ENVI 101 Unit 1 Flashcards
Environmental Studies
Examines scientific, social, and cultural aspects of the environment
Ecology
Study of the relationship of organisms with their environment
Ecosystem
The defined place where living and nonliving things interact
Abiotic factors
Non-living factors in an environment ex. water, sun, soil
Biotic factors
Living factors in an environment ex. fish, plants, humans
Human impacts on the environment
Agriculture, fossil fuels, land development, fires
Tragedy of the commons
Overuse of resources
What causes population growth?
Revolutions in farming, medicine, industry, information-globalization
Preservation
Nature should be left alone
Advocate for preservation
John Muir
Conservation
Nature should be taken care of and managed wisely
Advocates of conservation
Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot
Aldo Leopold
Founder of the US Wilderness Society in 1935, author of the Sand County Almanac
Rachel Carson
Author of Silent Spring, book about DDT pollution
Date of the first Earth Day
April 22nd, 1970
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
US Agency founded in 1970 with the goal of environmental protection
Backlash to environmental protection started during the…
1980s
Environmental Impact of Humans Equation
I=PAT
Impact
Population
Affluence (Power use per capita or carbon emissions)
Technology Development
Three E’s of Sustainability
Environment
Economy
Equity
Sustainability
Capacity for Earth’s natural systems to support life
Natural resources
Materials provided by nature that are essential to human life
Ecosystem services
Natural services provided by healthy ecosystems that support life and human economies at no cost
Natural capital
Natural resources and ecosystem services that support human life
ex. resource - tree, services - lumber, air purification, habitat, food
Sustainable development
Development of an economic system that uses natural resources in a way that does not permanently impact nature
Science
A way of knowing and discovering how nature works
Scientific Method
Observation, Question, Hypothesis, Experiment, Conclusion, Report
Standard deviation
How much the actual measurements deviate from the average
Peer review
Peers in a field review your process and determine if a study is valid / orchestrated correctly
Matter
Anything that has mass and takes up space
Element
Substance that cannot be broken down into smaller substances by chemical reactions, made of atoms
Compound
Binding of two or more elements
Atoms
Building blocks of elements
Atomic Number
Number of protons in an element
Mass Number
Total number of neutrons and protons in the nucleus of an atom
Average atomic mass
Average weight of atoms across forms
Isotopes
Elements with a different number of neutrons than normal
Ions
Atoms or molecules that are electrically charged as a result of gaining or losing an electron
Molecule
Two or more elements joined by chemical bonds
Organic molecules
Molecules that contain two or more carbon atoms
Macromolecule
Large biological molecules
Four main macromolecules
Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids
Carbohydrates
Sugar, source of energy
Monosaccharides
Simple sugars ex. glucose
Disaccharides
Made of two monosaccharaides ex. lactose, sucrose
Polysaccharides
Long chains of monosaccharides ex cellulose
Lipids
Store large amounts of energy, hydrophobic, monomer - glycerol and fatty acids
Proteins
Carry out tasks for the body, monomer - amino acids
Nucleic acids
Store information on how to make proteins, monomer - nucleotides, polynucleotides - RNA, DNA
Energy
Ability to do work