
Ecosystems provide humans with food, timber, and fossil fuels. Plants from many ecosystems are used for medicinal purposes.
What services do ecosystems provide?
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6. Ecosystem Services Provided by Forests
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Ecosystem Services Provided by Forests
Forests supply trees that are needed for the manufacture of wood and paper products.
Forests influence climate because they take in large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis.
Forests reduce erosion in watersheds.
Forests provide habitats for thousands of species.
Why is it important for forests to serve as carbon dioxide sinks?
Why is the prevention of erosion in watersheds important?
A watershed is an area of land over which run-off drains into a body of water. The graph shows the difference between a forested and a deforested area in filtering nitrates from the run-off.
Sample answer 1: Forests absorb about one-third of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is believed to contribute to climate change.
Sample answer 2: When soils are washed away, the remaining soil retains less rainwater and meltwater. There is an increased loss of nutrients in the remaining soil, as many of the nutrients remain in the water.
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7. Ecosystem Services Provided by Wetlands
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Ecosystem Services Provided by Wetlands
Wetlands are areas that are covered by water for part or all of the year.
Wetlands cover about 6 percent of Earth’s surface.
About 24 percent of the world’s wetlands are in Canada.
What ecosystem services do wetlands provide?
Wetlands store water, which reduces the risk of floods, and provide habitat for commercially important species of fish and shellfish.
Plants, turtles, snakes, mink, and thousands of other organisms live in wetlands. For juvenile animals, wetlands are a protected environment in which they can grow and develop.
Every spring and fall, migrating birds also use wetlands to feed and rest. About 30 percent of birds in North America stop in wetlands throughout Canada.
Besides providing habitat for many organisms, wetlands perform another important ecosystem service—the plants that grow in them filter sediment and pollution from water.
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8. Ecosystem Services Provided by Insects
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Ecosystem Services Provided by Insects
Insects, such as beetles and bees, pollinate plants.
In the wild and in agricultural fields, fruit and seed production are much higher when plants are pollinated by insects.
Cross-pollination by insects assists the production of about one-third of our food.
What is the difference between cross- pollination and self- pollination?
What is colony collapse disorder?
Sample answer 1: Male pollen from one flower fertilizes the female ovary in another flower of the same species in a process known as cross-pollination. Most plants rely on animals to move pollen from one plant to another. Self-pollination is a process in which flowers can pollinate themselves or another flower from the same plant.
Sample answer 2: Colony collapse disorder is when only frail young worker bees and the queen remain in the hive. All of the mature worker bees are gone. The young worker bees and the queen cannot maintain the hive, and it collapses.
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9. Beauty and Spirituality in Sustainable Ecosystems
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Beauty and Spirituality in Sustainable Ecosystems
Canada’s indigenous peoples have had a long, rich, and complex spirituality tied closely to the ecosystems they occupy.
Artistic expressions of ecosystems are meaningful and spiritual to some people.
What emotions does the painting on the right evoke?
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10. Recreational Opportunities as Ecosystem Services
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Recreational Opportunities as Ecosystem Services
Ecotourism is a form of tourism that is sensitive to the health of an ecosystem and involves recreational activities provided by sustainable ecosystems.
Ecotourism is a nature-based, sustainable form of tourism that is now a multibillion-dollar industry worldwide.
Examples include: camping, canoeing, snowshoeing, fishing, and kayaking
What are examples of recreational activities that a sustainable ecosystem provides?
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11. The Concept of Connectivity
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
The Concept of Connectivity
The collection of links and relationships between ecosystems that are separated geographically is called connectivity.
As shown in the graph below, populations of many aerial insectivore birds that breed in Canada have declined since the 1980s.
Why might bird populations be declining in Canada?
Sample answer: Scientist are not sure exactly why the populations of aerial insectivore birds are declining. Because the birds are migratory, it is difficult to determine exactly what is causing the decline.
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12. Disrupting Connectivity
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Disrupting Connectivity
Salmon help to keep temperate rainforests of British Columbia healthy. How can this be?
Explain what is occurring in the flowchart.
1. Salmon hatch in freshwater streams in the temperate rainforest.
2. Salmon spend their adult lives in the Pacific Ocean, picking up nutrients from the marine ecosystem.
3. Salmon return to their birthplace to spawn.
4. Bears fish spawning salmon, taking their bodies into the forest to eat them. Nutrients released from the salmons' decaying bodies are absorbed by plants in the forest.
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13. Biodiversity and Sustainability
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Biodiversity and Sustainability
New species of organisms are frequently being discovered.
Scientists have identified about 2 million species, and they estimate that there are 5 million to 100 million species on Earth.
Biodiversity includes the number and variety of organisms found in a specific region.
Sample answers: Diverse ecosystems must remain undisturbed and sustainable.
What factors are important for biodiversity to remain high?
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Continued…

