Ch.3 And 5 Vocab Flashcards
Average residence time
A measure of the time it takes for a given part of the total pool or reservoir of a particular material in a system to be cycled through the system.
Biosphere
The part of a plant where life exists. The planetary system that includes and sustains life and therefore is made up of the atmosphere ocean soil’s upper bedrock and all life.
Biota
All the organisms of all species living in an area or region up to and including the biosphere.
Closed System
A type of system in which there are definite boundaries two factors such as mass and dinner jeep such that exchange of these factors with other systems does not occur.
Doubling time
The time necessary for a quantity of whatever is being measured to double
Exponential growth
Growth in which the rate of increase is a constant percentage of the current size that is the growth occurs at a constant rate for time.
Lag time
The period of time between two closely related events, phenomenon etc. as between stimulus and response or between cause and effect a time lag between the declaration of war and full war production
Open system
A type of system in which exchanges of mass or energy occur with other systems
Positive feedback
A type of feedback that occurs when an increase in output leads to a further increase in output.
Negative feedback
Occurs when the systems response is in the opposite direction of the output it is self-regulating
Steady-state
When input equals output in a system, there is no net change and the system is said to be in a steady-state
Uniformitarianism
States that processes that operate today operated in the past observations of processes today can explain events that occurred in the past and leave evidence
Flux
The action or process of flowing or flowing out.
Reservoir
A large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply
Biotic
Of, relating to, or resulting from living things, especially in their ecological relations.
Abiotic
Physical rather than biological not derived from living organisms
Dynamic equilibrium
The state of balance between continuing process
Biogeochemical cycles
The cycling of a chemical elements through the biosphere, it’s pathways,storage locations, and chemical forms in living things, the atmosphere, oceans, sediments, and lithosphere
Carbon cycle
Biogeochemical cycle of carbon carbon combines with and is chemically and biologically linked with the cycles of oxygen and hydrogen that form the major compounds of life
Nitrogen cycle
A complex biogeochemical cycle responsible for moving important nitrogen components through the biosphere and other Earth systems
Phosphorus cycle
Biogeochemical cycle involving the movement of phosphorus throughout the biosphere and lithosphere
Rock cycle
A group of process that produces igneous metamorphic and sedimentary rocks
Hydrologic cycle
Circulation of water from the oceans to the atmosphere and back to the oceans by way of evaporation run off from streams and rivers and groundwater flow.
Tectonic cycle
The process that change earths crust producing external forms such as ocean basins, continents, and mountains.
Denitrification
The conversion of nitrate to molecular nitrogen by the action of bacteria an important step in the nitrogen cycle.
Organic nitrogen compounds are returned to N2 by soil bacteria
Nitrification
Conversion of ammonium to Nitrate through nitrifying bacteria
Nitrogen fixation
The process by which atmospheric nitrogen is converted to ammonia, nitrate ion, or amino acids. Microorganisms perform most of the conversion, but a small amount is also converted by all living things.
Atmospheric nitrogen dissolved in rainwater enters the soil and is fixed by bacteria to make ammonia.
Ammonification
Decaying organic material in the soil is turned into ammonium by bacteria and fungi.
Limiting factor
The single requirement for growth available in the least supply in comparison to the need of an organism. Originally applied to crops but now often applied to any species.
Macronutrients
Elements required in large amounts by living things. These include the big six-carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur.
Micronutrients
Chemical elements required in very small amounts by at least some forms of life. Boron, copper, and molybdenum are examples of micronutrients.
Nitrate
A salt or water of nitric acid,
containing the anion
Very soluble in water
Sink
A forest, ocean, or other natural environment viewed in terms of its ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Phosphate
A salt or water of phosphoric acid, containing PO43- or a related anion or a group such as OPO(OH)2
Nitrogen fixing bacteria
Microorganism present in the soil or in plant roots that change nitrogen compounds that plants can use in the soil.
Assimilation
Absorption of nitrate by the roots of plants; obtain by animals from eating plants
Ammonia
colorless gas with a characteristic pungent smell. It dissolves in water to give a strongly alkaline solution.
