Unit 1 Flashcards
Environmental Science
Mod 1: Define: A fuel derived from biological material that became fossilized millions of years ago.
Fossil Fuel
Mod 1: Define: a method of oil and gas extraction that uses high-pressure fluids to force open rock deep underground.
Fracking (Hydraulic Fracturing)
Mod 1: The sum of all the conditions surrounding us that influence life.
Environment
Mod 1: Define: Living
Biotic
Mod 1: Define: nonliving
Abiotic
Mod 1: Define: A social movement that seeks to protect the environment through lobbying, activism, and education.
Environmentalism
Mod 1: Define: The field of study that includes environmental science and additional subjects, such as environmental policy, economic, literature, and ethics.
Environmental Studies
Mod 1: Which is an abiotic component?
a) an eagle
b) a rock
c) a tree
d) a human
b) a rock
Mod 1: Impacts of fracking include
I. contamination of ground water
II. increased use of coal
III. Lower natural gas prices
a) I only
b) I and II
c) II and III
d) I and III
d) I and III
Mod 1: Which is not true about ecosystems?
a) they include biotic components
b) They can be a wide range of sizes
c) They include no human components
d) many interactions among species occur in them
C) They include no human components
Mod 1: Each of the following is an example of how humans have negatively affected the environment EXCEPT
a) hunting large mammals
b) conversion of arid land to agricultural use
c) the use of fire to create the great plains
d) slash and burn forest clearing
c) the use of fire to create the great plains
Mod 1: Define: a particular location on Earth with interacting components that include abiotic and biotic
Ecosystem
Mod 1: The way humans alter and continue to alter our environment.
- pollution
- contributing to extinction of wildlife
- help in creating new ecosystems
Mod 3: an objective method to explore the natural world, draw inferences from it, predict the outcome of certain events, process changes
Scientific Method
Mod 3: a testable conjuncture about how something works.
Hypothesis
Mod 3: any categories, conditions, factors, or traits that differ in the natural world or experimental situations
Variables
Mod 3: a prediction that there is no difference between the groups or conditions that are being compared.
Null hypothesis
Mod 3: The data collection procedure of taking repeated measurements
Replication
Mod 3: The number of times a measurement is replicated in collection
Sample Size (n)
Mod 3: How close a measured value is to the actual value or true value
Accuracy
Mod 3: How close the repeated measurements of a sample are to one another
Precision
Mod 3: an estimate of how much a measured or calculated value differs from a true value.
uncertainty
Mod 3: a hypothesis that has been repeatedly tested and confirmed by researchers and groups and has had wide acceptance
Theory
Mod 3: a groups that experiences the same conditions except for the single variable under study.
Control Group
Mod 3: a natural event that acts as an experimental treatment in an ecosystem.
Natural Experiment
Mod 3: Unique challenges that environmental studies faces (4)
- No baseline data (control planet)
- Subjectivity (people have diff. values and opinions)
- Interactions (complexity of natural and human dominated systems)
- Human well being (basic needs are the first priority, not environmental science)
Mod 4: anything that occupies space and has mass
matter
Mod 4: a measurement of the amount of matter that an object contains
mass
Mod 4: smallest particle that contains chemical props. of an element
atom
Mod 4: a substance composed of atoms that can not be broken into smaller, simpler components
Element
Mod 4: a particle containing more than 1 atom
molecule
Mod 4: a molecule containing more than one element
compound
Mod 4: measurement of the total number of protons and neutrons in an element
mass number
Mod 4: atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons
Isotopes
Mod 4: The spontaneous release of material from the nucleus of radioactive isotopes
radioactive decay
Mod 4: The time it takes for 1/2 of an original radioactive parent atom to decay
half life
Mod 4: The bond formed when elements share electrons
covalent bond
Mod 4: a chemical bond between two ions of opposite charges
ionic bond
Mod 4: a weak chem bond that forms when hydrogen atoms are covalently bonded to one atom but are attracted to another atom or molecule
hydrogen bond
Mod 4: one side is more positive and the other side is more negative
Polar molecule
Mod 4: a prop of h2o that results from cohesion of of h2o molecules at the surface of a body of h2o that creates a sort of skin on its surface
surface tension
Mod 4: prop of h2o when adhesion of h2o molecules to a surface is stronger than the cohesion between the molecules
capillary action
Mod 4: contributes hydrogen atoms to a substance
acid
Mod 4: contributes hydroxide atoms to a substance
base
Mod 4: the number that indicates the relative strength of A’s and B’s
pH
Mod 4: an increase in acidity of the oceans
Ocean acidification
Mod 4: occurs when atoms separate from molecules and recombine with other molecules
chemical reaction
Mod 4: matter cannot be created nor destroyed; it can only change form
law of conservation of matter; it can only change form
Mod 4: compound that does not contain the element carbon or contains carbon bound to elements other than hydrogen
Inorganic compound
Mod 4: compound that contains carbon-carbon or carbon-hydrogen bonds
Organic compound
Mod 4: compound made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms
carbohydrate
Mod 4: critical part of living organisms made up of a long chain of nitrogen containing organic made molecules aka amino acids
protein
Mod 4: organic compounds found in all living cells
Nucleic acid
genetic material containing the code for reproducing the components of the next generation, organisms pass to offspring
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
Mod 4: translates the code stored in DNA, makes synthesis of proteins possible
RNA (ribonucleic acid)
Mod 4: smaller organic biological molecule that doesn’t mix with water
Lipid
Mod 4: highly organized living entity that consists of 4 types of macromolecules and other substances in a watery solution, surrounded by a membrane.
