Biology Lesson 10/10/08
Posted: October 10, 2008
Go to http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ket08.sci.ess.watcyc.farmsol/
Watch the movie.
1. The farmer’s name is ___________ ________.
2. For generations his family has used the __________ to wash the manure away from the farm.
3. He started working with the ______ Conservation ___________ to lessen the amount of ___________ he had and to utilize the manure better as a _________________ source.
4. His liquid manure goes into a _____________ and a half gallon containment system.
5. “When you get 20 or 30 cows in one little pool, it really gets pretty __________.
http://toxics.usgs.gov/definitions/eutrophication.html
6. What is eutrophication?
7. Your opinion/thinking question: How is eutrophication related to photosynthesis?
8. What does an algal bloom reduce?
9. How does agriculture contribute to eutrophication?
Go to http://todayinscience.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/corn-boom-causing-fisheries-doom/
10. What crop are American farmers growing more than at any time since World War II? Why?
11. How is the nation’s corn crop fertilized?
12. What happens to this nitrogen-based fertilizer?
13. Why does this run-off of fertilizer cause a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico? (thinking question – relate this to your definition of eutrophication)
14. What were two solutions proposed by environmentalists to solve the runoff problem?
15. Why are American farmers growing more corn?
16. How is corn different from soybean and alfalfa?
17. What do you propose as a solution to this problem?
