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esm terms
list 1
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Interdiciplinary study that uses information and ideas from the physical sciences along with those from the social sciences to learn how nature works, how we interact with the environment, and how we can deal with environmental problems. | environmental science |
| involves developing skills to analyze information and ideas, judge their validity, and make decisions. helps distinguish between fact and opinion. | critical thinking |
| everything around us including all living and nonliving things with which we interact | environment |
| a social movement dedicated to protecting the earth's air, water, soil, natural cleansing and recycling systems, and other components of its life-support systems for us and other species. | environmentalism |
| the ability of the earth's various natural systems and human cultural systems and economies to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely. | sustainability |
| the natural resources and natural services provided by nature that keep us and other species alive and support our economies. | natural capital |
| a society that manages its own economy and pop size. the ultimate goal. one that meets the current & future basic resource needs of its people in a just and equitable manner without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their basic needs | environmentally sustainable society |
| the renewable resources such as plants, animals, and soil provided by natural capital. | natural income |
| anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs and wants. | resource |
| the management of natural resources with the goal of minimizing resource waste and sustaining supplies for current and future generations. | conservation |
| can be replenished fairly rapidly (hours to decades) through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than it is renewed. | renewable resource |
| the highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply | sustainable yield |
| when we exceed a renewable resource's natural replacement rate, the available supply begins to shrink and the resource may become nonrenewable | environmental degradation |
| exist in a fixed quantity or stock in the earth's crust and has the potential for renewal by geological, physical, and chemical processes taking place over hundreds of millions to billions of years. | nonrenewable resource |
| the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply the people in a particular country or area with renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by resource use. | ecological footprint |
| any chemical or physical change in the environment that is harmful to humans or other living organisms | pollution |
| reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants | pollution prevention/input pollution control |
| involves cleaning up or diluting pollutants after they have been produced | pollution cleanup/output pollution control |
| occurs when people are unable to meet their basic needs for food, water, shelter, health, and education | poverty |
| a set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what you think your role in the world should be | environmental worldview |
| our beliefs about what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment | environmental ethics |
| result of getting people with different views and values to communicate, find common ground based on understanding and trust, and work together to solve environmental and other problems | social capital |
| a social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services to satisfy peoples needs and wants | economics |
| the description of how the earth's life changes over time through changes in the genes of populations | biological evolution |
| the whole of a society's knowledge, beliefs, technology, and practices | culture |
| an endeavor to discover how nature works and to use that knowledge to make predictions about what is likely to happen in nature | science |
| possible explanation/educated guess of what they observe in nature, a testable explanation | scientific hypothesis |
| a well tested and widely accepted scientific hypothesis or a group of related hypotheses | scientific theory |
| a well tested and widely accepted description of what we find happening over and over in the same way in nature, without any known exception | scientific/natural law |
| anything that has mass and takes up space | matter |
| the distinctive building blocks of matter that make up every material substance | elements |
| combinations of two or more different elements held together in fixed proportions | compounds |
| forms of an element having the same atomic number but different mass numbers | isotopes |
| an atom or groups of atoms with one or more net positive or negative electrical charges. forms when an atom gains or loses one or more electrons | ion |
| a measure of the acidity based on the amount of hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions contained in a particular volume of a solution | pH |
| a pair or group of atoms that can exist as a single unit. a combination of two or more atoms of the same or different elements held together by chemical bonds | molecule |
| shorthand way to show the number of atoms (or ions) in the basic structural unit of a compound | chemical formula |
