Ecosystems, Environmental Challenges, and Sustainable Practices
Ecosystems
An ecosystem encompasses all living beings in a given area, their interactions, and their environment. Large ecosystems are called biomes. These extensive regions are characterized by specific environmental conditions and inhabited by relatively homogeneous living beings. All ecosystems together constitute the biosphere.
For an ecosystem to survive, it must achieve a balance that sustains its populations and allows recovery from disturbances. These situations are not permanent.
Carrying
Read MoreEarth’s Origin, Structure, and Internal Dynamics
Item 14: Origin and Structure of the Earth
Source of the Solar System
Planetesimal Theory
- Solar Nebula: About 4,600 million years ago, a rotating cloud of dust and gas, larger than the solar system, began to contract.
- Gravitational Collapse: Contraction or collapse to form a central mass and a rotating disk around it.
- Formation of Protosun: The collision of particles in the central mass releases energy, initiating nuclear fusion of hydrogen, marking the birth of a star, the protosun, inside the nebula.
Soil Formation, Degradation, and Conservation
Mechanical or Physical Weathering: Rock Fragmentation
Mechanical or physical weathering occurs without altering the chemical composition of rocks, deserts, and minerals. Intense examples can be seen in Lost Montana.
Unloading Pressure
When rocks outcrop due to the elimination of covering materials by erosion, they experience decompression. This decompression leads to the appearance of several cracks, such as:
- Relaxation or expansion cracks
- Contraction differential cracks due to large temperature variations
Earth’s Moon and the Sun: Characteristics, Movements, and Eclipses
The Moon
Basic Facts
- The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite.
- It reflects sunlight.
- It orbits Earth in a spherical path.
- Its size is 1/49th that of Earth.
Surface Features
Lunar surface roughness is visible with telescopes and during solar eclipses, where prominences in the chromosphere appear as bumps.
Phases
Unlike the Sun, the Moon’s appearance varies from a fully illuminated disc to different levels of brightness.
Movements
Real Movements
- Rotation: The Moon rotates on its axis, taking approximately 27
Coastal & Port Infrastructure Glossary: A to Z
Glossary of Coastal and Port Infrastructure
Accessibility
Chance of access or passage for pedestrians, vehicles, and/or the disabled from one sector to another.
Refine
Action planimetric information to supplement the numerical data of dimensions or levels in a project engineering or architecture. Place dimensions on the plans. (2) Demarcation; point out terms of a field.
Aquaculture
Cultivation of plants and aquatic animals for use or human consumption. / Activity aimed at the production of hydro-biological
Read MoreMineral Resources: Formation, Use, and Exploitation
Magmatic Mineral Resources
Magmatic processes, both internal (plutonic) and external (volcanic), form magmatic rocks through crystallization. Fractional crystallization and magma consolidation involve:
- Initial crystallization of iron and magnesium-rich minerals, resulting in dark-colored rocks.
- Depletion of silica, calcium, aluminum, and sodium in the magma.
- Crystallization of the remaining water-rich magma, forming hydrothermal water that carries dissolved metals, filling rock cracks and crystallizing.