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Definitions Flashcards

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Biology 101 flashcards
1
Q

What does abiotic mean?

A

Relates to a non-living feature of an ecosystem, examples include light intensity, precipitation, temperature, wind speed or wind direction.

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2
Q

What does adaptation mean?

A

Any feature which makes and organism well suited to living in its environment.

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3
Q

What does agrochemicals mean?

A

A chemical such as fertiliser, hormone, pesticide or soil treatment that improves the production of crops.

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4
Q

What is albedo?

A

The proportion of light that is reflected by a body or surface.

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5
Q

What is algal bloom?

A

A rapid growth of microscopic algae in water, often resulting in a coloured scum on the surface.

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6
Q

What is anaerobic digestion?

A

A process in which bacteria are used to decompose organic matter in an oxygen-free environment, producing biogas and sludge.

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7
Q

What is anthropogenic?

A

Caused or influenced by human activity.

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8
Q

What is anthropogenic greenhouse gas?

A

Emissions of natural greenhouse gas enhanced by human activity. This includes water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and fluorocarbons (CFC’s)

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9
Q

What is aquaculture?

A

The intensive farming of aquatic animals or cultivation of aquatic plants for food.

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10
Q

What is a aquifer?

A

An underground layer of water (reservoir)

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11
Q

What is assimilation?

A

The conversion of nutrients obtained from outside the body into a useful form that is incorporated into the tissues and organs.

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12
Q

What is autotroph?

A

An organisms that can produce its own food by photosynthesis. Also known as a producer.

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13
Q

What is base flow?

A

Water that percolates downwards until it reaches the groundwater reservoir and then flows to surface stream as groundwater discharge.

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14
Q

What is Bauxite?

A

A ore rich in aluminium oxide what can be extracted.

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15
Q

What is bioaccumulation?

A

The build up of chemicals or toxins within the tissue of an organism.

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16
Q

What is biocrude oil?

A

A biofuel obtained by heating dried biomass in an oxygen-free environment.

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17
Q

What is biodiesel?

A

A diesel fuel derived from oils and fats in animals or plants.

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18
Q

What is biodiversity?

A

The variety of species and ecosystems on Earth and the ecological processes they are part of.

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19
Q

What is bioethanol?

A

An alcohol made by fermentation of carbohydrates from plant materials. It can be mixed with petrol as a fuel for vehicles.

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20
Q

What is biofuel?

A

Combustible biomass or fuel derived from biomass.

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21
Q

What is biogas?

A

Gas produced through the fermentation of organic matter.

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22
Q

what is biological oxidation?

A

The process by which bacteria and other micro-organisms consume dissolved oxygen and organic substances in sewage.

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23
Q

What is biological oxygen demand (BOD)?

A

A measure of the amount of dissolved oxygen used by bacteria in the process of decomposing organic matter in water

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24
Q

What is biological weathing?

A

A form of physical weathering caused by animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms.

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25
Q

What is biomagnification?

A

when toxins and chemicals are passed through the trophic levels.

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26
Q

What is biomass?

A

The mass of organisms in a given area or volume.

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27
Q

What is biomethanol?

A

A biofuel produced by gasification of biomass

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28
Q

What is biotic?

A

Relating to a living feature of an ecosystem such as competition, food supply, disease or predation.

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29
Q

What is biotic index?

A

A scale showing the quality of an environment based on the types of organisms which inhabit it.

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30
Q

What is blackwater?

A

Waste water and sewage that comes from toilets

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31
Q

What is brown earth soil?

A

A soil type found under deciduous forest with a mull humus.

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32
Q

What is capillary action?

A

The movement of soil moisture in any direction within soil as water moves through pore spaces from wet areas to drier areas.

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33
Q

What is capture-mark-recapture?

A

A method used in ecology to estimate the size of a population.

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34
Q

What is a carnivore?

A

An animal that obtains it’s energy by consuming other animals.

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35
Q

What is carrying capacity?

A

The maximum population size of a species that a environment can naturally sustain indefinitely

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36
Q

What is a catalyst?

A

A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without undergoing any permanent chemical changes.

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37
Q

What is chemical weathering?

A

When rainwater reacts with mineral grains in rocks to form new minerals and soluble salts. This occurs when rainwater is slightly acidic

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38
Q

What is circular economy?

