ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 101 ONLINE EXAM
1 WSU QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH
SOLUTIONS 2024
What kinds of things (products or services) does a forest such as this provide for humans? - ANSWER
Timber, Shade, firewood, food such as animals, berries to eat, and clean water to drink. Beautiful views
and hiking, bird watching, camping, spiritual connection etc
Which of your answers to EQ1 could humans consume? - ANSWER Animals, fruits and nuts, water etc.
Which of your answers in EQ1 could provide shelter? - ANSWER Timber
In our daily lives, do people (including you) exchange money in order to be provided with the "things" in
Q 1-3? - ANSWER Yes, we exchange money all the time for "products"
How much did the forest charge the lumberman for the trees that he cut to provide the wood for your
house? - ANSWER The forest does not charge anything, it provides freely. It is humans that put financial
value on things provided by the forest. There are some things that we do not put a financial value on as
much, timber is easy to put value on, but spiritual values is much more difficult.
Aside from producing wood, what else does a forest do? - ANSWER Filters water, produces oxygen,
provides habitat for other creatures, helps cycle nutrients,
stops erosion, provides a place to recreate etc.
If no money is exchanged between the lumberman and the forest, explain one way in which we could
put a value on a forest. - ANSWER This is an opinion question: We make national parks, so that they are
there for the good of all in perpetuity! But this does not work for all cases, there is land out there
privately owned so what is a good way to put value on a forest owned by an individual?
Provisioning services (things we consume or utilize) - ANSWER Medicine from plants, water, timber to
build houses
,Cultural services (things that inspire, teach or entertain) - ANSWER Hiking, cultural importance of Salmon
to native people, knowing that there are wild places "untouched" by humans still out there (my own
personal inspiration).
An ecosystem provided us with the food we ate for breakfast. Think about the wheat in your cereal or
about another product that you ate for breakfast. What did humans need in order to grow that product?
- ANSWER Water, land, nutrients, soil, tractors, fossil fuels, etc.
In a grammatically correct sentence(s), describe one regulating and one supporting service, each of
which were necessary for the production of the breakfast product in Q8. - ANSWER Putting this in to a
sentence is up to you. Some examples of services needed are: supporting services which are the
foundation of the other 3 types of services (photosynthesis, soil formation, primary production, cycling
of nutrients), regulating services (regulation of erosion, water quality and quantity)
What does the stream do for the plants on its banks? - ANSWER The stream provides water and
nutrients for the plants.
How do the plants on the bank impact organisms living in the stream? How might the organisms in the
stream impact plants on the bank? - ANSWER The plants provide bank stabilization, nutrients to the
stream and food for organisms, they provide shade for the organisms living in the stream. Vice versa, the
organisms provide nutrients to the plants.
Think about how humans change land use in agricultural and urban areas. Describe a significant impact
that could alter the behavior of the mountain meadow ecosystem in such a way that in a few years it
would different from today, but could still function as a mountain meadow ecosystem? - ANSWER A
forest fire could come through and have an impact on the species composition, however after enough
years, it would recover, if it is a resilient system. Systems have evolved to work well with disturbances
that happen once and a while.
Describe a significant impact that could alter the behavior of the mountain meadow ecosystem in such a
way that it would not function as a mountain meadow ecosystem. - ANSWER Large development, with
lots of pavement. Possibly a catastrophic drought lasts many years. Enough of a disturbance that the
system cannot recover and changes to something else. Species composition can change significantly
The figure above illustrates 6 typical behaviors of systems.
, The human population currently exhibits what kind of growth? - ANSWER Exponential growth, however
some say we may have overshot the carrying capacity of the planet or have reached a limit that will limit
the population growth.
Use the space below to draw a graph of a different potential future behavior that the human population
could exhibit. Label the graph to indicate when something (hypothetically) happens and what that
"something" is. - ANSWER Could exhibit S-shaped growth or the overshoot pattern. Disease, space, food
supply, water availability etc. can limit the human population and even cause an overshoot in which the
population could be reduced and then find a new carrying capacity.
A system is made up of "elements," or things that we can see and count and that accumulate over a
period of time. We call the accumulations or storages of things "stocks." In the previous questions (16,
17) what is accumulating? That will be your "stock" in the next question. - ANSWER # of People,
population is accumulating
In your model above, what is the label for "rate in"? "rate out"? - ANSWER Birth rate, Death Rate
Based on your knowledge of the world, what factors could impact the rate in? - ANSWER Fertility,
disease, medical care, etc
Based on your knowledge of the world, what factors could impact the rate out? - ANSWER Disease, war,
food access, medical care, etc
Think back to your answer in Q17 and the scenario you described. Describe how your scenario impacts
or is impacted by rates in or out of the human population. Write your answer in 1-3 grammatically
correct sentences. - ANSWER My scenario of a new disease decimating the population greatly impacts
the rates in and the rates out of the human population. A new disease would kill many people and when
many people die from the disease the birth rate also decreases.
The graph of s-shaped growth to the right indicates a limit to growth. Imagine this is a graph of a
population of wolves in a wilderness area. What are four potential factors that could create a growth
behavior such as this for this group of wolves? - ANSWER 1) hunting
2) habitat restraints
3) limited food supply
4) disease
