Earth Science
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Notes
Connection + Sustainability
● Sustainability ensures balanced, healthy systems
● Being scientifically literate matters both locally + globally
● Idea of interconnectedness at the heart of what it is to be First Peoples
○ Similar ideas developing among other societies
● Canadian Inuit leader made petition before U.S. Senate in 2004 about climate change
● Biotic parts- living parts of environment
● Abiotic parts- non-living parts of environment
○ Biotic + abiotic connected through ways they interact
● Earth’s spheres (systems)
○ Four
○ Atmosphere- gaseous part of earth about 10km of surface to hundreds of km
higher
○ Geosphere (lithosphere)- solid + rocky part of earth
○ Hydrosphere- all water (liquid + solid + gaseous) on and in geosphere
○ Biosphere- all areas in geosphere + atmosphere + hydrosphere that are inhabited
by + support life
● Earth’s spheres interact with + affects each other in different ways
○ Eg. landslides
○ Occur when soil + rock from geosphere are pulled down by gravity
○ Affects biosphere since they cause habitat loss
● Ecosystem provide services all living things depend on
○ Ecosystem services- benefits organisms receive from environment + its resources
○ Eg. atmospheric gas supply
■ Regulation of carbon dioxide + oxygen
○ Climate regulation
■ Regulation of greenhouse gases
, ○ Food production
■ Crops, livestock, fish, etc
○ Water supply
■ Supplying of water by reservoirs, watersheds, wells, etc
● Recognize + evaluate bias in information
○ Bias- judgement based on person’s knowledge, understanding, beliefs
Sun’s Energy
● Solar energy reaches earth, absorbed + reflected by atmosphere and surface
○ Heats earth’s surface unevenly, global winds help redistribute around earth
○ Ocean currents also redistribute
○ Enters biosphere through photosynthesis + cellular respiration
● Greenhouse effect
○ Solar energy passes through clear atmosphere
○ Some reflected by atmosphere + earth surface
○ Energy emitted from earth’s surface
○ Some energy pass through atmosphere, some absorbed + re-emitted in all
directions by greenhouse gas molecules
○ Effect of this- warm earth’s surface + lower atmosphere
● Greenhouse gases- absorb solar energy in earth’s atmosphere
○ Many occur naturally in atmosphere
○ Water vapour
■ Evaporation from water
■ Given off by plants + animals + other organisms
■ Most abundant greenhouse gas
■ Produced during cellular separation + certain plant process
○ Carbon dioxide
■ Living organisms
■ Volcanoes + forest fires + decaying organisms, etc
■ Second most abundant
■ Produced in + by cells of most living organisms through cellular
respiration
○ Methane
■ Certain species of bacteria + other micro-organisms, live in/around bogs +
wetlands + melting permafrost
■ Species of bacteria, live in gut of animals
■ Vents + other openings in earth’s crust on land + ocean floor