Science Flashcards
What is Air?
mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
What do humans breathe in and out?
Humans breathe in oxygen and out carbon dioxide
what do trees absorb and release?
Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen
What do animals release?
Animals like cows will release methane in the form of burping and farting.
What happens if we cut down trees and increase animal population? Is this good?
if we cut down a lot of trees we reduce the amount of oxygen being produced. If we then populate the area with a lot of animals we increase the levels of carbon
dioxide and methane. This is bad for the AIR.
Trees represent a core part of an ecosystem. If trees were
destroyed what would happen to the environment?
There would be an increased level of carbon dioxide in the air and a decreased level of oxygen in the ocean.
What are plants and what do they do?
plants are living organisms. plants are
important for the ecosystem because they are a source of food for animals that eat plants and plants also create oxygen. plants are the first part of the food chain.
predators
are always hunting prey.
T or F: Trees are part of the AIR balance
True
A company wants to develop an area of rainforest for its manufacturing company. If they cut down large areas of the rainforest, what would be the consequence?
There would be an increase in levels of carbon dioxide in the environment.
An environmentalist is examining the air in a city in the Southwest that has a hot and dry atmosphere and uses reservoirs for the water supply. The main industries
in the city are factories and industrialized complexes. What would be the main health concern in this area for the residents who live there that the environmentalist
should examine first?
The quality of the air and how it impacts respiratory health especially in the children and the elderly.
The environmentalist wants to address the needs of the city in the Southwest. What recommendation would the environmentalist likely make to address the problem with the atmosphere?
To combat air pollution the city should plant many green trees. (“problem with the atmosphere” means pollution. Watch out for science jargon that makes it seem like a more complicated question)
How do trees use photosynthesis to process sunlight?
The plants take energy from the sunlight and spreads hydrogen into its parts, helping to create sugar, water, and oxygen.
order of a plant life cycle
Seeds, tree, flower, fruit.
Remember that FRUIT comes last. Think of every spring when we get the “Cherry Tree Blossoms.” In the spring the flowers grow and then after the flowers fall off the tree, the fruit grows in the summer. The Cherry Harvest happens in the summer.
Nilda Rodriguez has been farming a fruit orchard where she grows a variety of tree species. Her main production of farming in her plant community are apples. These are relatively short trees that grow rapidly and need large amounts of sunshine, water and soil nutrients to thrive. She has also grown shrubs that grown in the shade of the trees and need less sunlight to survive. She is careful
to balance the ecosystem of her farm so that all plants will survive. One of her main concerns is the way animals and birds can transplant the seeds of unknown trees into her orchard. She is mindful because these trees often need less sunlight and nutrients to survive. Why is this such a concern to Nilda?
The trees of the unknown species may need less sunlight and nutrients to survive and can overtake her orchard and prevent the apple trees from obtaining enough water and nutrients which can cause them to die out.
Again this relates to the previous questions with regard to a balance in an ecosystem. The question above seems complicated and scientific. Keep this in mind on the test. They make it sound MUCH MORE COMPLICATED than it really is. This question is about WEEDS. You know what weeds are, right? Even though it says “trees” let’s first
think of it like flowers. If I am trying to grow a garden I want to be careful to watch out for WEEDS. Weeds need less water and less nutrients and they grow quickly. So it’s easy for weeds to ruin a beautiful garden.
DEFINITION:
pho·to·syn·the·sis
the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.
T or F: DEAD TREES CAN KILL PEOPLE!
True
If Nilda Rodriguez were to create a diagram that reflects the nutrient life cycle of her farm, how would she write it?
Nutrients present in
the soil
Nutrients consumed
by tree and shrub
Nutrients released
back into the soil
Soil breaks down
waste.
(If the tree is not able to release the waste back into the soil because it is surrounded by weeds, it will die from the inside out. This is why they must monitor the trees carefully.)
Water Issues
The oxygen levels in the water support life and it has a
significant impact on species when oxygen levels drop. In addition, rising sea levels around the world due to global warming are part of what causes such extreme weather like the recent Hurricanes that destroyed Puerto Rico and caused massive flooding and destruction in Texas and Florida. In fact, flooding has become a world-wide problem in recent years. Just think of Hurricane Sandy here in NY (2012). It was the flooding that caused most of the damage, not the winds.
T or F: Life isn’t adaptable.
False
An environmentalist is examining the way a seashore has changed over the last few years. She notes that although there has been extreme flooding that changed the coastline the animals that lived there have survived the change due the fact that the plant life remained intact. As she examines the caves and
underground tunnels she sees that most of them have also survived the change. What conclusion can be drawn from her study?
Although environments can change, some animals and species can quickly adapt to these changes.
What is an example of an adaptation of the Viceroy butterflies?
The Monarch butterfly looks similar to the Viceroy butterfly, Monarch butterflies are poisonous to predators and so the Viceroy butterflies have ADAPTED to look more like the Monarch in order to survive. This type of adaption is something that scientists and environmentalists will study.
metamorphosis
(in an insect or amphibian) the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages. When a caterpillar builds a cocoon and turns into a butterfly, this is metamorphosis.
Scientific Study uses four steps, what are they?
remember them this way “Oh heck!”
O.H.E.C.
Observation
Hypothesis
Experiment
Conclusion
