Unit 3: Managing Earth resources

Ecosystem services and natural capital. Covers provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services, the natural capital concept, valuation and trade-offs, and the link to sustainable management, with Australian examples.

Maximum sustainable yield. Covers population growth, MSY at intermediate population size, the risk of overexploitation and stock collapse, and management tools such as quotas, with the WA western rock lobster fishery as an example.

Mining methods and geosphere impacts. Compares open-cut, underground, dredging and in-situ methods, and analyses landform change, overburden, waste rock, tailings and subsidence, with WA examples such as the Pilbara and the Super Pit.

Mine rehabilitation. Covers landform reshaping, topsoil and seed banks, revegetation, completion criteria and reference sites, and the limits of restoration, with the WA example of jarrah forest rehabilitation in the Darling Range.

Carbon cycle. Covers reservoirs, the fast and slow carbon cycles, fluxes such as photosynthesis, respiration and weathering, and how fossil fuel burning and land clearing disrupt the balance, with Australian context.

Magmatic and hydrothermal ore deposits. Covers fractional crystallisation, crystal settling, hydrothermal fluid transport, veins and porphyry systems, with WA examples such as nickel at Kambalda and gold at Kalgoorlie.

Monitoring, modelling and remote sensing. Covers indicators and baselines, the role of models in prediction, satellite and field monitoring, and how data feeds adaptive management across scales, with Australian examples.

Nitrogen cycle. Covers nitrogen fixation, nitrification, assimilation, ammonification and denitrification, the role of bacteria, and human disruption through fertiliser use and eutrophication, with Australian context.

Phosphorus cycle. Covers weathering of phosphate rock, uptake and recycling, the lack of an atmospheric step, why phosphorus limits productivity, and human disruption through mining and fertiliser, with Australian context.

Renewable energy resources. Covers solar, wind, hydro, wave, tidal and geothermal energy, the Earth-system flows that drive them, and why they are renewable, with WA examples such as Pilbara solar and the Albany wind farm.

Sedimentary and weathering ore deposits. Covers banded iron formation, placers, evaporites, and residual deposits such as bauxite and laterite, with WA examples including Pilbara iron ore and Darling Range bauxite.

Water cycle and groundwater. Covers evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration and runoff, aquifers and recharge, and groundwater management, with WA examples such as the Gnangara Mound and the Perth desalination supply.

Acid mine drainage and hydrosphere impacts. Covers the oxidation of pyrite, sulfuric acid generation, metal mobilisation, dewatering and water-table drawdown, and prevention and treatment, with Australian context.

Resource formation. Covers how the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere interact to form mineral, fossil fuel and renewable energy resources, with Australian examples.

Biogeochemical cycles. Covers the carbon, nitrogen and water cycles, reservoirs and fluxes, ecosystem services and human disruption, with Australian examples.

Sustainable resource management. Covers maximum sustainable yield, monitoring, modelling and management of water, fisheries and biota at local to global scales, with Australian examples.

Fossil fuel formation. Covers coal from peat, oil and gas from marine organic matter, source rocks, maturation, migration, reservoir and trap, and why fossil fuels are non-renewable, with WA examples such as the Collie coal basin and North West Shelf gas.

Extraction impacts. Covers mining methods, effects on the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, acid mine drainage and rehabilitation, with Australian examples.