Changing Environments And Societies Pt 2

Question 1

Human Induced: Extinctions

Answer 1

1. System with birds going extinct, leave bodies and poop to nourish the environment
   1.1 Loss in soil nutrients
   1.2 When first arrive good soil to garden but over time as birds went extinct the soil wasn’t as plentiful and needed substitutes

Question 2

Human Induced: Erosion

Answer 2

1. Mangaia
2. Aneityum
3. Sigatoka Valley, Fiji
   3.1 Large scale erosion due to burning
   3.2 Redistributes alluvium (Various times in past)
4. Sediment from river goes into ocean and waves push it back to land on coastline and makes dunes
   4.1 Sand is river sand

Question 3

Sea Level Change

Answer 3

1. Not new, has fluctuated many times
2. 3000 year BP
3. 1.5 meter higher
   3.1 Coastlines were inland (Underground now)
   3.2 Atolls were underwater
   3.3 Coastlines later extended
4. Feb 2011, high tide/sea level rise flooding
   4.1 Problem when sea water goes to gardens and kills the plants
   4.2 Taro and breadfruit some varieties can handle salt levels

Question 4

Climate Change

Answer 4

1. The “Little Climatic Optimum” (medieval warm period)
   1.1 1000-800 BP (same as colonization of E. Polynesia) (Probably why colonization happened when it did with better winds)
2. The “AD 1300 Event”
3. The “Little Ice Age”
   3.1 500-200 BP
   3.2 Cooler, dryer conditions
   3.3 Rise of states, collapse of societies
   3.4 When sweet potato brought over

Question 5

ENSO in the Pacific

Answer 5

1. El Niño
   1.1 Droughts in Solomons, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Hawaii, Micronesia
   1.2 Flood in Cooks, Societies, Tuamotus (Where clouds are)
2. La Niña
   2.1 Droughts in Samoa, Cooks, Societies, Tuamotus
   2.2 Flood in Hawaii, Micronesia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Solomons
3. Roughly every 10 years

Question 6

Modern Processes

Answer 6

1. Human induced changes (don’t have history of handling)
2. Pollution
   2.1 Plastic
   2.2 Carry it from elsewhere
   2.3 Little community cannot pick it all up when get caught in reefs
3. Sea Level Change
   3.1 Some places suffer more than others
   3.2 Fat Water (higher)
   3.3 Sea levels rising, where do you go?
4. Warming oceans
   4.1 Plants and animals and life cycles impacted
   4.2 Some species of fish relied on not as abundant as they used to be
   4.3 Death of coral reefs and organisms that go with them
5. Overfishing
   5.1 Pacific Islands have hundred mile border where they have their territorial waters
   5.2 Other countries go right outside borders to fish instead
   5.3 Getting to point where more plastic in ocean that fish (BOOO)

Question 7

Pollution: The North Pacific Garbage Gyre

Answer 7

1. Extends over North Pacific
2. ~270,000 square miles
3. Plastic suspended in the water column
   3.1 Single household plastic mainly but some fishing materials
4. Photodegradation
   4.1 Smaller and smaller pieces
   4.2 Beaches are now partially composed of plastic “gravel” and “sand”

Question 8

The Next Extinction: Death by Pollution

Answer 8

1. Nets snag on reefs
   1.1 Even get on sand is hard to get it off
2. Garbage piles up on shore
3. Animals eat the plastic - plastic moves up the food chain

Question 9

Impact: Fish and Seabird Mortality

Answer 9

1. Birds eat the plastic
   1.1 Both from fish with plastic in it and plastic itself
   1.2 Chicks affected too because regurgitation of fish with plastic (cannot digest it and kills them)
2. Online Film: Albatross
   2.1 Albatross the film
3. How to stop it???
   3.1 Stop making plastic
4. Proposed “Gyre mills”
5. Go in and suck out plastic from chicks stomachs to save rare bird species in New Zealand

Question 10

Modern Sea Level Change

Answer 10

1. Atolls in Micronesia are already experiencing dramatic flooding
2. Pleas for help, awareness are ignored
3. If continues, they will have to evacuate
4. One event to ruin things
5. New Zealand and Australia said take refugees

Question 11

Warming Oceans: Coral Bleaching

Answer 11

1. Warming oceans world-wide
2. Reef is base for all island ecosystems
3. Sustained warming kills corals
4. Bleached coral can become base for next generation of coral
5. Great Barrier Reef scary coral bleaching
6. Florida coral pretty much all gone from bleaching
7. Only way to kinda fix it is reseed areas with baby corals
   7.1 Helped a bit but grows slow

Question 12

Overfishing

Answer 12

1. Island nations have fishing rights around their islands
2. 4 “common areas”
   2.1 Cruise size fish factories ready to fish for them
3. Intensively fished by Japan and other nations
4. Tuna stocks are on verge of collapse
   4.1 Now catching everything else
   4.2 Huge ocean dragging nets to catch bottom feeding fish for cakes and stocks
5. Seine fishing mentioned in video

Question 13

Issues for Pacific Island Communities

Answer 13

1. Small Nations are swamped with problems caused by others
   1.1 Don’t have resources to deal with problems
   1.2 Plastic thing that is easier to talk about to stop because can physically see it (Cannot see warmer waters)
2. Little aid
   2.1 Financial aid, only give workers rights to work in Australia
3. Protests?
   3.1 Try to make Pacific Islands more visible
4. Resettlement
5. Indicators for what will happen to rest of world