1. Environmental Science

2. Megalocerous Megalocerous or “Irish Elk” lived during the ice ages.
Even though it’s name is Elk, it is really a type of deer
Stood over 12 feet tall!
Lived in Eurasia in the last ‘ice age’
Went extinct about 20,000 years ago
May have gone extinct due to malnutrition or anthropogenic causes.
Anthropogenic means caused by man (probably due to hunting)
What changes in Earth caused these species to go extinct? What species will go extinct in the future?

3. Thylacine – Tasmanian Tiger
Video of Tasmanian Tiger

4. Thylacine Lived in the 20th century until 1936
It was the largest marsupial mammal
Lived in Australia
Tasmanian Wolves (aka Tas Tigers, but really is neither!) were hunted to extinction because they sometimes killed livestock
What happened to this strange and unique animal?
Over 98% of all documented species are now extinct
What changes in Earth have occurred that have caused so many extinctions?
What, if any, effect has man had on the rate of extinctions? Has man had any other effects on Earth?

5. Planet Earth
Chapter 1
To look at the questions, we have to understand earth as a system. We must learn about:
the components of Earth
The processes on earth
The cycling of materials on earth
Biomes, food webs and food chains
Energy level pyramids
biodiversity
Relationships between species in a community
How different factors effect populations and ecosystems

6. What you need to learn: Be able to define:
Atmosphere, Biosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, core, mantle, crust, lithosphere, troposhpere, stratoshpere, mesosphere, thermosphere ,ionosphere
Describe the layers of the the geosphere
Describe the layers of the atmosphere
Identify the origin and composition of the earth’s 4 spheres

7. 1.1 Planet of Life Living things are called organisms.
They are found in the land, sea, water and air
The Earth is divided into 4 spheres
Lithosphere
Hydrosphere
Atmosphere
Biosphere

8. The Spheres Interact
Lithosphere interacts with the Hydrosphere when toxins from a factory run off into a water system and poison fish in a body of water
Hydrosphere interacts with the Atmosphere when water evaporates and forms clouds
Atmosphere interacts with the Lithosphere when acid rain falls and dissolves limestone

9. Unique Earth
Earth is the only planet in our solar system, and perhaps the entire cosmos, that can support life. Why?
One reason is water
Water exists elsewhere, but only as ice or vapor, never as a liquid.
Water has several benefits
It stores heat during warm periods and releases it during cold periods, helping to maintain several benefits
Organisms need water to support life, chemical reactions necessary to life occur mainly in water

10. Unique Earth
Earth also has another factor necessary to support life ~ an atmosphere
air is a mixture of gases, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapor
These gases act as insulation to help keep earth warm
gases have to be the right mix in order for us to breathe and obtain oxygen for energy
Plants need carbon dioxide
All these interactions between nonliving and living parts of the earth are the subject of ecology

11. Is the sun important?
Supports life on Earth by transmitting energy to us in the form of light
Light travels to Earth in the
form of waves
Most waves are invisible

12. Visible light makes up only a small portion of the energy given off by the sun
Each type of wave has a specific wavelength

13. Why is the sky blue?
A clear cloudless day-time sky is blue because molecules in the air bend blue light like a prism from the sun towards you and your eyes (called refraction). 
At sunset, we see the red and orange colors because the light is coming at us from an angle that bends those autumn colors towards us instead of the blue.

15. Lithosphere
The lithosphere is the layer of land that forms Earth's surface.
It includes the rocks, soil and sand that make up land.
Varies in thickness from kilometers
3 Main rock types that make up the lithosphere
Sedimentary, Igneous, and Metamorphic
Are classified on the basis of how they were formed

16. When liquid rock cools, it becomes Igneous rock
When liquid rock cools, it becomes Igneous rock. Ex: Granite or basalt forming from a lava flow.

17. Rock that is transformed by heat and pressure .
Metamorphic Rock
Rock that is transformed by heat and pressure .
Ex: marble and slate

18. Sedimentary Rock
Rock that is formed from smaller particles that are squeezed together due to pressure.

19. Asthenosphere
The asthenosphere is a portion of the upper layer just below the lithosphere that is involved in plate tectonics
Lithosphere is cold, solid and rigid whereas as Asthenosphere is partially molten
Includes rocks, soil and sand

20. Hydrosphere More than 70% of Earth is covered in water.
97% of it is Salt water and 3% Fresh water

21. 2/3 or 66% of Freshwater is in our ice caps.
As our ice caps melt our freshwater decreases and our saltwater increases.
Surface water – ponds, lakes, and streams
Groundwater - aquifers

22. Aquifer – an underground layer of porous rock that contains water.
Artesian Well – Wells in which water flows to the surface due to high pressure underground.
Wells do not replenish as they once did due to personal demand and the amount of pavement.

23. 1.3 The Atmosphere 4 Atmospheric layers based on temperature change.
Thermosphere (Highest)
Mesosphere
Stratosphere
Troposphere (Lowest)
The atmosphere becomes less dense the farther you travel from Earth.

24. Troposphere
The layer of the atmosphere that touches the surface of Earth
Contains most of the water vapor
Most weather occurs here.
Extends 8-18 km above Earth’s surface
The most dense layer

25. Stratosphere
Beyond the troposphere, reaching a height of 50 km above earth
Above weather disturbances
Ozone Layer
Ozone – gas that filters UV rays
Contains 3 oxygen molecules
Without it, UV radiation would destroy most life on Earth

26. Mesosphere Coldest Layer – temps as low as -100̊C
Extends up to 85 km above Earth’s surface

27. Thermosphere Outermost layer of the atmosphere
Surprisingly the warmest layer – up to 2000̊ C
Furthest from the surface
The least dense layer
Air pressure is one ten-thousandth of earth’s surface
Aka ionosphere because gas molecules are bombarded with rays from sun, causing molecules to lose electrons and become ions.

28. Video of the Aurora Borealis
The Northern Lights
Video of the Aurora Borealis
The aurora is formed when protons and electrons from the Sun travel along the Earth's magnetic field lines.
These particles from the Sun are very energetic. We are talking major-league energy, much more than the power of lightning: 20 million amps at 50,000 volts is channeled into the auroral oval.
It's no wonder that the gases of the atmosphere light up like the gases of a streetlamp!

29. Northern Lights
The aurora is also known as the northern and southern lights. From the ground, they can usually be seen where the northern and southern auroral ovals are on the Earth. The northern polar auroral oval usually spans Fairbanks, Alaska, Oslo, Norway, and the Northwest Territories. Sometimes, when the Sun is active, the northern auroral oval expands and the aurora can be seen much farther south.
The lights of the aurora come in different colors. Oxygen atoms give off green light and sometimes red. Nitrogen molecules glow red, blue, and purple

30. Facts about the Atmosphere
US winds blow from the west to the east.

31. What would happen to levels of CO2 if there were fewer plants?
What is air composed of ?
What would happen to levels of CO2 if there were fewer plants?

33. 1.4 The Biosphere Anywhere that life can and is supported.
It is 20 km thick
All organisms obtain the materials they need to live from the biosphere.
Each individual organism may live mostly on land, water or air, all organisms depend on materials from each of these 3 areas
Ex. you live in the lithosphere, breathe air of the atmosphere and drink water from the hydrosphere

34. 1.4 The Biosphere
Limiting Factors – things that limit life in the biosphere:
Temperature
Oxygen
Depth
Sunlight
Pressure
Food