| contain at least 2 carbon atoms combined with atoms of one or more other elements | organic compounds |
| a measure of how useful a form of matter is to humans as a resource, based on its availability and concentration | matter quality |
| process that alters one or more physical properties of an element or a compound without changing the arrangement of its atoms, ions, or molecules | physical change |
| the change in arrangements of atoms, ions, or molecules | chemical change/chemical reaction |
| when a physical or chemical change occurs, no atoms are created or destroyed | law of conservation of matter |
| the capacity to do work or transfer heat | energy |
| moving energy | kinetic energy |
| the total kinetic energy of all moving atoms, ions, or molecules within a given substance, excluding the overall motion of the whole object | heat |
| a form of kinetic energy when energy travels in the form of a wave as a result of the changes in electric and magnetic fields | electromagnetic radiation |
| energy which is stored and potentially available for use | potential energy |
| a measure of an energy source's capacity to do useful work | energy quality |
| when energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed | law of conservation of energy/first law of thermodynamics/first law of energy |
| when energy changes from one form to another, we always end up with lower quality or less usable energy than we started with | second law of thermodynamics |
| a measure of how much useful work is accomplished by a particular input of energy into a system | energy efficiency/productivity |
| the smallest and most fundamental structural and functional units of life, which all organisms are composed of | cells |
| consists of certain sequences of nucleotides found within a DNA molecule that contain instructions, called genetic information, for making specific proteins | gene |
| a group of similar organisms that generally resemble one another in their appearance or a set of individuals who can mate and produce fertile offspring | species |
| the study of how organisms interact with their living environment of other organisms and their nonliving environment of soil, water, other forms of matter, and energy mostly from the sun | ecology |
| an individual living being | organism |
| a group of individuals of the same species living in a particular place | population |
| where a population or an individual organism normally lives | habitat |
| consists of all the populations of different species living in a particular area | community/biological community |
| a community of different species interacting with one another and with their nonliving environment of matter and energy | ecosystem |
| consists of parts of the earth's air, water, and soil where life is found | biosphere/ecosphere |
| a thin spherical envelope of gases surrounding the earth's surface | atmosphere |
| inner layer of the atmosphere that extends about 11 miles above sea level, it contains the majority of the planet's air we breathe, consisting mostly of nitrogen and oxygen | troposphere |
| 1% of the air that includes water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. help trap heat and warm the atmosphere | greenhouse gases |
| atmospheric layer that stretches 11-31 miles above the earth's surface. contains ozone gas to filter out most of the sun's harmful uv radiation. allows life to exist on land and in the surface layers of bodies of water | stratosphere |
| consists of the earth's water. liquid, vapor, and ice | hydrosphere |
| the earth's solid crust and upper mantle. contains nonrenewable fossil fuels and minerals we use as well as renewable soil chemicals that organisms need to live, grow, and reproduce | lithosphere |
| terrestrial (land) portions of the biosphere were classified into large regions such as forests, deserts, and grasslands, with distinct climates and certain species adapted to them | biomes |
| watery parts of the biosphere divided into these, each containing numerous ecosystems. | aquatic life zones |
| elements and compounds that make up nutrients move continually through air, water, soil, rock, and living organisms in cycles called this. prime examples of one of the four scientific principles of sustainability | biogeochemical/nutrient cycles |
| over land, about 90% of the water that reaches and atmosphere evaporates from the surface of plants through this process | transpiration |
| a local area's short-term temp, precip, wind speed, cloud cover, and other physical conditions of the lower atmosphere over hours or days | weather |
| an area's general pattern of atmospheric or weather conditions over long periods of time | climate |
| warming of the earth's lower atmosphere (troposphere) because of increases in the concentrations of one or more greenhouse gases primarily as a result of human activities | enhanced greenhouse effect/global warming |
| every organism has a feeding level, or this, depending on its source of food or nutrients | trophic level |
| self feeders, make the nutrients they need from compounds and energy obtained from their environment | producers/autotrophs |
| complex process that takes place in cells of green plants. radiant energy from the sun is used to combine carbon dioxide and water to produce oxygen carbohydrates and other nutrient molecules | photosynthesis |
