Sample Q4 answers
1. C
2. A
3. C (“Bucky Balls” are fullerenes)
4. B
5. B
6. D (this is a dissolved carbon species as you would expect in ocean WATER)
7. C
8. C
9. D
10. D
11. D
12. D
13. C
14. D
15. A
16. The relatively “new” large flux from fossil-fuel combustion, calcining and land-use change transfers over 7 GtC per year from lithosphere to atmosphere, in excess of that already going naturally from the biosphere and ocean to the atmosphere. This “new” flux started gradually only about 200 years ago with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. This extra 7 GtC is then taken up by several sinks, some of which we are certain (i.e., that retained by the atmosphere and that which is going into the ocean), and others of which we are less certain (biosphere, soils)
17. Falling overboard and breaking open of large shipping
containers from behemoth container ships has resulted in a number of spills
containing Nike shoes, hockey gloves, dolls, rubber ducks and more. One such spill in the N. Pacific has allowed
tracking of the ducks around the Pacific and into the Arctic then
18. Generally it is conversion of natural ecosystems to other uses such as urban areas (urbanization) or transportation (roads) or reservoirs behind dams (energy, water storage, etc) or agriculture. Deforestation would be an example, which involves conversion of land from forest to agriculture or grazing (or maybe even cities). Also natural grasslands may be changed to agriculture.
19. Dry matter in tropical forest biomes is dominated by living plant parts (roots, stems, trunks, leaves) with a smaller fraction of dry matter in dead material (litter and soil), whereas dry matter in grasslands is overwhelmingly in dead material, with a small fraction in living plant parts (review http://www.ltrr.arizona.edu/nats101/DryMatter3-26-08.pdf)
20. Competition for light resources tends to be much greater on land than in water, and on land the best way to compete is to grow fast and tall, above you neighbors. Consequently, a very high investment in plant structural components on land is needed (trunks, stems) as wood, compared to marine biosphere where such structural components are not needed.
21. Non-native species that have entered an area (accidentally or purposely) with the result that they become established and compete with (maybe outcompete) native species. See your notes and my notes from March 30
22. Dominance of photosynthesis in spring and summer draws down CO2 from the atmosphere, and dominance of respiration returns CO2 to the atmosphere in Fall and Winter. (“seasonal biosphere” is key to where the effect is greatest, as related to question #1.
23. embayment between river and
open ocean (like Chesapeake Bay and