ENVS 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Santa Barbara City College, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, Carbon Sequestration
Document Summary
Social traps: a decision that is good at the time and produces a short-term benefit, but hurts society in the long run. Tragedy of commons is an example of social traps. Sliding reinforcer: actions that are beneficial at first, but change the conditions so that their benefit declines over time. A distinctive type of ecosystem determined by climate and identified by the predominant vegetation and organisms that live there. Benefits of grasslands: nutrient cycling, soil formation and protection, carbon sequestration, protection of surface waters, habitat for wildlife, cropland and livestock. Low rainfall and few trees make grasslands vulnerable. Desertification - the process that transforms once-fertile land into desert over geological time, grasslands will naturally convert to deserts, and deserts will convert to grasslands with climate shifts, but the process is now occurring rapidly. : 1992 china needed more land for cereal. : plant productivity improves because of the more species produced, the more aboveground biomass.
