Biology

If you use other source either than Drawdown to answer these questions, Please cite them (Minimize the use of outside sources).

1. Refer to the essay titled, The Man Who Stopped the Desert, by Mark Hertsgaard in Drawdown. Describe the method that Mr. Sawadogo developed to improve his crop yields, and then evaluate changes in farming practices in the Western Sahel relative to the Three E’s Venn Diagram model of sustainability.

[Note: To earn full points on this essay, you must define sustainability, explain the Three E’s model, and evaluate whether or not sustainability is met for each of the Three E’s by the change in land use described in the essay.]

2. Explain why scientists are concerned that temperate forests might be becoming less resilient.  Discuss the importance of resilience, the main threats to temperate forest resilience and why the authors of the essay think preservation may be more important than restoration in terms of Climate Change.

Refer to the essay titled, Temperate Forests, in Drawdown and class discussion of energy flow through ecosystems and ecological disturbances.  [Note: Content for this essay should be drawn from the sources indicated; sources for any outside information included must be cited.]

3. Discuss why the authors of the essay, Peatlands, in Drawdown believe that it is extremely important to protect peat bogs and to rewet bogs that have been drained.  Include in your discussion the meaning of the ranking of #13 in Drawdown, detrital food webs, and the carbon cycle.

Refer to the essay titled, Peatlands, in Drawdown, and course content on ecosystems and the cycling of nutrients.  Sources for any outside information included must be cited

4. What does the essay titled, The Hidden Half of Nature, by Montgomery and Bikle in Drawdown, have to do with industrial agriculture and dead zones? 

[Note: For full credit on this response you need to define the terms industrial agriculture, and dead zone.]