Mid-term Exam Prep Flashcards
What is photosynthesis?
The process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.
What is the carbon cycle?
The carbon cycle is a biochemical process in which carbon passes through and is exchanged through the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the earth.
What are PH indicators
Also known as a acid-base indicator, pH indicators are compounds that change the color of the solution to narrow down the range of acidity
(ex. The cabbage juice was a pH indicator for the several different solutions which were tested in class)
What are some issues relating to population growth?
Issues around growing population is hunger populations of countries that will decrease like Japan during 1995.
What is population density
The number of people living per unit of area (ex. Per square mile); the number of people relative to the space occupied by them
How do you calculate population growth?
(Birth - Death) - (people coming in - people going out)
How to calculate the population growth rate and to fin out the doubling time
To calculate population rate (B-D)/10 and to get the double time is 70/rate of growth
What is a Carrying Capacity?
The number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation
What is a Niche?
A role of an organism in an ecosystem.
What is an Ecosystem role?
A biological community of interacting organisms and their environment
What is a Symbiotic Relationship?
A biological relationship between two or more species that may or may not benefit each other
Symbiotic relationships…MUTUALISM
Both species benifit
Symbiotic Relationships … COMMENSALISM
{one species benefits while the other is not affected}
Symbiotic Relationships…. PARASITISM
one species benefits while the other is harmed
Symbiotic Relationships…. MIMICRY
one species mimics the behavior of the other to enjoy the benefits of the other
What is a food chain?
A series of organisms each depedant on the next as a source of food
What is an example of a food chain in the Pouge?
Example: algea-waterworms-tadpoles-leech-mayfly larvae-fish-heron
What is a food web?
A system of interlocking and interdependent food chains
How are food webs different from food chains?
Different from food chains because in food chains there is only one direction of energy, but in food web there are many different possibilities to where the energy can flow from species to species
What is an energy pyramid?
A depiction of the amount of energy in ecah trophic level of an ecosystem
What are the different levels of a food pyramid?
Levels: primary producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, teriary consumer
What would happen if there was a shift in an energy pyramid
If a shift occurred the energy value would differ from what would normally be transfereed from species to species
(note: only 10% of energy gets transferred from and to each level of the pyramid)
What is a Macroinvertebrate?
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone
What is a Larvae?
Larvae: the immature form of an insect
What is a nymph
Nymph: the young of an insect that undergoes incomplete metamorphasis
What is an example of complete metamorphosis?
Complete: egg-larvae-pupae-adult (think butterfly)
What is an example of incomplete metamorphosis?
Incomplete: egg-nymph-adult
At is Bioaccumulation?
Defintion: accumulation in biological tissue of individuals
What’s an example of Bioaccumulation?
Examples: when someone eats a lot of fish all the mercury accumulates in the body
What is Biomagnification?
Defintion: metal concentration increases with each level of the food chain
What is an example of Biomagnification?
Example: a small fish eats a snail with mercury in it a bigger fish eats the smaller fish an even bigger fish eats that fish and a human eats the largest fish and gets the mercury from each organism that was in the food chain
What is the symbol for Mercury?
Hg
What are the properties of Mercury?
Properties: silver, liquid at room temperature, high density, poor conductor of heat.
Where is mercury found?
Found: valcanoes, coal fire plants, wet lands, many species of fish
How does deposition of mercury work?
Deposition: gets put into atmosphere from coal fired power plants, among other sources, and is rained down onto ground and into water
What effect does Mercury have on humans?
Human effects: mercury causes nerve damage in young children and in fetuses. Can be passed from mother to unborn child. Can pass through blood barrier and cause cancer, extreme cases are fatal.
What are the two ways to measure Mercury?
Ppm: miligrams per liter (mg/l)
Ppb: micrograms per liter (ug/l)
How do you convert between units?
Unites: kilo-, hecto-, deca-, base-, deci-, centi-, milli-, micro-
Depending on number of places you need to move or what unit you are converting to, you count the number of steps away and move the decimal that many places to the right or left, depending of whether or not you’re going up or down
How does the mercury cycle work?
Coal fired power plants release smoke or combustion into the atmosphere->mercury is deposited into water by means of wet deposition through precipitation->aquatic vegetation adsorbs mercury->fish eat the plants->bigger fish eat those fish->humans eat the fish and obtain all the mercury accumulated from all the organisms in that food chain.
What is methylmercury?
Definition: a particularly toxin in organic form of mercury that concentrates in aquatic food webs
How is methylmercury formed?
Formation: forms when there is bacteria or microbes, anrobic conditions, and chemistry
What is an ultra trace?
Definition: toxins that are in small amounts in the environment but still have an impact
What is a body burden?
The concentration of mercury in the body of an organism
What is stewardship?
