Question: You are given a new situation: Two students at the Agricultural Institute studied pedology. Bob studied soil weathering, while Dan studied types of soil. and a hint : Rainfall in an area is important because it influences the rate of weathering. More rain means that more rainwater passes through the soil. The rainwater reacts chemically with the particles. The top layers of soil are in contact with the freshest water, so reactions are greatest there. High rainfall increases the amount of rock that experiences chemical reactions. High rainfall may also carry material away. This means that new surfaces are exposed. This increases the rate of weathering. Please answer this question : Which student studied more about the top layers of soil?
Answer: Bob

Question: You are given a new situation: John was studying the characteristics of tropical forests. For that, he chose forests in Laos. To compare the forests in Laos with the temperate zone forests he chose forests in Ireland. He could clearly see that how they differed in important ways. and a hint : Tropical forests (rainforests) receive more insolation and rainfall over longer growing seasons than any other environment on earth. With these elevated temperatures, insolation and rainfall, biomass is extremely productive leading to the production of as much as 800 grams of carbon per square meter per year. Higher temperatures and larger amounts of water contribute to higher rates of chemical weathering. Increased rates of decomposition cause smaller amounts of fulvic acid to percolate and leach metals from the zone of active weathering. Thus, in stark contrast to soil in forests, tropical forests have little to no podzolization and therefore do not have marked visual and chemical contrasts with the soil layers. Instead, the mobile metals Mg, Fe and Al are precipitated as oxide minerals giving the soil a rusty red color. Please answer this question : Would forests in Laos see higher or lower rates of chemical weathering than the forests in Ireland?
Answer: higher

Question: You are given a new situation: In central Ireland there are two farms next to two very similar lakes, and both farms use the same fertilizer to grow crops. The farm next to lake Montopeke gets rain on a regular basis and so the farmer doesn't need to water his crops as much. The farm that is adjacent to lake Costanza hardly gets any rain at all though. Both farms are able to prosper and do well though despite the different amount of rain they get. and a hint : Rain dissolves fertilizer in the soil. Runoff carries it away. The fertilizer ends up in bodies of water, from ponds to oceans. Nitrogen is a fertilizer in the water. Since there is a lot of nitrogen, it causes algae to grow out of control. Pictured below is a pond covered with algae ( Figure below ). Algae use up carbon dioxide in the water. After the algae die, decomposers break down the dead tissue. The decomposers use up all the oxygen in the water. This creates a dead zone. A dead zone is an area in a body of water where nothing grows because there is too little oxygen. There is a large dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico ( Figure below ). The U.S. states outlined on the map have rivers that drain into the Gulf of Mexico. The rivers drain vast agricultural lands. The water carries fertilizer from these areas into the Gulf. Please answer this question : Does lake Montopeke have more or less oxygen than lake Costanza?
Answer:
less