14. Biodiversity and Sustainability
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Biodiversity and Sustainability
Evidence suggests that ecosystems with greater biodiversity are more likely to provide ecosystem services reliably.
Resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to remain functional and stable in the presence of pressures or disturbances to its parts.
What do these graphs show?
Sample answer: A shows that greater biodiversity in an ecosystem results in increased plant cover; B shows that the higher the populations of invasive species, the lower the plant species diversity; and C shows that the severity of plant disease decreases as species diversity increases.
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15. Threats to Biodiversity and Sustainability
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Threats to Biodiversity and Sustainability
Human activities often threaten biodiversity.
Deforestation is the practice of clearing forests for logging or other human uses and never replanting the trees.
Wetlands are often drained for farming or for building homes and commercial buildings.
Alien species are species that are accidentally or deliberately introduced into a new location.
Overexploitation is the use or extraction of a resource until it is depleted.
Invasive species is a species that can take over the habitat of native species. Sample answers: Japanese Knotweed, Lacy Crust Bryozoan, and European Green Crab.
Name some examples of invasive species that have affected Nova Scotia.
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16. Pg. 318 Q: 1-4
Pg. 322 Q: 5-7
Pg. 327 Q: 8-11
Pg. 330 Q: 12-14

17. UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.1
Section 8.1 Review
Ecosystem services are the benefits sustainable ecosystems provide that are experienced by organisms, including humans.
Forests influence climate change and play a vital role in the regulation of watersheds.
Wetlands provide ecosystem services, including habitat for aquatic organisms, water filtration, and erosion control.
Insects provide the critical ecosystem service of pollination.
Visual beauty and spiritual appreciation are two services that ecosystems provide for humans.
Ecosystems with higher biodiversity have higher resilience.
Threats to biodiversity include deforestation, draining wetlands, the introduction of invasive species, and overexploitation.
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18. 8.2 The Shift Is On—Attitude, Actions, and Empowerment
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.2
8.2 The Shift Is On—Attitude, Actions, and Empowerment
A paradigm is a view of the world or a way of thinking about how the world works.
A paradigm shift is a significant change in the way humans view the world.
Use the figures on the left to explain the terms paradigm and paradigm shift.
Early Greeks developed a geocentric model of the solar system in which Earth was at the centre. This model was the paradigm for centuries. Nicolaus Copernicus developed the heliocentric model of the solar system. Once this model was shown to be correct by the scientific community, it caused a paradigm shift in the thinking about the structure of the solar system.
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19. UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.2
Paradigm Shifts
There are many examples of paradigm shifts throughout history.
There is often resistance to a change in a paradigm.
What are some examples of paradigm shifts that have occurred throughout history?
What are some examples of paradigm shifts that are occurring now?
Sample answers: A shift from the geocentric model of the solar system to the heliocentric model of the solar system. The shift from the belief of spontaneous generation to biogenesis. The shift from the belief that continents and ocean basins are in fixed positions to the theory of continental drift, and a shift to the theory of plate tectonics (illustrated above). Evidence of paradigm shifts occurring now include: the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Amending Phosphorus Concentration Regulations, Nova Scotia’s Climate Change Action Plan, and the establishment of Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources.
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20. Outcomes of the Shift—Public Policy, Legislation, and Sustainability
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.2
Outcomes of the Shift—Public Policy, Legislation, and Sustainability
Worldwide, governments on all levels rely on scientific findings to make decisions about public policy and pass legislation related to sustainability.
What are examples of public policy or legislation regarding sustainability?
Sample answers: Nova Scotia’s Non-Essential Pesticide Control Act, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, environmental farm plans, replacing highway light bulbs with energy-efficient bulbs, idling control by-laws, and banning the importation, sale, and advertising of baby bottles containing BPA.
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21. UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.2
Self-education
Educating yourself about how products are made, whether they are environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable, is an important part of individual empowerment.
Fair trade is a trade practice that is based on the concepts of transparency in business and sustainable development.
A product’s life cycle includes all aspects involved in making, distributing, selling, using, and disposing of the product.
How are a product’s life cycle and sustainability related?
Sample answer: At each point in a product’s life cycle, unsustainable practices can occur. It is important to look at all points in a product’s life cycle to determine if the product is made, used, and disposed of in a sustainable manner.
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22. Our Actions Can Maintain or Rebuild Sustainable Ecosystems
UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.2
Our Actions Can Maintain or Rebuild Sustainable Ecosystems
Some human activities can help ecosystems.
Provide boxes or places for birds to nest
Use smart growth for urban planning
Provide preserves that maintain natural habitats for organisms
Sample answers: disposal of waste in a responsible way, assisting in reforestation and the preservation of habitat.
What are some examples of human activities that have helped ecosystems in your community?
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23. UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.2
Section 8.2 Review
A paradigm shift is a significant change in the way humans view the world. There are many examples of paradigm shifts throughout the history of science and technology.
Our society is in the midst of a paradigm shift regarding the way we view the sustainability of ecosystems and the use of resources on Earth.
Evidence of the shift can be seen at the international, national, provincial, and local levels.
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Continued…

24. UNIT 4
Chapter 8: Shifting Perspectives on Ecosystems
Section 8.2
Section 8.2 Review
Outcomes of the shift can be seen in public policy and legislation, such as the passing of pesticide by-laws and idling control laws.
Individuals can be empowered to make changes by learning more about the products they purchase, voting, joining advocacy groups, or volunteering to be citizen scientists.
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