A

An approach where resources,waste, emissions and energy loss are minimised through use of long lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse, reprocessing and recycling.

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39
Q

What is climate?

A

Large scale, long term weather patterns

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40
Q

What is climate change?

A

A large scale, long term shirt in earths weather patterns or average temperatures.

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41
Q

What is climax community?

A

The final stage of succession in a community of plants and animals remain stable and exists in a balance with each other and their environment.

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42
Q

What is closed loop recycling?

A

Recycling of a material indefinitely without degradation of products

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43
Q

What is coagulation?

A

Chemical treatment of wastewater to separate out small suspended particles from the water.

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44
Q

What is a community?

A

All the organisms that hat live together in an ecosystem

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45
Q

What is competition?

A

An interaction that occurs between organisms whenever there is shared demand for a limited resource.

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46
Q

What is condensation?

A

The process of a vapour or gas turning into a liquid.

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47
Q

What is a constructive plate boundary/diverging plate boundary?

A

This occurs when convection currents in the upper mantle are diverging forcing the plates apart.

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48
Q

What is a consumer?

A

Any organisms that gains its energy from other organisms (heterotroph)

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49
Q

What are convection currents?

A

A circulation pattern in which warmer low density material rises and cooler high density material sinks.

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50
Q

What is the core?

A

The earths inner core is solid composed of an iron-nickel alloy, and surrounded by a liquid outer core of molten iron and nickel.

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51
Q

What is the Coriolis effect?

A

The earths rotation causes a deflection in the surface wind patterns and surface ocean currents across the globe.

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52
Q

What is crop rotation?

A

The practice of growing different crops in succession on the same land to avoid depletion of the soil but also control weeds, disease and pests.

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53
Q

What is the crust?

A

The outer layer of the earth. Can be either continental or ocanic

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54
Q

What is a decomposer?

A

An organism that obtains its energy by breaking down death organic matter.

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55
Q

What is decomposition?

A

The breaking down into smaller constituent parts

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56
Q

What is density?

A

The number of individuals of the same species present per unit area or unit volume.

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57
Q

What is density dependent?

A

Interactions between organism which reduce the population when numbers are high and allows population to increase when numbers are low.

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58
Q

What is density independent?

A

Factors, usually natural disasters, which reduce the reproduction rate or increase the death rate of organisms independently of population density.

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59
Q

What is deposition?

A

The settling out of rock fragments and sediment after transportation by water, wind, ice or gravity.

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60
Q

What is desalination?

A

The process of removing salt from seawater.

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61
Q

What is desert?

A

An area that receive an annual average precipitation of less than 25cm

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62
Q

What is desertification?

A

The process by which fertile land becomes desert.

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63
Q

What is a destructive plate boundary/converging plate boundary?

A

This occurs when convection currents in the upper mantel are converging forcing plates to move towards each other.

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64
Q

What is a detritivore?

A

An animal that obtains it’s energy by consuming dead organic matter.

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65
Q

What is diffuse pollution?

A

Pollution that arises from land activities that spread across large areas that have no specific point of discharge.

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66
Q

What is disinfection?

A

The process of cleaning something, especially with a chemical in order to destroy pathogens.

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67
Q

What is dissolved oxygen content?

A

A measure of the amount of free oxygen dissolved in water

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68
Q

What is distribution?

A

The manner in which a group is arranged geographically

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69
Q

What is district heating systems?

A

A network of pipes used to deliver heat.

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70
Q

What is diversification?

A

The branching out from traditional farming by adding new money making activities.

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71
Q

What is diversity index?

A

A measure of species diversity in a community or area.

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72
Q

What is drip irrigation?

A

A method of controlled irrigation in which water is slowly delivered to the root system of plants, either dripped into soil surface above or directly onto roots.

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73
Q

What is earthquake magnitude?

A

Earthquakes generate vibrations known as seismic waves.

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74
Q

What is an ecosystem?

A

A biological unit made up of living and non living parts. Community and habitat

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75
Q

What is ecological efficiency?

A

The percentage biomass produce by one trophies level that is transferred and incorporated into biomass at the next tropic level.

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76
Q

What is ecosystem diversity?

A

The variation in habitats, living communities and ecological processes in the living world.

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77
Q

What is an ectotherm?

