Chapter 5: Vocab

Question 1

Dead zone:

Answer 1

Area so depleted of oxygen that marine organisms die

Question 2

Hypoxia:

Answer 2

Low concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water

Question 3

System:

Answer 3

A network of relationships among a group of parts, elements, or components that interact with an influence one another through the exchange of energy, matter, and information

Question 4

Feedback loop:

Answer 4

A circular process in which the system’s input is the same as the output

Question 5

Negative feedback loop:

Answer 5

Output driving the system and one direction ask as input that moves at the system in the other direction. Example: predators and prey

Question 6

Positive feedback

Answer 6

The output drives the system further towards one extreme. Example: global warming

Question 7

Dynamic equilibrium:

Answer 7

The process of moving in opposite directions equivalent rates of their effects balance out

Question 8

Homeostasis:

Answer 8

The tendency of this system is to maintain stable internal conditions. Sometimes processes have to be viewed over long periods of time to see this stability.

Question 9

Emergent properties:

Answer 9

Characteristics that are not evident in the system components.

Question 10

Eutrophication:

Answer 10

The process of nutrients over-enrichment

Question 11

Lithosphere:

Answer 11

Everything that is soil or Earth beneath our feet

Question 12

Atmosphere:

Answer 12

The air surrounding our planet

Question 13

Hydrosphere

Answer 13

All water and surface bodies, underground, and in the atmosphere

Question 14

Biosphere:

Answer 14

The planets living and abiotic portions of the environment with which they interact

Question 15

Ecosystem:

Answer 15

Consists of all interacting organisms and abiotic factors that occur in a particular place at the same time

Question 16

primary production:

Answer 16

Conservation of solar energy to chemical energy in sugars by autotrophs

Question 17

Gross primary production (GPP):

Answer 17

Assimilation of energy from autotrophs

Question 18

Net primary production (NPP):

Answer 18

Varies widely over different ecological zones and according to nutrient availability

Question 19

Secondary production:

Answer 19

Biomass generated by heterotrophs from consuming autotrophs

Question 20

Productivity:

Answer 20

The rate at which ecosystems generate biomass

Question 21

Nutrients:

Answer 21

Elements and compounds that organisms consume and require for survival

Question 22

Ecotones:

Answer 22

Transitional zones between two ecosystems

Question 23

Landscape ecology:

Answer 23

The study of how landscape structure affects the abundance, distribution, and interactions of organisms. They usually a compass multiple ecosystems

Question 24

Geographic information systems:

Answer 24

A common tool used for landscape ecology, a computer software

Question 25

Model:

Answer 25

Simplified representations of complex natural processes

Question 26

Ecological modeling:

Answer 26

Allows scientists to explain and predict how ecological systems function

Question 27

Ecosystem services:

Answer 27

Functioning ecosystems provide services that support our lives in society and profound and innumerable ways

Question 28

Nutrient cycles (biochemical cycles):

Answer 28

The cycle of which teacher is moves through the environment

Question 29

Source:

Answer 29

a reservoir that releases more material than it excepts

Question 30

Sink:

Answer 30

A reservoir that excepts more than it releases

Question 31

Flux:

Answer 31

The rate at which materials move between reservoirs

Question 32

Haber-Bosch process

Answer 32

Allows humans to synthesize ammonia, accelerating it’s flux into other reservoirs within the cycle

Question 33

The specific habitat needs of an organism will often determine its distribution across patches and possibly his division into subpopulations

Answer 33

Metapopulation

Question 34

Conservation biologists:

Answer 34

Concerned about the fragmentation of habitats caused by human development pressures

Question 35

Runoff:

Answer 35

Water to get up by plants or animals that is captured behind Dan’s for human use most however flows as run off into streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and oceans.

Question 36

Water table:

Answer 36

The upper limit of groundwater and the uppermost aquifer