Week+14

This week your assignment is to read Chapter 10: Cycles and Patterns in the Biosphere You have a quiz on Blackboard for this chapter, and you have a post to write about this chapter. Supplemental material for the chapter is located here: http://schmidtphysicalgeography.wikispaces.com/Ch+10 Your posting assignment is located at the bottom of this page: http://schmidtphysicalgeography.wikispaces.com/Week+14

Some information about chapter 10: I always show this video [] on Rachel Carson in class, so I hope you will watch it. I have a feeling you will all come away from this chapter with a greater understanding of why we have environmental regulations, and you may not want to use pesticide any longer (I do not, because you cannot control it once you let it loose in the environment.) We always have a good talk about the mountain lion P22, AKA, the Griffith Park Mountain Lion - who was poisoned by rodenticide (rat poison) not intentionally, but because once you let it out into the environment, it will travel through the food chain and start taking out the creatures at the top because of something we call bioaccumulation. Well my friends, guess where we are in the food chain and what that means for us? Please take a look at the articles about P22, or watch the videos.

There is a lot of information in this small chapter, and I think most of it is really important to us. I have several articles and videos on the page to try to show my students how these things in this chapter are real and are happening all around us all the time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy teaching it. Another video I like to show in class is about the wolves in Yellowstone and what happened when they were reintroduced -

How Wolves Change Rivers [] I know that some of the material in this chapter is not "happy material" but this video will help you feel better.

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