A

An animal that relies in external environment for temperature control instead of generating its own body heat.

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78
Q

What is edaphic?

A

Relating to the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of soil that affect living organisms

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79
Q

What is effluent?

A

Liquid water material discharged by farming, industry or sewage works into a river or sea.

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80
Q

What is electrolysis?

A

The splitting of water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity and an electrolysed device (fuel cell)

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81
Q

What is elluviation?

A

The movement of suspended or dissolved compounds by percolating water from an upper horizon into a lower horizon.

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82
Q

What is an endotherm?

A

An animal that uses internally generated heat to maintain body temperature independent of external temperature change.

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83
Q

What is energy recover?

A

The conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat, electricity or fuel through processes such as combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion or landfill gas recovery.

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84
Q

What is energy security?

A

The uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price.

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85
Q

What is the enhanced greenhouse effect?

A

The enhancement of the natural greenhouse effect through anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases trapping increasing quantities of heat.

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86
Q

What is environmental assessment?

A

The process of estimating and evaluating significant short term and long term effects of a programme or project on the quality of the locations environment.

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87
Q

What is environmental impact assessment (EIA)

A

Aims to protect the environment by ensuring that a local planning authority has full knowledge of possible significant environmental effects of a proposed development, and mitigation for these, and takes these into account in the decision-making process.

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88
Q

What is environmental monitoring?

A

Describes the processes and activities that need to take place In order to characterise and monitor the quality of an environment over time.

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89
Q

What is equatorial rainforest?

A

A forest typically found between 5 degrees North and south of the equator

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90
Q

What is erosion?

A

The breaking down of rock fragments into smaller pieces and sediments due to collision with other rocks fragments during transportation.

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91
Q

What is eutrophication?

A

Excessive nutrient enrichment in a waterbody which causes a dense growth of algae or plant life. The algae and surface vegetation prevent light and oxygen penetrating the water,
which affects survival of aquatic plants and invertebrates.

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92
Q

What is evaporation?

A

The process of turning from liquid into a vapour or gas.

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93
Q

What is evapotranspiration?

A

The water lost to the atmosphere through evaporation from the land surface and from plant leaves.

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94
Q

What is exponential population growth model?

A

A model which illustrates how a population may grown over time if there are no limits to resources. It forms a j shaped curve.

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95
Q

What is extrusive rock?

A

Any rock derived from magma that flows onto the earth surface as lava or explodes violently into the atmosphere.

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96
Q

What is fault?

A

A fracture in rock due to stresses from a tectonic event.

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97
Q

What is the Ferrell cell?

A

Part of the tricellular model and lies between 30 and 60 degrees north and south.

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98
Q

What is filtration?

A

Any mechanical, physical or biological operation that separates solids from liquids.

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99
Q

What is fission?

A

The splitting of atoms to release energy which can then be harnessed.

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100
Q

What is floc?

A

A loosely clumped mass of fine particles.

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101
Q

What is flocculation?

A

The clumping of individual particles into clot-like masses or precipitating in to small lumps.

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102
Q

What are fold mountains?

A

Occur near convergent plate boundaries. Subduction of one plate under another results in layers of sediments lying at the junction being crumpled and folded, appearing above sea level as a range of mountains.

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103
Q

What is food security?

A

Exists when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and preferences.

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104
Q

What is food use by date?

A

Foods can be eaten up until stated use by date but not after providing storage instructions stated on the packaging have been followed correctly.

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105
Q

What is fracking?

A

The injecting of liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks to force open fissures and extract oil or gas.

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106
Q

What is frequency?

A

The chance of finding a species within a defined area.

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107
Q

What is frictional heat?

A

A force opposite the direction of movement due to rubbing of surfaces in contact. This generates heat energy.

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108
Q

What is a fuel cell?

A

A cell producing an electrical current from a chemical reaction.

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109
Q

What is gasification?

A

The conversion of organic matter into gas by reaction the materials at high temperatures without combustion with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam.

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110
Q

What is genetic diversity?

A

The variety of genetic characteristics involved in the genetic makeup of a specis

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111
Q

What is genetic modification?

A

Genetic material (DNA) which has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.

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112
Q

What is geothermal energy?

A

The energy stored in the form of heat below the Earths surface.

