UNIT 4: Human Landscapes & Ecology, compendium 2

TOPICS

1. Deep time Evolution History

2. Natural Selection

3. Physical Landscape

4. Biological Landscape

In this review I will try and explain the different aspects of the environment we live in. My first review is that of evolution history, and how scientists became interested in study the lives of fossils and how our planet Earth got here in the first place. Next I will talk about Darwin's studies on specific species, and why they have different physical appearances. The next two topics will be related to the environment, and how we get our resources we need. I hope this review gives a little understanding of the wonderful world we live in!

DEEP TIME EVOLUTION HISTORY. The first sentence of this chapter states: "Our study of evolution begins with the origin of life" (Mader 468). We all of unknown questions of how things are how they are, and for me I am not one that likes to go into detail to find out why something is. So this section is going to be difficult. Mainly because I believe that God has made all of these things in the beginning of time. The first question of this section is how did the first cell get here? A scientist, Stanley Miller, experimented on different gases similar to the Earth's atmoshpere. His end result of organic molecules sparked interest in other scientist, formulating a plan that RNA needed to be present and protein was a factor. An interesting comment was made on a website: "evolutionary changes are documented in layers and layers of rock deposited over 4.6 billion years" (pbs article). Reading through different articles, geological time is referred to as deep time. The picture to the right gives an example of how we us layers of rock and fossils to research. Fossils are, "the best evidence of evolution because they are the actual remains of species that lived on Earth" (Mader 470). The picture to the right is a fossil of an early bird known as Archaeopteryx. The picture below shows it is an arthropod- Fossil Trilobite.
A scientist known as Charles Darwin traveled around the world finding evidence of different form of life, mainly in fossils. He also later explained the anatomical evidence, the vertebrae forelimbs had all the same bone structures. The picture to the right is referring to the modern skull(right) and a Neandertal skull(left). "All people today are classified as Homo sapiens" (antrhopal article). Humans today have a more delicate skeleton structures.

NATURAL SELECTION. "A species becomes suited to its environment" (Mader 474). This is part of Darwin's collection of evidence as he traveled. The picture to the right is an example of Darwin's research on different style beaks on Finches. "The beak of each species is suited to its preferred food, suggesting that beak shapes evolved from natural selection" (wikipedia article). The book labels 3 different elements important in natural selection: Variation(physical appearance), Competition for limited resources, and Adaptation. This is was an interesting section, that I was not aware of. Each species tends to adapt to their own comfortable life style, some end up changing their physical appearance as generations are passed.

PHYSICAL LANDSCAPE. "The biosphere is where organisms are found on planet Earth, from the atmosphere above to the depths of the oceans below and everything in between" (Mader 493). The organisms function not only amongst themselves but also with the chemical and physical aspects within their environment. This interaction is known as the ecosystem. All of the little creatures scurrying around and flying above us are part of the food web, obviously allows there to be a constant cycle. Energy flow is important for each organism, plants get energy from the sun and people get energy from food. The Water Cycle is involved in evaporation from the ocean, leaving behind the ion, salt. This forms our wonderful rainstorms(precipitation) in both water and land. This percipitation then evaporates from both land and water, and eventually returns back to the flowing depths of the water. As a society, we definitely disturb this cycle. The Carbon cycle us referred to as: "producers take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it to organic molecules that feed all organisms" (Mader 500). Next is the Greenhouse effect, which is basically known as the Earth getting warmer and warmer. Due to the increase in one of the greenhouse gases, Carbon dioxide, gets trapped inside and doesn't go pass back into space. Again, this causes the Earth to get warmer by absorbing more sunlight. These cycles will continue circulating our ecosystem and hopefully we, as a society, will continue protecting the environment we live in.

BIOLOGICAL LAND. The main resources we as individuals use daily are: land, water, food, energy, and minerals. As our population continues to grow, we need to monitor and watch where we are developing, in order to maintain a healthy environment. The land we live on ranges from beaches, deserts, mountains, rain forest, tropical, and numerous others. In some areas water is very minimal, therefore people use dams, reservoirs, and groundwater tunnels to help keep one of their resources readily available. There seems to be an over abundance of food, but it depends on what type we are talking about. Most of our food comes from: our gracious farmers who continuously maintain their crops/livestock, and fishermen out at sea. We also need to take into account our worst environmental nightmare: pollution. The book names several concerns regarding pollution: "Acid deposition, Global warming, Ozone depletion and Synthetic organic chemicals" (Mader 525). Another bad note the book relates to is Biodiversity crisis; our species in the near future are slowly dwindling away. To end this on a good note, at least for myself, we need to focus on today and not worry what is ahead of us in the future. I understand there are reasons to be concerned, but some things are taken to extreme.

In conclusion, I discussed many different topics relating to our environment. From the beginning of time when we, as humans, supposedly dated back to apes/monkeys. I did find it interesting while researching fossils, and what scientists discovered by looking at them. For instance the pictures above I found of different birds. How amazing that they are able to identify the leg and wing structures of a species, dated back many centuries ago! For the other sections, I basically feel we need to continue protecting our environment. We are blessed to be here, so we may as well care for the land we live on.

Works Cited:
Mader, Sylvia S. Human Biology. Boston: McGrawHill Companies, Inc. 2006.
quotes
http://anthro.podomar.edu/
quote, picture of skull-modern and Neandertal skull
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/natural_skeleton water cycle, food web
pictures related to above key words
http://www.pbs.org/wbgn/evolution
http://www.ucmp.berkley.edu/
pictures of fossils