Students are learning about the natural resources in Maryland. One group of students researches information about renewable natural resources in the state. The other group researches information about nonrenewable natural resources in the state. The resources the students investigate include plants, animals, soil, minerals, water, coal, and oil.

Which of the following human activities negatively affects a natural resource?

1. fishing in a lake
2. using water to produce electricity
3. planting native plants along a lakeshore
4. directing runoff from cropland into a lake

Large populations of sea nettles have been observed during the summer in parts of the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay is a mixture of salt water and fresh water. During the summer, the bay has a moderately high salt content. The amount of salt in the water, the salinity, depends on the amount of fresh water that flows into the bay. Additionally, some studies suggest that human activities have caused an increase in the sea nettle population.

The salinity level of the bay is changed when pollutants enter the bay. Salinity is also affected by extreme temperatures, drought conditions, and floods.

Which of these events would have the most negative effect on the sea nettle population in the bay?

1. fossil fuel burning cars drive across the bay on a bridge
2. farmland fertilizers enter a river that flows into a nearby bay
3. a thunderstorm dumps rain along a shoreline of a nearby bay
4. overflow from a waste water treatment plant empties directly into the bay

Large populations of sea nettles have been observed during the summer in parts of the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay is a mixture of salt water and fresh water. During the summer, the bay has a moderately high salt content. The amount of salt in the water, the salinity, depends on the amount of fresh water that flows into the bay. Additionally, some studies suggest that human activities have caused an increase in the sea nettle population.

Sea nettles need small amounts of nutrients to survive and reproduce. Sea nettle populations increase quickly when excess nitrogen pollutes the water in which the sea nettles live. A sea nettle reproduces by laying thousands of eggs.

How would excess nitrogen most likely affect the other organisms in this food web?

1. The striped bass (fish) population would increase immediately.
2. The menhaden (fish) population would decrease slowly.
3. The copepod population would increase quickly.
4. The algae population would decrease slowly.

The piping plover is a bird that builds its nest on sand dunes along the Atlantic Ocean.

Which of these actions most likely damages the nests of the piping plover?

1. people fishing from a boat
2. children playing in the ocean waves
3. children digging holes along the sand dunes
4. people walking on a sidewalk along the sand dunes