| Question |
Answer |
| absolute humidity | amount of water vapor found in a certain mass of air (grams of water per kilogram air) |
| acid solution | water solution with more hydrogen (H+) than hydroxide (OH-) |
| adaptive developement | methods used to improve adaptability to unkown circumstances |
| adaptive radiation | period of time (usually millions of years) during which new species evolve to fill niches left after mass extinction |
| agricultural revolution | shift from hunter-gatherer to agriculture--10,000 to 12,000 years ago |
| agroforestry | planting trees and crops closely together |
| albedo | ability of a surfact to reflect light |
| allele | slightly different molecular form found in a particular gene |
| alley cropping | planting of crops in strips with rows of trees or shrubs on each side |
| alpha particle | positive particle two neutrons and two protons emitted as radioactivity |
| appropriate technology | small scale, efficient, adn labor intensive, and use locally available resources to produce goods that benefit local communities |
| arable land | land that can be cultivated to grow crops |
| strip mining | earthmover strips away overburden, power shovel digs a cut to remove the mineral dposity. After minerals is removed, overburden is replaced and work begins on the next strip |
| basic solution | water solution with more hydroxide than hydrogen |
| beneficiation | seperation of an ore mineral from the waste mineral |
| benthos | bottom dwelling organisms |
| benefit cost analysis | costs v. benefits, used to determine economic viability for a project |
| beta particle | electron released as part of radioactivity |
| biofuel | gas or liguid fuel made from plant material |
| biological evolution | change in the genetic makeup of a population of a species in its successive generations |
| BOD | Biological Oxygen Demand, amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic decomposers to break down the organic materials in a given volume of water at a certain temperature over a specified time period |
| Biome | terrestrial regiods inhabited by certain types of life, especially vegetation |
| Biosphere | zone of earth where life is found |
| Biotic potential | maximum rate at which the populationpopulation of a given species can increase when there are no limits in its rate of growth |
| Bitumen | gooey, black, high-sulfur, heavy oil extracted from tar sand and then upgraded to synthetic fuel oil |
| broadleaf deciduous plants | plants such as oak and maple trees that survive drought and cold by shedding their leaves and becoming dormant |
| broadleaf evergreen plants | plants that keep most of their broad leaves year-round |
| buffer | substance that can react with hygrogen ions and thus hold the acidity of a solution fairly constant |
| K | Carrying Capacity, maximum population of a given species that can be supportedin a given habitat |
| CFC | Clorofluorocarbons |
| chemosynthesis | process in which certain organisms extract inorganic compounds from their environment and convert them into organic nutrient compounds without the presence of sunlight |
| closed system | energy but not matter is exchanged between system and environment |
| commensalism | good, neutral |
| commercial extinction | when there is not enough of something to be profitable harvested |
| competitive exclusion principle | no two species can occupy the same niche |
| condensation nuclei | tiny particles in which droplets of water vapor can collect |
| coniferous plants | make cones |
| conservation tillage farming | crop cultivation which does not disturb the land so much |
| coral reef | formation produced by massive colonies containing billions of timy coral animals called polyps that secrets a stony substance (calcium carbonate) then die. found in coastal zones |
| crude birth rate | live births over 1000 population |
| decidious plants | shed their leaves |
| degradeable pollutant | pollutant that can be broken down to acceptable levels by natural processes |
| depletion time | how long it takes to use a certain fraction-usually 80% of the knwon or estimated supply of a nonrenewable resource at an assume rate of use |
| detritivore | scavengers and decomposers, live off waste |
| dew point | temperature at which condensationoccurs for a given amount of water vapor |
| dieback | sharp reduction of species numbers back to carrying capacity |
| dust dome | heated air surrounds city and holds in spm |
| spm | suspended particulate matter |
| ecological niche | all physical, chemical, and biological conditions a species needs to live in an ecosystem |
| ecotone | transitional zone in which one type of ecosystem tends to merge with another ecosystem |
| endemic species | species only found in one area, particularly vulnerable to extinction |
| entropy | disorder and randomness |
| environmental wisdom worldview | nature exists for every species not just for us and we have to fairly share it with the other species out there. |
| estuary | mouth of a river where fresh and saltwater mix |
| first law of thermodynamics | energy in neither created nor destroyed |
| frontier worldview | undeveloped land must be conquered |
| fundemental niche | full potential range of a species niche, only found in a lab |
| Gaia Hypothesis | earth is alive and can be considered a system |
| GPP | rate at which an ecosystem's producers capture and store a given amount of chemical energy as biomass in a given length of time |
| high-input agriculture | large amounts of fuel and fertilizer to creat massive amounts of monoculture crops |
| intercropping | growing two or more different crops at the same time on a plot |
| kerogen | fuel found in oil shale |
| keystone species | affects many other species in the ecosystem |
| K-Selected Species | small amount of valuable offspring |
| plantation agriculture | grow specialized crops for sale to developed countries |
| strip cropping | planting regular crops adn close-growing plants in alternating rows to reduce depletion of soil nutrients |
| sludge | stuff removed from wastewater |
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