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113
Q

What is geothermal gradient?

A

The rate of increasing temperature vs increasing depth in the earth interior.

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114
Q

What is global energy budget?

A

The balance between incoming and outgoing solar radiation.

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115
Q

What is globalisation?

A

The process by which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of massively increased trade and cultural exchange.

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116
Q

What is global ocean conveyer belt?

A

A constantly moving system of deep ocean circulation driven by thermohaline circulation and surface winds.

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117
Q

What is global warming?

A

A gradual increase in the overall temperature of the atmosphere generally attributed to increases in anthropogenic greenhouse gases.

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118
Q

Yeah hat is gravitational contraction?

A

The collapse of gas and dust to form stars, planets and other objects under gravitational attraction.

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119
Q

What is gravitational potential energy?

A

When an object is above the earths surface is has GPE. Gravitational interaction resulted in GOE converted to heat energy.

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120
Q

What is grazing?

A

A method of feeding in which herbivores feed on grasses and herbage.

121
Q

What is greenhouse gases?

A

A gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.

122
Q

What is greywater?

A

Domestic wastewater other than sewage

123
Q

What is gross primary productivity?

A

The rate at which autotrophs produce biomass in a govern area and time period.

124
Q

What is ground source heat pump?

A

Pipes buried underground with a circulating mixture of water and antifreeze absorb heat from the ground which can be removed using a heat exchanger and used to heat a building or to provide hot water

125
Q

What is ground water?

A

Water that occupies pores spaces in rock, sediments and soil. The area where groundwater collects is known as an aquifer.

126
Q

What is Gulf Stream?

A

An ocean current that transports eaten water away from the Gulf of Mexico North into the Atlantic.

127
Q

What is a habitat?

A

The place where a plant or animal lives

128
Q

What is habitat destruction?

A

The process by which natural habitat is damaged to the extent
that it is no longer able to support species and communities. This may be through a natural event such as flooding or a volcanic eruption, but is more usually caused by anthropogenic activities such as land drainage or

129
Q

What is habitat fragmentation?

A

The reeducation of a large habitat area into smaller, scattered remnants

130
Q

What is the Hadley cell?

A

Part of the tricellular model which lies between the equator and 30 degrees north and south.

131
Q

What is a herbivore?

A

An animal that feeds on plant material

132
Q

What is a heterotroph?

A

An animal that must meet its energy requirements by ingesting other organism or organic matter derived originally from plants

133
Q

What is high yield variety?

A

A crop that has been specifically bred or selected to produce more than the natural varieties of the same species.

134
Q

What is humification?

A

The transformation of raw organic matter into humid where no recognisable plant parts remain.

135
Q

What is a hydrograph?

A

A graph showing how a waterbody reacts after a period of rainfall.

136
Q

What is hydroponics?

A

The cultivation of plants in a soil less medium or more commonly aquatic based environment

137
Q

What is a hydrothermal vent?

A

Forms as a result of volcanic activity on the sea floor. Water seeps down through cracks in the crust and comes into contact with magma in the upper mantle, dissolving metals and minerals as it becomes super-heated. The super-heated water erupts as a geyser from the hydrothermal vent, with the dissolved metals and minerals precipitating out on contact with cold seawater and forming a chimney around the vent.

138
Q

What is an ice sheet?

A

A mass of glacial land ice expanding more thank 50000km^2

139
Q

What is illuviation?

A

The process of deposition of soil material moved from upper into lower horizon.

140
Q

What is initiative?

A

An action implemented in order to achieve the aims of a strategy or policy.

141
Q

What is insolation?

A

The total amount of solar radiation energy received on a given surface during a given period of time.

142
Q

What is intensive agriculture?

A

Farming that uses a lot of machinery, labour, chemicals etc in order to maximise crop yield or keep as many animals as possible in a set plot of land.

143
Q

What is interdependence?

A

A relationship between species that helps to prevent overpopulation of a particular species to ensure the survival of the species as a whole.

144
Q

What is interquartile range?

A

A measure of the spread of data.

145
Q

What is interspecific competition?

A

Competition between individuals belonging to two or more different species which have very similar resource requirements which are in short supply.

146
Q

What is intraspecific competition?

A

Competition between individuals of the same species for the same limited resource.