| other feeders, that cannot produce the nutrients they need through photosynthesis or other processes and must obtain their energy-storing organic molecules and many other nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains | consumers/heterotrophs |
| primary consumers, plant eaters, rabbits or zooplankton that eat producers mostly by feeding on green plants | herbivores |
| secondary/third+ consumers, meat eaters, deer & fish eat on flesh of herbivores and tigers & wolves feed on flesh of others of these | carnivores |
| pigs, fox, cockroaches, and humans, play dual roles by feeding on both plants and animals | omnivores |
| detritus feeders, feed on the wastes or dead bodies of other organisms, such as mites, earthworms | detritivores |
| chemical energy stored in glucose and other organic compounds to fuel life processes of producers, consumers, and decomposers. when this energy is released through this, which uses oxygen to convert glucose back into carbon dioxide and water | aerobic respiration |
| some decomposers get the energy they need by breaking down glucose in the absense of oxygen, a form of cellular respiration | anaerobic respiration/fermentation |
| a sequence of organisms, each of which serves as a source of food for the next | food chain |
| organisms in most ecosystems form a complex network of interconnected food chains | food web |
| living or previously living entity. each trophic level in a food chain or web contains a certain amount of this, the dry weight of all organic matter contained in its organisms | biomass |
| diagram representing the flow of energy through each trophic level in a food chain or food web. with each energy transfer, only a small part of the usable energy entering one trophic level is transferred to the organisms at the next trophic level | pyramid of energy flow |
| the rate at which producers use photosynthesis to produce and store chemical energy minus the rate at which they use some of this stored chemical energy through aerobic respiration | net primary productivity NPP |
| 1 component of the biosphere. consists of nonliving components such as water, air, nutrients, and solar energy | abiotic components |
| 1 component of the biosphere. consists of biological components, plants, animals, and microbes | biotic components |
| each population in an ecosystem has one of these to variations in its physical and chemical environment | range of tolerance |
| too much or too little of any abiotic factor can limit or prevent growth of a population, even if all other factors are at or near the optimal range of tolerance. describes one way in which population control is achieved | limiting factor principle |
| genetic variety. random changes in the structure or number of DNA molecules in a cell that can be inherited by offspring. | mutations |
| step in conventional biological evolution. occurs when some individuals of a population have genetically based traits (resulting from mutations) that enhance their ability to survive and produce offspring with these traits | natural selection |
| the role a certain species plays in an ecosystem. it is a species' way of life or role in a community or ecosystem and includes everything that affects its survival and reproduction. a species pattern of living | niche/ecological niche |
| have broad niches. can live in many different places, eat a variety of foods, and often tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions. some examples are flies, cockroaches, mice, and humans | generalist species |
| occupy narrow niches. they may be able to live in only one type of habitat, use one or a few types of food, or tolerate a narrow range of climatic and other environmental conditions. more prone to extinction when environmental conditions change | specialist species |
| species that migrate into a community, or are deliberately or accidentally introduced | nonnative/invasive/alien species |
| species that provide early warnings of harmful environmental changes taking place in a community or an ecosystem | indicator species |
| species that play roles affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem | keystone species |
| the most common interaction between species is competition for shared or limited resources such as space and food. competition between species | interspecific competition |
| when a member of one species (the predator) feeds directly on all or part of a living organism of another species (the prey) as a part of food webs | predation |
| occurs when one species (the parasite) feeds on the body of, or the energy used by, another organism (the host), usually by living on or in the host. the parasite benefits and the host is harmed but not immediately killed | parasitism |
| two species behave in a way that benefits both by providing each with food, shelter, or some other resource | mutualism |
| an interaction that benefits one species but has little, if any, effect on the other | commensalism |
| the gradual change in species compsition of a given area | ecological succession |
| how many known chemical elements are there? | 118, 92 natural, 26 synthetic |
| physical states of matter | solid, liquid, gas |
| in and out at same rate, balanced change | dynamic equilibrium |
| makes vitamin K | e-coli |
Created by:
jesslo2006
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