Environmental Science Specific Terms Flashcards
What are Ecosystem Services?
Processes that support humans: Water cleaning, crop farming, fisheries, etc.
Background Extinction Rate vs. Reality
*1 species lost per million, 10 species lost per year (should be equal to 1 species made per million, 10 gained per year through speciation - new species)
*With humans, it is 10,000 a year due to habitat, climate loss, and introduced species
How Does Human Population Factor Into Life on Earth?
7.8 billion people in growing puts increasing demands on natural systems for essential resources.
What is Replication in the Scientific Method?
Approaching a study with different methods in attempts to prove/disprove it
What is a Sample Size?
A small group of a population chosen for a study that is then multiplied x amount of times to determine the result of the whole population
What is Accuracy (Statistics)?
How close a measurement is to the true value
What is Precision (Statistics)?
A measure of how close a series of measurements are to one another
What is a Theory?
A hypothesis that has been tested with a significant amount of data
What is Cohesion?
*Molecules sticking together
*Because of cohesion, water can be a solid, liquid, and gas at Earth’s temperature
What is Surface Tension?
A measure of how difficult it is to stretch or break the surface of a liquid
What is Adhesion?
Molecules sticking to other substances
What is Capillary Action?
Movement of water through small spaces like plants and soil
What is Unique About Hydrogen bonds states of matter?
Because of cohesion, hydrogen bonds require more energy to change temperature and state
Why do substances dissolve in water?
Because it is a polar molecule and organic molecules can accumulate inside of it
What is Entropy?
Systems that are more towards randomness rather than order
What is Ecosystem Productivity?
How much energy captured by an ecosystem determines how much life it can support
What is Gross Primary Productivity?
How much energy is captured by producers in an ecosystem
What is Net Primary Productivity?
Energy captured by producers, minus energy respired
What is Weather?
The short-term conditions of the atmosphere in a local area
What is Climate?
Average weather in a region over a long period of time
What is Adiabatic Cooling and Heating?
(PUT ON NOTECARD)
Air rises, pressure lowers, air expands, temperature decreases, air sinks, pressure increases, temperature increases
What is Latent Heat Release?
When water vapor condenses into liquid water and energy is released
What is a Hadley Cell?
A pattern of atmospheric circulation in which warm air rises in continental size chunks near the equator, cools as it travels poleward at high altitude, sinks as cold air, and warms as it travels back towards equator
What is the Coriolis Effect?
(PUT ON NOTECARD)
The effect of Earth’s rotation on the direction of winds and currents. In Hadley cells, air sinks at 30°N lat. As it moves towards surface, the speed increases and is deflected west forming trade winds.
What are Ocean Currents?
Predictable directional movement of water driven by wind, gravity, and water density
What are Gyres?
Large-scale water circulation pattern between continents
What is Upwelling?
The movement of deep, cold, and nutrient-rich water to the surface
What is El Nino?
An irregularly occurring and complex series of climatic changes affecting the equatorial Pacific region and beyond every few years, characterized by the appearance of unusually warm, nutrient-poor water off northern Peru and Ecuador, typically in late December.
What is Phylogenetics?
Evolutionary relationships between species
What is Recombination?
Parts of duplicating chromosomes break off and attach to different chromosomes reshuffling genetic code.
What is a Genotype?
Complete set of genes in an individual
What is a Phenotype?
Set of traits expressed in an individual through appearance or behavior
What is Genetic Drift?
A change in the gene pool of a population over time
What is the Bottleneck Effect?
When populations are reduced, genetic variation is reduced
What is the Founder Effect?
Change in allele frequencies as a result of the migration of a small subgroup of a population
What is Geographic Isolation?
Territory separates groups, most common way to form new species
What is Reproductive Isolation?
After separation, two populations can no longer breed
What is Allopatric Speciation?
New species after geographic isolation
What is sympatric speciation?
Form of reproduction by polyploidy (Organisms with more than two sets of chromosomes cannot reproduce with two set diploid)
What is Polyploidy?
A condition in which an organism has more than two complete sets of chromosomes
What is the Average Life Span of Species?
1 to 10 million years
5 Global Mass Extinctions *plus 6th?
- 430 million years ago - Global cooling event (60% marine life extinct)
- 360 million years ago - 75% species died
- 250 million years ago - “Great Dying”, 96% of species extinct (asteroid?)
- 205 million years ago - 50% of marine invertebrates, 80% of all land quadrupeds extinct (volcanic eruptions?)
- 65 million years ago - dinosaurs and no large animal survive (meteorite)
6.???? Since arrival of humans, nearly half of vertebrates now extinct due to habitat destruction, over harvesting, invasive species, climate change, and emerging diseases
What is the Human Population Carrying Capacity?
6.8 to 10.5 billion people around year 2100
What is a Fault?
A fracture in rock caused by a movement of Earth’s crust (fault zone is where movement occured)
What is an Epicenter?
Exact point where plate movement occured
What are Volcanic Erruptions?
Where molten magma beneath Earth’s crust is released to the surface of the atmosphere
What are the Soil Horizons Types?
(PUT ON NOTECARD)
- O-horizon - top organic layer
- A-horizon - “top soil” mix of organic and mineral soils
- B-horizon - subsoil mineral with little organic matter
- C-horizon - least weathered horizon, practically parent material
- R -horizon - unweathered parent material
What is the % of Freshwater on Earth?
3% total water, most of it found underground or in glaciers (.2% total freshwater in streams and rivers)
What are Water Ownership Rights?
Has caused many conflicts and wars over the years. Can a country own water?
Difference Between Commercial Energy vs. Substinence Energy?
Commercial - can be bought/sold
Substinence - can be gathered by individuals
What is the Spanish Flu?
Pandemic that spread around the world in 1918, killing more than 50 million people (500,000 in US)
What is Giardia?
(#1 cause of diarrhea in US)
*Parasitic intestinal parasite common in preschool and daycare
*Can cause death if not hydrated
What is Malaria?
*A disease caused by mosquitoes implanting parasites in the blood
*1 million die each year (300 million new cases)
*Expanding as global temp rises because mosquitos are out more
What is Avian Flu?
From domestic poultry to livestock to humans
What is the West Nile Virus?
Transmitted by mosquitos in US that can cause fever
What is HIV/AIDS?
Spread through body fluids
-37.6 million infected, 1.7 million deaths each year
What is Ebola?
Spread through direct contact of blood and body fluids
(Very deadly)
Allergens vs. Antigens Difference?
Allergens - Substances that activate immune systems
Antigen - Stimulates antibodies in white blood cell