147
Q

What is intrusive rock?

A

Rock formed from magma that cools and solidified with the earths crust

148
Q

What is an invasive nonnative species?

A

A species introduced through human action outside its native distribution and which has a serious negative impact on native species our health or our economy

149
Q

What is a keystone species?

A

A species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend on.

150
Q

What is lag time?

A

The time it takes for precipitation to find it’s way from land to a river.

151
Q

What is landfill?

A

The disposal of waste material by burying it in a pit.

152
Q

What is laterite?

A

A soil formed under conditions of high temperatures and heavy rainfall with alternative wet and dry periods which leads to leaching of soil leaving only oxides of iron and aluminium.

153
Q

What is latitude?

A

A geographic coordinate specifying the north-south position of a point on the earths surface.

154
Q

What is lava?

A

Molten rock generated by geothermal energy and expelled through fractures in the crust or via a volcanic eruption.

155
Q

What is leaching?

A

The movement of dissolved substances by percolating water.

156
Q

What is legislation?

A

Laws passed by the government.

157
Q

What is life cycle analysis.

A

A systematic quantitative assessment for products or processes that identifies and quantifies the inputs and outputs for a whole life cycle or individual stages. It assesses all energy, materials and transport involved in making, using and
disposing of a product.

158
Q

What is Lincoln index?

A

A method of estimating population size of individual animal species using capture mark recapture.

159
Q

What is linear economy?

A

An economy based in ‘produce, use and throw’ with no attempt at recovery of materials or energy.

160
Q

What is liquor?

A

The liquid remaining once sewage sludge has been removed. Must be processed further before being released to the environment as effluent.

161
Q

What is logistic population growth model?

A

A model which illustrates how a population may grow exponentially until it reaches the carrying capacity of its environment and shows a S shape curve.

162
Q

What is magma?

A

Hot fluid or semi fluid material present below or within the earths crust.

163
Q

What is the mantle?

A

Lies between the crust and outer core composed of magma.

164
Q

What is marginal land?

A

Land that is of little agricultural value because of problems with access, water control, terrain, environmental restriction.

165
Q

What is a marine protected area?

A

A formal conservation designation to protect nationally important marine wildlife, habitats, geology and undersea landforms.

166
Q

What is mechanisation?

A

The improving of farm labour productivity through the use of machinery, implements and tools.

167
Q

What is metabolisation?

A

The chemical process by which matter is broken down into simpler substances.

168
Q

What is metallic minerals?

A

A mineral is a solid, naturally occurring, , inorganic substance. A metallic mineral is one that contains one or more metallic elements.

169
Q

What is Milankovitch cycles?

A

Cyclical variations in earth-sun geometry that combine to produce variation in the amount of solar energy reaching Earth.

170
Q

What is native species?

A

One that occurs naturally within a given ecosystem rather than as the result

171
Q

What is natural climate change?

A

Natural cycles in earth climate have resulted in ice ages and warmer interglacial periods. These have been driven by factors such as orbital changes, plate tectonics, volcanoes and sunspot activity.

172
Q

What is the natural greenhouse effect?

A

Natural atmospheric processes that maintain the earths average surface temperature at about 15 degrees Celsius. Without this the temperature would be too cold for life to sustain.

173
Q

What is net primary productivity?

A

The rate at which an ecosystem accumulates energy or biomass, excluding the energy used up for the process of respiration.

174
Q

What is niche?

A

The role played by a species within a community

175
Q

What is a non- native species?

A

A species introduced through human action outside its native distribution

176
Q

What is nutrient enrichment?

A

Excessive inputs of macro nutrients into the aquatic environment.

177
Q

What is obsolescence?

A

The process of falling into disuse or becoming out of date.

178
Q

What is ocean circulation?

A

The large scale movement of waters in the ocean basins.

179
Q

What is an ocean gyre?

A

A large system of circular ocean currents that occur above and below the equator

180
Q

What is ocean trench?

A

A geological structure which occurs undersea along the boundary of a tectonic plate specifically along a subduction zones.

181
Q

What is an omnivore?

A

An animal that obtains energy by consuming both plant and animals material.

182
Q

What is open cast mining?

A

The removal of mineral resources from the earth surface through large holes or pits.

183
Q

What is open loop recycling?

