1. Chapter 19-1 Introduction to Ecology
Pictured: Biosphere 2 is a manmade closed ecological system in Oracle, Arizona built by Edward P. Bass, Space Biosphere Ventures and others. Constructed between 1987 and 1989, It was used to test if and how people could live and study in a closed biosphere, while carrying out scientific experiments. It explored the possible use of closed biospheres in space colonization, and also allowed the study and manipulation of a biosphere without harming Earth's. The name comes from the idea that it is modelled on "Biosphere 1" - Earth.
For sale
As of January 10, 2005 Decisions Investments Corporation, owners of Biosphere 2, have announced that the Biosphere 2 campus is for sale. They would prefer if a research use was found for the complex, but are looking for buyers with different intentions, such as universities, churches, resorts, spas, etc.
An interesting consequence of the experiment is that it showed the difficulty of copying the functions of the natural capital of the evolved Earth biosphere with infrastructural capital constructed by humans with present technology. Despite expenditure of over $150 million, this attempt at a new biosphere did not sustain eight humans for a limited time, while the original sustains billions of humans, besides other organisms.

2. Biosphere -1
You are here shows our place in the larger galaxy, can also be used as an introduction to the probability of finding another planet capable of sustaining life.
But space is big; Even at the speed of light it would take us 7 hours to get to Pluto, the fastest things we’ve made were Voyager which is moving at thirty five thousand miles away from us. On a diagram just our Solar system with Earth the size of a Pea, Jupiter would be a thousand feet away, and Pluto would be a mile & a half distant. Proxima Centauri (4.3 light years away) the nearest start is 10,000 miles away, That’s from Pittsburgh to Melbourne Australia. To get to Sirius would be another 4.6 Light years, So complete the trip back from Melbourne.
Know one knows, but estimates are that there are billion stars in the Milky way. And the Milky Way is one of 140 Billion estimated Galaxies. So chances for E.T. is good, but even if they are viewing us with great telescopes the light they are receiving left Earth 200 years ago. They’re watching the French Revolution & Thomas Jefferson.

3. Chapter 19-1 Objectives Define Ecology, explain why its important
List & describe 3 human caused environmental problems
I.D. five levels of organization in ecology
Explain the theme of interconnectedness
Pictured on top: an Ecosphere: Self contained environment of Shrimp and algae, developed by NASA

4. Humans changing the environment
Global population tripled in the 20th Century.
The lack of space & resources is causing mass extinction
oekologie was coined in 1866 by the German biologist, Ernst Haeckel, from the Greek oikos meaning "household" and logos meaning "study"; hence, the "study of the household of nature".

5. These graphs show that mass extinctions have happened through out the history of the Earth. The worst was the Permian Extinction (252 mya) about 90 percent of all marine species and 70 percent of terrestrial vertebrate species going extinct. For some time after the event, fungal species were the dominant form of terrestrial life. Entire Phylums were wiped out, you can see it in the strata, specifically in Greenland. The fossils just stop.
65 mya the cretaceous extinction wiped out about 50% of genera famously the dinosaurs largely thought to be due to astroid impact.
Scientists are calling the current extinction event the Holocene

6. Artistic interpretatin of a large astroid impacting the Earth

8. Ozone Layer
A relatively high layer of O3 absorbs ultraviolet light from the sun\
Man-Made Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) & other chemicals react with ozone, decomposing it.
A chlorine atom can disable 100,000 ozone molecules, before UV radiation
Relatively high only means a few ppm, but that’s relative to surface concentrations.
On January 23, 1978 Sweden became the first nation to ban CFC-containing aerosol sprays that are thought to damage the ozone layer. The United States and other developed nations followed suit soon after. Chlorofluorocarbons continued to be used in other applications, such as refrigeration and industrial cleaning, until after the discovery of the antarctic ozone hole in After negotiation of an international treaty (the Montreal Protocol), CFC production was sharply limited beginning in 1987 and phased out completely by 1996.
On August 2, 2003, scientists announced that the depletion of the ozone layer may be slowing down due to the international ban on chlorofluorocarbons. [1] Three satellites and three ground stations confirmed that the upper atmosphere ozone depletion rate has slowed down significantly during the past decade. The study was organized by the American Geophysical Union. Some breakdown can be expected to continue due to CFCs used by nations which have not banned them, and due to gases which are already in the stratosphere.

10. Image of the largest Antarctic ozone hole ever recorded in September Data taken by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument aboard NASA's Earth Probe satellite.
UV light is generally accepted to be a contributory factor to malignant melanoma (skin cancer). A study of people in Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in the world (53°S), showed a 66% increase in skin cancer in seven years along with with decreased ozone and increased UV levels

11. Greenhouse effect
Like any stone the Earth heats up in the sunlight, and then heat escapes in the dark
Carbon Dioxide & water vapor insulates the Earth reflecting escaping heat back
Burning fossil fuels leads to an increase of CO2 levels rise; warming the globe
Melting the ice caps?
Pictured The first image shows the minimum sea ice concentration for the year 1979, and the second image shows the minimum sea ice concentration in Images: NASA
Just like there can be gas trapped in soda pop, our Ocean’s trap CO2, but if we make it faster than the environment can process it the it goes into the atmosphere.
We are just far enough from the sun. If we were 5% closer life wouldn’t exist. Venus is 25 million miles closer to the sun than us. Probably in the Early Universe Venus was only slightly warmer than Earth and even had oceans, but the few degrees meant Venus couldn’t hold onto its surface water. Evaporated water increased the greenhouse effect to the point where its hundreds of degrees on Venus’s surface, hot enough to melt lead. The Atmosphere is 90 times heavier than Earths. Though there still might be extremophiles there.
On the other hand, Mars doesn’t have enough and it freezes.

14. Levels of Organization
Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts?
Emergent Properties: larger groups (of cells, individuals, chemicals) can carry out more complex processes.
Every level influences every other level
Butterfly effect
A butterfly flaps its wings…
The complete saying has many variations: a butterfly flaps its wings and the Stock Market crashes, it rains in California. It’s an explanation of Chaos theory pointing out the accumulation of microscopic random events affecting the macroscopic level.
The butterfly effect is a bad movie staring Ashton Kutcher

15. The levels of organization
Biosphere: part of Earth that supports life
Ecosystems: the organisms & non-living environment in a particular place
Community: only the organisms in a particular place
Population: the members of one species in one place during one stretch of time
Organism: The individual

17. Interconnectedness No one is isolated Survival depends on interactions
Networks are what matter
Disturbing the environment will come back and affect humanity
Back to the ecosphere: a simplified version of a biosphere, It would not be wise for the shrimp to destroy the Algae