Name: ________________________________ Red ID: __________________ Grade: ________

1. What is the fundamental parameter in the hydrologic behavior of the Pantanal of Mato Grosso? Why?

2. What property of water enables it to dissolve almost anything?

3. What process is responsible for the oxygen present in the atmosphere? What process is responsible for the nitrogen?

4. Why is the ocean salty? How and why does sodium chloride accumulate in ocean waters? What is the percentage of sodium chloride in ocean water?

5. How long are global phosphate resources likely to last? Why is phosphorous important for the functioning of the biosphere?

6. What is the "double whammy" caused by human development in the atmosphere?

7. Why is it a fallacy to state that tropical rainforests such as the Amazon will help in sequestering excess carbon from fossil-fuel burning?

8. Explain the concept of the 800-mm isohyet. How does it adhere to the principle of sustainability?

9. What is the rationale for the existence of earthmounds in flooded plains? How did the earthmounds in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso and the Florida Everglades form?

10. How did the early inhabitants of the Llanos de Mojos manage to open the nitrogen cycle? How is harvesting tied to the opening of the nitrogen cycle?

11. How can one argue that some floods are good? How can one argue that some levees are bad? What is a levee fuse?

12. How does Ponce's sag curve differ from the standard sag curve of Streeter-Phelps? Why?