A

The process of converting a material from one or more products into a new product involving a change in the properties of the material

184
Q

What is ore?

A

A naturally occurring solid material from which a metal valuable mineral can be extracted profitably

185
Q

What is overburden?

A

Waste rock and soil overlying a mineral deposit that must be removed before extraction of the mineral can take place?

186
Q

What is parasitism?

A

A symbiotic relationship between two organisms in which one benefits and the other is harmed.

187
Q

What is Parent material?

A

In soil science, parent material included bed rock, weathered rock or surface deposits.

188
Q

What is particulates?

A

Particulates matter includes all solids and liquid particles suspended in air.

189
Q

What is a pathogen?

A

An agent that causes disease such as a bacterium, virus or fungus.

190
Q

What is peak discharge?

A

The time when a river reaches its highest flow.

191
Q

What is peak rainfall?

A

The time of highest rainfall

192
Q

What is percentage cover?

A

A measure of the amount of cover of a particular species in a quadrat.

193
Q

What is percolation?

A

The movement of water through soil by gravity and capillary action

194
Q

What is permeability?

A

A measure of the amount of water able to pass through a rock

195
Q

What is persistent organic pollutants (POPs)?

A

Organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation including pesticides

196
Q

What is physical weathering?

A

Weathering caused by changes in temperature, freeze thaw or effects of wind, rain and waves.

197
Q

What is plagioclimax?

A

A stable plant community which is maintained by persistent human interference such as burning or grazing

198
Q

What is planned obsolescence?

A

This is when a product is designed to have an artificially limited life span.

199
Q

What is plate boundary?

A

A boundary between two or more plates which can be moving towards each other or apart from each other or past each other.

200
Q

What is plate tectonics?

A

A scientific theory describing the large scale notation of plates of crust and upper mantle.

201
Q

What is podzol soil?

A

A soil type typically found under coniferous forests where precipitation is heavy and contains mor humus

202
Q

What is point pollution?

A

Pollution that is discharged from a single location

203
Q

What is polar cell?

A

Part of the tricellular model and lies between 60 degrees North and south and the North Pole

204
Q

What is a policy?

A

A plan of action that focuses on a specific target.

205
Q

What is a pollutant?

A

A substance that contaminates air, water or soil.

206
Q

What is pollution?

A

The presence in an environment of substances in quantities that cause harm to the environment components.

207
Q

What is population?

A

A group of individuals of the same species living in the same area at the same time.

208
Q

What is population crash?

A

A sudden decline in the number of individual members in a population, species or group of organisms, usually in response to scarcity of resources, intra specific competition and/or biotic factors.

209
Q

What is population dynamics?

A

The study of the factors and their interactions that influence the number and density of population in time and space.

210
Q

What is population growth?

A

An increase in size of population over a given time period.

211
Q

What is population oscillation?

A

A pattern characterised by population exploding, resulting in overshoot of the carrying capacity followed by population crash, then the recovery of the environment and resources.

212
Q

What is population overshoot?

A

A temporary situation that occurs when a population exceeds its carrying capacity, before lack of resources causes a population crash.

213
Q

What is pore space?

A

The volume in soil or rock that can be filled with water or air. The pore space properties determine fluid flow through the soil or rock.

214
Q

What is porosity?

A

A measure of a rocks ability to hold fluid.

215
Q

What is precipitation?

A

Moisture that falls from the air to the ground.

216
Q

What is predator?

A

An animal that lives by killing and consuming other animals.

217
Q

What is predator prey cycle?

A

As a population of one species increases, its predator populations will increase in response. As the prey numbers fall due to predation, the predator numbers will also fall due to reducing resource availability.

218
Q

What is prey?

A

An animal that is hunted and killed by another for food.

219
Q

What is primary consumer?

A

A herbivore that eats the autotroph/producer in a food chain.

220
Q

What is primary productivity?

A

A measure of the rate at which new organic matter develops through photosynthesis.

221
Q

What is primary succession?

A

The colonisation of a new site by communities of plants and animals after an event has removed all existing soil.

222
Q

What is processed biofuel?

A

A biofuel that has been subject to an industrial process.

223
Q

What is psychological obsolescence?

A

This is when a consumer is persuaded that they need a new product even when their existing product is working well.

224
Q

What is purification?