Caring for the land and community
What are the parts of the earths system?
Parts of earth’s system: sun, cryosphere, biosphere (plants and animals), lithosphere/pedosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere (water)
What is a system?
A set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole
What are the properties of coal?
Properties: lower ranked coal is soft, where as higher ranked coal is harder and denser, black or brown, made of carbon oxygen, and hydrogen ignites at 925 degrees Fahrenheit
How is coal converted to energy?
Electric conversion: coal dust is burned in a factory and heats water to the point where its pressurized steam and that steam runs through a system of pipes turning turbines which then creates electricity
What are three major global issues?
Three major issues in the world are; hunger, water quality problems, poverty
How do you write a good Hypothesis?
if…then…because statements
What is an hypothesis?
Definition; a supposition or purposed explanation made on the bases of limited evidence as a starting point to future investigation
What is electromagnetic spectrum?
the range of wavelengths or frequencies over which electromagnetic radiation extends
What are the parts of electromagnetic spectrum in order?
parts; radio, microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x-ray, Gamma Ray
What is the sun’s electromagnetic radiation?
Ultraviolet, infrared, and visible
Whatnots the difference between inferred radiation and UV radiation?
infrared is lower than visible light and UV is higher in wavelength and frequency than visible light
What are the different parts of UV radiation?
UVA goes through atmosphere to earth, UVB goes part way through, UVC gets blocked completely by atmosphere
What are the effects of UV radiation on humans?
UV radiation effects human health by skin cancer, and infrared is lower than visible light and UV is higher in wavelength and frequency than visible light diseases (truck driver syndrome)
What does ozone control?
the ozone controls the amount of heat coming in and out of our atmosphere
What is the impact of the Ozone thinning?
Impact on the ozone thinning is global warming
List three major greenhouse gases
Methane, co2, H2o (water vapor)
What is the green house affect?
The trapping of the sun’s warmth in a planet’s lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation.
What are the layers of the atmosphere?
Troposphere, tropopause, stratosphere, stratopause, mesosphere, mesopause, thermosphere, and ozone
What determines the layers of the atmosphere?
Determined by temperature change
What are the components of air by precentage?
Nitrogen- 78%
Oxygen- 20%
Argon- 0.9%
Carbon- 0.033%
What is global warming?
Rise in avg. temperature of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans
What is climate change?
change in the world’s climate, global warming, and change in weather patterns in U.S
What is some evidence of climate change.
ice caps, melting quicker, previous calculation - 50 years, now - 5 to 10 years
What are three potential impacts of climate on Vermont
Winter- bad economy because of lack of snow for recreational activities
Forest- loss of habitats for wildlife
Health- higher temps means heat stroke, longer sessions of asthma and insect diseases (malaria, mosquitoes)
What is Peter Maslin fact #1?
maple trees need a cold climate to produce sap and due to global emissions of carbon the maple trees are starting move north, where climates can produce more sap (Canada) Maple sugaring economy will plumit
What is Peter Maslin fact #2?
Global ice is melting faster than it is regaining because of the sky rocketing amounts of carbon emissions in our atmosphere. previous predictions 50 years until ice will be gone, now it is 5- 10 years
What is the Keeling curve of Co2?
Since around 1960 to 2004 carbon emissions have sky rocketed measured at Mauna Loa, Hawaii (pattern is showing seasons, winter and summer.
What is ocean acidity?
Ocean acidification is a problem that occurs when CO2, that we release, dissolves into the water
acidification is affecting the marine life by brittling the skeletons and shells of organisms and if these organisms die off then food chain will be greatly affected. It kills off young forms of sea life that means that it will not be able to develop as a species. Organism that were studied were the following; clam, sea snails, lamp shells, and sea urchins
What is the Ideal level of Co2 in the air in ppm?
the ideal level of CO2 in the air in ppm is 350 ppm.
Why does the troposphere have a cooling trend?
This has a cooling trend because iris getting farther away from the earth, which is warm, so it starts to get cooler. Space is colder.
The green house affect is due to…?
Infrared radiation
How can green house gases impact the temperature of the troposhhere?
Greenhouse gases control how much heat is in and out of the atmosphere. Since the troposphere has a cooling trend with the greenhouse gases more he may be let in then let out creating the cooling trend in the troposphere
What is the difference between global warming and climate change?
Global warming is like a giant climate change climate changes the range of weather day today over a long period of time specified to it geographical placement.
Why is it important to know the difference Between global warming and climate change?
Is important to know the difference because even though global warming is so large it can be considered like a large climate change. Climate change is the big over view although global warming is a large example of climate change.
What is the difference between weather and climate?
Weather is what it is doing outside such as raining snowing…….. Where climate is the collected data of day today weather over a long period of time based upon geographical placement
