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ESS > ESS KEY TERMS > Flashcards

ESS KEY TERMS Flashcards

1
Q

Sustainability

A

Use and management of resources that allows full natural replacements of the resources exploited and full recovery of the ecosystem affected by their extraction

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2
Q

Negative Feedback

A
  • Stabilizes steady-state equilibrium
  • Tends to dampen down, neutralize or counteract any deviation from an equilibrium
  • Stabilizes systems or results in steady-state
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3
Q

Negative Feedback Loops

A
  • Occurs when the output of a process inhibits or reverses the operation of the same process in such a way to reduce change- IT COUNTERACTS DEVIATION
  • Mechanisms can be either positive (change a system to a new state, destabilizing as they increase change) or negative (return to its original state, stabilizing as they reduce change
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4
Q

Energy in a system

A
  • First and Second law of thermodynamics
  • Entropy is a measure of disorder in a system and it refers to the spreading out or dispersal of energy
  • More Entropy = Less Order
  • Over time, all differences in energy in the universe will be even out until nothing can change
  • Energy conversions are never 100% effective
  • When energy is used to work, some change is also distributed as waste heat
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5
Q

Entropy

A

A measure of disorder in a system and it refers to the spreading out or dispersal of energy. More of it causes less order

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6
Q

Second Law of Thermodynamics

A

States that entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time

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7
Q

Environmental Value System

A

World view of paradigm which shapes the way an individual or group perceive and evaluate environmental issues

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8
Q

Categories of EVS

A

Ecocentric = Deep Ecologists and Self Reliant Soft Ecologists
Anthropocentric
Technocentric = Environmental Managers and Cornucopias

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9
Q

System

A

A set of inter-related parts which work together to form a complex whole

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10
Q

Open System

A

Exchanges matter and energy with its surroundings

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11
Q

Transfers and Transformations

A

Both matter and energy move or flow through ecosystems as transfers or transformations

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12
Q

Forms of pollution

A
  • Organic (contain carbon) and inorganic compounds
  • light, sound and thermal energy
  • biological aspects and invasive species
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13
Q

Chronic pollution

A

Long-term exposure to smaller amounts of a pollutant

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14
Q

Acute Pollution

A

When large amounts of a pollutant are released causing a lot of harm

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15
Q

Biodegradable pollutants

A

Do not persist in the environment and break down quickly

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16
Q

Persistent organic pollutants

A

Resistant to breaking down and remain active in the environment for a long time, because of this they are bioaccumulate in animal and human tissue

17
Q

Ecological footprint

A

Impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources

18
Q

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

A
  • Report prepared before a development project to change the use of land
  • Weighs up the relative advantages and disadvantages of the development
  • necessary to establish abiotic environment and biotic community
  • both negative and positive impacts are considered
19
Q

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA)

A
  • Focuses on how ecosystem have changed over the last decades
  • Predicts changes that will happen
  • Report says that natural resources are used in ways which degrade them
20
Q

Environmental Indicators

A
  • Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
  • Sustainable Development Goals
  • Environmental Assessment Indicators
  • Ecological Footprint
21
Q

Sustainable Development

A

Development that meets the need of the present without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own need

22
Q

Ecology

A

The study of the relationship between organisms and their physical and biotic environment

23
Q

Limitating Factors

A

The factors which slow down growth of a population as it reaches its carrying capacity

24
Q

Bioaccumulation

A

the build up of persistent r non-biodegradable pollutants within a organism or tropic level because they cannot be broken down

25
Q

Biomagnification

A

the increase in concentration of persistent or non-biodegradable pollutants along a food chain

26
Q

Maximum Sustainable Yield

A

(MSY) is the largest crop or catch that can be taken from the stock of a species (eg a forest, a shoal of fish) without depleting the stock. Taken away is the increase in production of the stock while leaving the stock to reproduce again. It is often used in managing fisheries.

The MSY is equivalent to the net primary or net secondary productivity of a system.

27
Q

Zonation

A

Is the change in community along an environment gradient due to factors such as changes in altitude, latitude, tidal level or distance from shore/coverage by water

28
Q

Succession

A

Is the process of change over time in an ecosystem involving pioneer, intermediate and climax communities

29
Q

Biodiversity Hotspot

A

Is a region with a high level of biodiversity that is under threat from human activity

30
Q

Speciation

A

Is the gradual change of a species over a long time. When populations of the same species become separated, they cannot interbreed and if the environments they inhabit change they may start to diverge and a new species forms. Humans can speed up speciation by artificial selection of animals and plants by genetic engineering but the natural process of speciation is a slow one. Separation may have geographical or reproductive causes

31
Q

Natural Selection

A

Process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment are able to survive and produce fertile offspring.

32
Q

indicator species

A

are plants and animals that show something about the environment by their oresence, absence, abundance or scarcity

33
Q

anthropogenic pollutants

A

created by human activities

34
Q

water budget

A

is a quantitative estimate of the amounts of water in storage and flows of the water cycle

35
Q

photochemical smog

A

haze in the atmosphere accompanied by high levels of ozone and nitrogen oxides, caused by the action of sunlight on pollutants.

36
Q

acid deposition

A

broad term that includes any form of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that fall to the ground from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms

37
Q

thermal inversion

A

happens when temperature increases with altitude, instead of the normal decreasing temperature that occurs as altitude increases.

38
Q

Carrying capacity

A

The maximum number of a species or “load” that can be sustainably supported by a given environment

ESS (2 decks)

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