A

The removal of undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended soils and gases to produce water for for a specific purpose.

225
Q

What is pyrolysis?

A

The chemical decomposition of organic material through the application of heat in the absence of air and oxygen.

226
Q

What is quadrat?

A

A frame enclosing a known unit area which is used to assess species abundance.

227
Q

What is qualitative data?

A

Descriptive data such as species list or qualification keys.

228
Q

What is quantitate data?

A

Numerical data gathered through measuring or counted

229
Q

What is radioactive decay?

A

The process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by emitting radiation in the form of particles.

230
Q

What is random sampling?

A

Sampling where every individual in a population has an equal and interdependent chance of being selected.

231
Q

What is reforestation?

A

The process of replanting an area with trees. Differs from afforestation which is the planting of new areas where there was no previous tree cover.

232
Q

What is relative abundance?

A

How common or rare a species is relative to other species in a defined area or community. Is expressed as a percentage of the total number of organisms in the area.

233
Q

What is reliability?

A

The extent to which an experiment, test or measuring procedure yields the same results on repeated trials. For the data to be reliable, the variation across the values must be small.

234
Q

What is relief?

A

The highest and lowest evaluation points on a land surface. Also known as terrain.

235
Q

What is respiration?

A

A chemical process in which energy and is released from store in the body.

236
Q

What is rewilding?

A

Intentional activities which initiate or accelerate the recovery of a habitat or an ecosystem with respect to its health, integrity and sustainability.

237
Q

What is Rift Valley?

A

Forms when two continental plays diverge, causing stretching and fracturing of the crust.

238
Q

What is run off?

A

The flow of water over land as surface water.

239
Q

What is screening?

A

The removal of larger objects such as rags, paper, plastics and metals at a wastewater treatment plan.

240
Q

What is sea level?

A

Mean sea level is the average height of the oceans surface between high and low tide.

241
Q

What is secondary consumer?

A

An animal that eats the primary consumer in a food chain.

242
Q

What is secondary productivity?

A

The assimilation of food into new biomass through the transfer of organic material between trophies levels.

243
Q

What is secondary succession?

A

Succession that occurs on a pre-existing soil after primary succession has been disrupted or destroyed and the ecological community has been disturbed.

244
Q

What is sedimentation?

A

The settling out of suspended particles and flow on sewage liquor.

245
Q

What is selective breeding?

A

The breeding of plants and animals for particular characteristics.

246
Q

What is seral stages?

A

The stages of succession in an ecosystem advancing towards its climax community

247
Q

What is sewage liquor?

A

A mixture of raw or settled wastewater and suspended soils.

248
Q

What is sewage sludge?

A

A semi - liquid slurry residue from the wastewater treatment process.

249
Q

What is shale gas?

A

Natural gas ground trapped within impermeable shale deposits

250
Q

What is simple random sampling?

A

Sampling where every individual in a population has an equal independent chance of being selected and the average sample should accurately represent the population.

251
Q

What is Simpson biodiversity index?

A

A measure of diversity which takes into account the number of species present plus the relative abundance of each species.

252
Q

What is a site of special scientific interest? (SSSI)

A

A formal conservation designation for an area which has extremely high conservation value because of its plants, animals, geological or landscape features.

253
Q

What is smelting?

A

A process by which metal is obtained from its ore by hearing it beyond the melting point.

254
Q

What is soil profile?

A

The layering of soil horizons.

255
Q

What is soil stability?

A

The ability of soil to maintain its structure to allow passage air and water, withstand erosive forces and provide a medium for plant roots.

256
Q

What is soil structure?

A

Describes the physical arrangement of the solid parts of soil and of the pore spaces lying between them. Influences porosity; permeability; movement of water, nutrients and gases; and land use.

257
Q

What is soil texture?

A

Refers to overall feel of soil reflect the proportions of mineral particles (sand, silt, and clay) present.

258
Q

What is solar flare?

A

A sudden, rapid and intense variation in the Sun’s brightness.

259
Q

What is solar radiation?

A

Radiant energy emitted by the sun.

260
Q

What is species?

A

A group of organisms that can interbreed and offspring.

261
Q

What is species diversity?

A

A measure of the number of different species present in a give area, rather than the abundance of each species.

262
Q

What is species richness?

