Essentials of Ecology

鄭先祐 (Ayo)國立臺南大學 生態科學與技術學系 教授

G. Tyler Miller & Scott E. Spoolman

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Essentials of EcologyA. Improve your study and

learning skillsB. You can improve your

critical thinking skills: Become good at detecting baloney

C. A vision of a More sustainable World in 2060

D. What are three principles of sustainability?

E. Easter island: some revisions in a popular environmental story

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A. Improve your study and learning skills

1. Develop a passion for learning2. Get organized

3. Make daily to-do lists in writing

4. Set up a study routine in a distraction-free environment

5. Avoid procrastination

6. Do not eat dessert first

7. Make hills out of mountains

Maximizing your ability to learn

8. Look at the big picture first

9. Ask and answer questions as you read

10.Focus on key terms

11.Interact with what you read

12.Review to reinforce learning

13.Become a good note taker

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A. Improve your study and learning skills

14.Write out answers to questions to focus and reinforce learning

15.Use the buddy system

16.Learn your instructor’s test style

17.Become a good test taker

18.Develop an optimistic but realistic outlook• A glass is half-full rather than a glass is half-empty person

19.Take time to enjoy life

Maximizing your ability to learn

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B. You can improve your critical thinking skills: Become good at detecting baloney

6. Question the evidence and conclusions presented

7. Try to uncover differences in basic beliefs and assumptions.

8. Try to identify and assess any motives on the part of those presenting evidence and drawing conclusions.

9. Expect and tolerate uncertainty

1. Question everything and everybody

2. Identify and evaluate your personal biases and beliefs

3. Be open-minded and flexible

4. Be humble about what you know

5. Evaluate how the information related to an issue was obtained

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B. You can improve your critical thinking skills: Become good at detecting baloney

10. Do the arguments used involve logical fallacies or debating tricks?

Debating tricks① Attack the presenter of an argument rather than the argument itself.

② Appeal to emotion rather than facts and logic.

③ Claim that if one piece of evidence or one conclusion is false, then all other related pieces of evidence and conclusions are false.

④ Say that a conclusion is false because it has not been scientifically proven. (scientists never prove anything absolutely)

⑤ Inject irrelevant or misleading information to divert attention from important points.

⑥ Present only either/or alternatives when there may be a number of options.

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B. You can improve your critical thinking skills: Become good at detecting baloney

11.Do not believe everything you read on the internet.

12.Develop principles or rules for evaluating evidence.

13.Become a seeker of wisdom, not a vessel of information.

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Thinking critically involves three important steps:

1. Be skeptical about everything we read or hear.2. Look at the evidence to evaluate it and any related information and

opinions that may come from various sources.3. Identify and evaluate our personal assumptions, biases, and

beliefs.• A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely

rearranging their prejudices ( 偏見 ). (William James ， American psychologist)

• It’s what we know is true, but just ain’t so, that hurts us. (Mark Twain ， American writer)

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What do Scientists do?1. Identify a problem

2. Find out what is known about the problem.

3. Ask a question to investigate

4. Collect data to answer the question

5. Propose a hypothesis to explain the data.

6. Make testable projections

7. Test the projections with further experiments, models, or observations.

8. Accept or reject the hypothesis

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C. A vision of a more sustainable world in 2060

Emily Brigs and Michael Rodriguez graduated from college in 2014.

Michael earned a masters degree in environmental education, became a middle-school teacher, and loved teaching environmental science.

Emily, meanwhile, went to law school and later established a thriving practice as an environmental lawyer.

In 2022, Michael and Emily met when they were doing volunteer work for an environmental organization. They later got married, had a child, and taught her about some of the world’s environmental problems and about the joys of nature that they had experienced as children. As a result, their daughter also became heavily involved in working to promote a more sustainable world and eventually passed this on to her child.

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C. A vision of a more sustainable world in 2060

When Michael and Emily were growing up, there had been increasing signs of stress on the earth’s life support system– its land, air, water, and wildlife– due to the harmful environmental impacts of more people consuming more resources.

But a major transition in environmental awareness began around 2010 when a growing number of people began transforming their lifestyles and economies to be more in tune with the ways in which nature had sustained itself for billions of years before humans walked the earth. Over several decades, this combination of environmental awareness and action paid off.

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C. A vision of a more sustainable world in 2060

In January of 2060, Emily and Michael celebrated the birth of their grandchild.

He was born into a world that was still rich with a great diversity of plants, animals, and ecosystems. The loss of this biological diversity, which had been a looming threat when Michael and Emily were young adults, had slowed to a trickle. And the atmosphere, oceans, lakes and rivers were gradually cleansing themselves.

Energy waste had been cut in half. Energy from the sun, wind, flowing water, underground heat, and fuels produced from farm-raised grasses and algae had largely replaced energy from highly polluting oil and coal and from nuclear power with it dangerous, long-lived radioactive wastes.

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C. A vision of a more sustainable world in 2060

By 2060, farmers producing most of the world’s food had shifted to farming practices that helped to conserve water and renew depleted soils. And the human population had peaked at 8 billion in 2040, instead of at the projected 9.5 billion, and then had begun a slow decline.

In 2060, Emily and Michael felt a great sense of pride, knowing that they and their child and countless others had helped to bring about these improvements so that future generations could live more sustainably on this marvelous planet that is our only home.

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D. What are three principles of sustainability?

1. Reliance on solar energy

2. Chemical cycling (nutrient cycling)

3. Biodiversity

Natural capital = Natural resources + Natural services

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E. Easter Island: Some revisions in a popular environmental story

這個位於太平洋的島嶼，原來綠蔭蔥蔥，為森林所覆蓋。約兩千九百年前， Polynesians 登上此島嶼，這裡如同天堂，土壤肥沃，物產豐盛。人口逐漸增加到一萬五千人。為了工作的需要，島民開始砍伐森林；森林面積減少，土壤裡的水分流失，地表較肥沃的土壤被海風吹走。島上的樹木逐漸被砍伐殆盡，表土流失，土壤貧瘠，無法孕育作物；經濟瓦解，文明崩潰。於1870 年末期，人口只剩下約百人。

常聽到的故事

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E. Easter Island: Some revisions in a popular environmental story

1. The Polynesians arrived on the island about 800 years ago, not 2,900 years ago.

2. Their population size probably never exceeded 3,000, contrary to the earlier estimate of up to 15,000.

3. The Polynesians did use the island’s trees and other vegetation in an unsustainable manner, and by 1722, visitors reported that most of the island’s trees were gone. But one question not answered by the earlier hypothesis was why did the trees never grow back? Recent evidence suggest that rats played a key role in the island’s permanent deforestation.

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E. Easter Island: Some revisions in a popular environmental story

4. After 1722, the population of Polynesians on the island dropped to about 100, mostly from contact with European visitors and invaders. These newcomers introduced fatal diseases, killed off some of the islanders, and took large numbers of them away to be sold as slaves.

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