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EEPS midterm
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| environmental science | addressing current environmental problems that human activities have brought about |
| scientific method | observe and gather data, formulate hypothesis, test the hypothesis, develop a theory |
| antarctic | most rigorously protected region in the world due to antarctic treaty |
| greatest environmental threats | overpopulation, abuse of natural resources, water and air pollution |
| sustainability | meeting needs of today without reducing quality of life or degrading environment |
| approaches to sustainability | reducing, reusing, and using renewable resources |
| environmental impact | alteration of natural environment by human activity |
| 2 results of environmental impact | resource depletion and pollution |
| system | set of components functioning together as a whole |
| lithosphere | soil and rocks, solids, rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle |
| biosphere | plants and animals, living in physical environment |
| hydrosphere | water, liquids |
| atmosphere | air and gas |
| water cycle is called | hydrologic cycle |
| climate change will increase | evaporation, floods, and rain/snow |
| erosion increased by | plastic and pollutants following the water cycle |
| closed system | matter doesn't leave |
| human activities have these impacts | change rate of flows, consume resources, produces waste causing pollution, and changes balance |
| hardin's first law of ecology | we can never know the long term impact of one thing |
| low personal consumption leads to | low environmental impact |
| commons | natural materials accessible to everyone such as air, water, and hospitable settings |
| global climate change | high emission of CO2 and other pollutants to atmosphere |
| 3 sphere of physical environment | lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere |
| how was atmosphere developed | by gases released from the lithosphere through volcanic activity |
| how is the atmosphere divided | into layers based on temperature |
| as the gas gets further from earth | the density decreases |
| 99% of gas is found in | the troposphere and stratosphere |
| troposphere | bottom layer of atmosphere |
| biosphere | biodiversity, fed by lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and solar energy |
| ecology | examines how organisms interact with each other and the physical environment |
| smallest to largest and least to most complex levels of organization | organisms, populations, communities, ecosystem, biosphere |
| organisms | have metabolisms and life cycles, can be classified based on physical, genetic, and behavioral charecteristics |
| species | organisms with many common physical and behavioral characteristics that are capable of reproducing |
| populations | same species living in same area |
| overshoot | when population exceeds carrying capacity |
| communities | groups of populations of different species that share area and interact |
| ecosystem | all of the communities of plants, animals, bacteria, etc.. |
| controls on populations | competition, predation, symbiosis, changes in food supply |
| all energy and matter | carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, hydrogen |
| food web | describes complex interrelationships by which organisms consume others |
| biomass pyramids | shows how much biomass is present in organisms at each level |
| biomass | the weight of living matter |
| trophic level | specific position that an organism occupies in a food web classified by how it gets energy |
| producers | capture energy from non-living environment; the first feeding level |
| consumers | derive energy from the chemical energy stored in the bodies of producers or other consumers |
| carbon is withdrawn from atmosphere by | photosynthesis |
| net primary productivity | the rate at which producers can create biomass |
| net secondary productivity | the rate at which consumer and decomposer biomass is produced |
| biochemical cycles | the cycle of chemical elements through the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere |
| most important biochemical cycles | carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur |
| fossil fuels | coal, oil, and natural gas and related organic materials that have formed over geological times |
| how much of the carbon that is emitted is being absorbed by plant life and oceans | only half |
| phosphorus | very slow cycling rate but very important for life |
| nitrogen, which is a building block, is accumulated in | the atmosphere |
| heat has what effects on tectonic plates | breaking of plates, plate tectonic concavity, recycling of rocks, and constant rejuvenation of surface rocks |
| earth tectonic plates | earth is broken into eight major and numerous smaller plates |
| plate tectonics explains what phenomenon | continental movement, mountains, sea floor movement, volcanic activity, and earthquakes |
| who proposed tectonic plates and in what year | alfred wegner and in 1912 |
| how much do plates move in a year | 0.8 to 12 inches |
| convection currents said to cause | plate movements |
| 3 plate boundaries | divergent plate boundaries, convergent boundaries, transform boundaries |
| divergent plate boundaries | where crust spreads apart |
| convergent boundaries | where pieces of crust collide |
| transform boundaries | where pieces of crust slide past one another |
| subduction zone | formed under the leading edge of the plate that remains on top |
| divergent oceanic plates | mid-atlantic |
| divergent continental | east-african rift valley |
| continental plate example | Himalayan mountains |
| oceanic plate convergence | Japan islands |
| hot spots | occasional upwelling of heat and magma in the interior of crustal plates |
| rocks | composed of minerals, inorganic solids that have a regular internal structure and composition |
| minerals | composed of atoms of elements |
| atoms | smallest unit of an element that retains tar physical and chemical properties of the element |
| 3 major rock types | igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic |
| igneous | melting of rocks in hot deep crust and upper mantle crystallizes |
| sedimentary | weathering and erosion of rocks exposed at surface, deposition, burial and lithification |
| metamorphic | rocks under high temp and pressures in deep crust and upper mantle, recrystallization in solid state of new minerals |
| earthquakes | occur as a result of stress at moving plate boundaries |
| epicenter | point on the earths surface located vertically above the place deep within the earth where the earthquakes originate |
| earthquake energy | energy is released as seismic waves |
| magnitude | amount of ground motion related to an earthquake |
| intensity | effect on humans and buildings |
| seismograph | instrument used to detect and record earthquakes |
| Ritcher scale for earthquake magnitude | measuring a earthquake |
| earthquake hazards | ground motion, ground failure, tsunamis, injury, disease, famine and economic losses |
| tsunami | series of water surface waves generated when large amount of water is displaced |
| tohoku earthquake and tsunami | 9.0 march 11, 2011 |
| salinity | total dissolved solids in water |
| salinity of ocean has been | increasing over time |
| weather | short-term daily fluctuations in atmospheric temperature, precipitation, and winds |
| weather is created by | movement in gas and water driven by solar energy |
| climate patterns | the average of weather over long time periods |
| factors controlling climates | movement of energy in and out of the atmosphere, movement of heat around atmosphere and ocean |
| el nino and la niña phenomena | complex weather patterns resulting from variations in ocean temperatures in the equatorial pacific |
| trade winds | wind blowing steadily towards equator from NE in the northern hemisphere or SE in southern hemisphere |
| El Niño southern oscillation | periodic weather phenomena that occurs every 3-7 years |
| weather hazards | tropical cyclones, tornadoes, floods, droughts, dust storms, heat waves, windstorms |
| easier to predict weather related hazards than | earthquakes and volcanoes |
| hurricanes | tropical cyclones in north america |
| typhoons | tropical cyclones occurring in Southeast Asia |
| floods are an important source of | nutrients |
| how do people contribute to floods | urban areas reduce natural infiltration, building permanent infrastructure, paving large expanses, farming, overgrazing, deforestation |
| dust storms | exacerbated by desertification, transport necessary minerals |
| droughts | periods of abnormally low rain-fall over extended period of time |
Created by:
burgia