A

The number of species present in a sample or an area

263
Q

What is Standard deviation?

A

A measure used to quantify the amount of variation or spread of a set of data values.

264
Q

What is steam methane reforming?

A

The reaction of natural gas with steam in the presence of a catalyst to produce hydrogen and carbon.

265
Q

What is Strategic environmental assessment (SEA)

A

Aims to provide fro a high level of protection of the environment from development. It is mandatory for plans and/or programmes which relate to large scale changes in land use.

266
Q

What is strategy?

A

The methods and principles needed to achieve a policy are set out in a strategy.

267
Q

Wha is stratified random sampling?

A

Sampling where the population is divided into categories then a sand on sample is selected form each category. The size of each sample should be proportional to the size of each category within the population.

268
Q

What is subduction zone?

A

The point at which an oceanic place is forced underneath a continental plate at a destructive plate boundary.

269
Q

What is sublimation?

A

The process by which Ice or snow goes from a solid to a gas without becoming a liquid.

270
Q

What is sunspot?

A

A sunspot is a region on the surface of the sun that is temporarily cool and dark compared to surrounding regions.

271
Q

What is superheating?

A

The hearing of a liquid, under pressure to a temperature higher that it’s boiling point without actually boiling.

272
Q

What is sustainability?

A

The relationship or balance between social, economic and environmental issues.

273
Q

What is sustainable development?

A

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

274
Q

What is surface winds patterns?

A

The arrangement, location, velocity of the various dominant wind patterns blowing across the earths surface.

275
Q

What is systematic random sampling?

A

Sampling where a staring point is randomly chosen and then a regular pattern of sampling is used to collect the sample.

276
Q

What is tailings?

A

Waste from mining industry. May be solid waste material or fine waste suspended in water.

277
Q

What is technological obsolescence?

A

This is when a new technology or product or product supersedes the old even if the old technology is still functional.

278
Q

What is temperate rainforest?

A

Coniferous or broad leaf/deciduous forests that occur in the temperate zone.

279
Q

What is tertiary consumer?

A

An animal that eats the secondary consumer in a food chain

280
Q

What is thermohaline circulation?

A

Circulation driven by differences in seawater density, caused by temperature and salinity.

281
Q

What is transect?

A

A method which investigates distribution of organisms in relation to a fixed area by recoding all species found at points or in quadrat place at intervals along a line.

282
Q

What is translocation?

A

The downward movement of water or minerals in soil. Includes leaching, elevation, illuviation and capillary actions.

283
Q

What is transpiration?

A

The movement of rock fragments by water, ice, wind or gravity from the place where they were originally weathered.

284
Q

What is Trent biotic index?

A

A measure which uses freshwater invertebrates to compare water quality at different points in a stream or river.

285
Q

What is tricellular model?

A

A model that explains the redistribution of energetic from areas of surplus to areas of deficit by three different air masses.

286
Q

What is trophic?

A

Relating to feeding and nutrition

287
Q

What is trophic level?

A

A level or position in a food chain occupied by a group of organisms that have a similar feeding mode.

288
Q

What is tundra?

A

May be arctic or alpine.

289
Q

What is upwelling?

A

The rising up of deep, cold, nutrient rich water in the open ocean or along coastlines.

290
Q

What is validity?

A

Encompasses the entire experiment and establishes whether the data obtained meet all the requirements of the research method.

291
Q

What is waste hierarchy?

A

A ranking of waste management options according to what is best for the environment. Gives top priority to waste prevention.

292
Q

What is waste prevention?

A

The process of minimising the quantity and hazardousness of waste.

293
Q

What is waste recovery?

A

The selective extraction of disposed materials for a specific next use such as recycling, composting or energy generation.

294
Q

What is waste recycling?

A

Reprocessing materials into new products.

295
Q

What is waste reuse?

A

The process of refilling or finding another use of a product without processing it other than cleaning.

296
Q

What is water security?

A

Exists when all people, at all times, have sustainable access to adequate quantities of water of acceptable quality for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being and socioeconomic

297
Q

What is weather?

A

The state of the atmosphere at a particular place and time with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity and air pressure.

298
Q

What is weathering?

A

The exposure and breaking down of rocks in situ at the earths surface over geological time due to interaction with the atmosphere

Environmental Science (4 decks)

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