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Essay Instructions: The paper needs to be a scientific analysis on the mystery of the massive honey bee deaths/dissapearances over the past several years. The prime suspect is pesticide use, and the suggested method of resolving the issue is integrated pest management.

The paper should summarize the issue, characterize the scientific/technical information (and gaps), indicate how the information is being applied, and suggest how the issue should be resolved using integrated pest management.

Paper will be graded for:
Clear and concise thought and writing, without vagaries or irrelevant information
Adequately representing the topic
Providing good arguments backed up by solid, referenced data and scholarship
Demonstrating a good understanding of the subject matter
Good analysis and synthesis of material, rather than simply repeating other material without much analysis

Essay Instructions: Prepare this document using APA 6th edition format and Times New Roman, 12-point font; the document should have 1" margins and be double-spaced. Each module question should be 1 or 2 pages maximum in length and should be seperated, identified and label by each module question. Each Module Question is a seperate assignment.



Module 01 Question 01
In your paper, discuss some modern day examples of human modification of an ecosystem with which you are familiar and cite some examples of the direct or indirect consequences such disruption has had on biotic communities and/or human populations.

Module 01 Question 02
In your paper, state the ?Laws of Thermodynamics? and discuss the relationships of these principles to environmental problems such as world hunger, biomagnifications, global warming, etc.

Module 02 Question 01
In your paper, give an example of an environment whose carrying capacity may already have been exceeded. Explain what is happening there.

Module 02 Question 02
In your paper, discuss what is meant by the ?Green Revolution.? How successful has it been to date in eradicating world hunger?

Module 03 Question 01
In your paper, answer the following question: What provisions of the Endangered Species Act had the greatest impact on protecting ecosystems from human pressures?

Module 03 Question 02
In your paper, answer the following question: What is emerging as a threat to the survival of gorillas, chimpanzees, and other African wildlife species? Explain why the problem is so much greater now than in the past.

Module 03 Question 03
In your paper, discuss the following statement: In recent years the emphasis on cancer prevention strategies has focused increasingly on changes in personal life style. Keeping in mind the established factors associated with cancer causation, make a list of your own personal habits and activities that might enhance your risk of someday developing a malignancy.

Module 04 Question 01
In your paper, discuss why the use of broad spectrum pesticides, like DDT, may not be the best approach for long term pest control.

Module 04 Question 02
In your paper, discuss the following statement: As society strives to reduce its reliance on chemical pesticides, describe some practical and effective integrated pest management (IPM) approaches that you could pursue to control insects, weeds, and other pests in your own yard and garden.

Essay Instructions: Four Part Paper

Discuss a landscape-level assessment of a significant environmental and economic issue in the U.S. - the defoliation caused by an exotic insect, the gypsy moth. This link provided is to the gypsy moth trap data for the Eastern U.S. Pay particular attention in this map to Southeastern West Virginia. The topographic map provided in Web Resources will focus you on Sandstone Falls on the New River in West Virginia

Part 1 - List the most significant environmental issues that must be considered in developing a treatment plan (pesticide spray operation, pheromone dispersant, etc.).

2 - Detail a treatment plan consisting of the spraying of Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki) - how would this be implemented (ie. patches, what would the spray block pattern look like and how would this decision be made or derived at)

3 - Using the topographic map website, increase the scale of the map to 1:50,000 and 1:100,000. What features are now in the map frame? What kinds of landscape-level considerations should be made in the regional context? Describe the features and give thoughts in detail.

4- Consider that the area to be treated includes federal lands. List the steps of the planning process you would undertake before a treatment plan (ie. integrated pest management plan) could be implemented ? what steps would need to be taken.

Must use supplied links, supplied reference material.

Gypsy Moth Trap Results http://da.ento.vt.edu/results1.html

Topographic Map West Virginia / Sandstone http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=37.77347&lon=-80.89559&s=24&size=l&u=4&datum=nad83&layer=DRG

Lansat Maryland/West Virginia http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/s1r/landsat/landsat.html

Gypsy Moth in the US http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/morgantown/4557/gmoth/atlas/

National Environmental Policy Act http://www.epa.gov/region1/nepa/