ENV100Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Positive Feedback, Negative Feedback, Homeostasis

• School: UTM
• Department: Environment
• Course: ENV100Y5
• Professor: Barbara Murck

Document Summary

Estuary: a place that reservoir meets with ocean. Central case: the plight of the st. lawrence belugas: the beluga is vulnerable" and is an indicator for the great lakes st lawrence ecosystem, decreasing population gi cancers, pollutants come downstream from great lakes. Organochlorides: bio magnification of contaminants, requires a systems-based approach, example of how we need to look at a broader problem to figure out the problems. What is a system: a portion of the universe that can be separated from the rest for the purpose of studying changes that occur within it, under changing conditions. Environmental systems tend to be complex: watershed. Major earth spheres: geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere. Types of systems based on properties of boundaries: closed system. Energy can be exchanged across the boundaries but matter cannot: open system. Both matter and energy can be exchanged across the boundaries.