Chapter 1 Flashcards
The study of life systems and connections in the natural environment.
Environmental Science
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary study of 3 things:
1) how the earth works and has survived and thrived
2) how humans interact with the environmental
3) how we can live more sustainably
A branch of biology that focuses on how living organisms interact with the living and no living parts of their environment
Ecology
A group of organisms that have a unique set of characteristics that set it apart from other groups
Species
The capacity of the earth’s natural systems that support life and human economic systems to survive or adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely
Sustainability
The scientific effort to understand, mimic, and catalog the ways in which nature has sustained life on earth.
Biomimicry
The three scientific principles of sustainability
1) solar energy
2) biodiversity
3) chemical cycling
The sun’s energy warms the planet and provides energy that plants use to produce nutrients, the chemicals that plants and animals need to survive.
Solar energy
The variety of genes, species, ecosystems, and ecosystem processes
Biodiversity
The circulation of chemicals or nutrients needed to sustain life from the environment (mostly from soil and water) through various organisms and back to the environment
Chemical cycling
Natural resources and ecosystem services that keep humans and other species alive and that support human economies
Natural capital
Materials and energy provided by nature that are essential or useful to humans
Natural resources
Three categories of natural resources
1) inexhaustible
2) renewable
3) non-renewable (exhaustible)
The highest rate at which people can use a renewable resource indefinitely without reducing its available supply
Maximum sustainable yield
Inexhaustible resource
Solar energy
Wind energy
Geothermal energy