cell
Mod 4: proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids
macromolecules
Mod 2: The process by which life supporting resources such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops are produced
Ecosystem services
Mod 2: an indicator that describes the current state of an environmental system
environmental indicator
Mod 2: How do we notice when ecosystems are stressed or have degraded?
when they do not proved the same services or produce the same products
Mod 2: indicators (5)
Biodiversity, food production, human population, resource depletion, and surface temp + CO2 concentration.
Mod 2: the diversity of life forms in an environment
biodiversity
Mod 2: a group of organisms that is distinct form other groups in its morphology (Body form, structure) behavior, or biochemical properties.
species
Mod 2: a measure of genetic variation among individuals in a population
genetic diversity
Mod 2: The number of species in a region or in a particular ecosystem.
species diversity
Mod 2: the evolution of new species
speciation
Mod 2: the avg. rate at which species become extinct over the long term
background extinction rate
Mod 2: gases in earths atmosphere that trap heat near the surface
greenhouse gases
Mod 2: derieved from human activities
anthropogenic
Mod 2: amount per each person in a country or unit of population
per capita
Mod 2: improvement in human well being through economic advancement
developement
Mod 2: living on earth in a way that allows humans to use its resources with out depriving future generations of those resources
sustainability
Mod 2: development that balances current human well being and economic advancements with resource management for the benefit of future gens.
sustainable development
Mod 2: love of life
biophilia
Mod 2: a measure of how much an individual consumes, expressed in an area of land.
Ecological footprint
Mod 2: Common global scale enviornmental indicators include all of the following except
a) atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations
b) human population
c) natural resource depletion
d) pollution in a local stream
d) pollution in a natural stream
Mod 2: how many hectares of land is a 500 acre park? (1 acre = 0.40 hectares)
a) 200 ha
b) 250 ha
c) 500 ha
d) 750 ha
a) 200 ha
Mod 2: a persons ecological footprint is
a) the land a person lives on
b) the smount of carbon dioxide a person contributes to climate change
c) the land required to produce a persons food
d) the land needed to support all of a persons activities
d) the land needed to support all of a persons activities
Mod 3: the first step in the scientific process is
a) collecting data
b) observations and questions
c) forming a hypothesis
d) forming a theory
b) observations and questions
Mod 3: challenges in the study of environmental science include all of the following except
a) dangers of studying natural systems
b) lack of baseline data
c) subjectivity of environmental impacts
d) complexity of natural systems
a) dangers of studying natural systems
Mod 3: a control group is
a) a group with same conditions as the experimental group
b) a group with conditions found in nature
c) a group with a randomly assigned population
d) a group with the same conditions as the experimental group except for the study variable
d) a group with the same conditions as the experimental group except for the study variable
use with out regard for future needs… American colonies and pioneers
exploitation
Set aside, not to be use… a brief movement in the early 1800s
Preservation
use resource for 1 purpose intensively… industrial revolution, the making of America
Utilitarian
many voices involved in the decision making regarding the use of a resource
multiple use/sustainability
Mod 5: the ability to do work or transfer heat
energy
Mod 5: the amount of energy used when a 1 watt electrical device is turned on for 1 second
joule
Mod 5: the rate at which work is done
power
Mod 5: a form of energy emitted by the sun that includes visible light, ultraviolet, and infrared energy
Electromagnetic radiation
Mod 5: a mass less pack of energy that carries electromagnetic radiation at the speed of light
photon
Mod 5: stored energy that has not been released
potential energy
Mod 5: potential energy stored in chemical bonds
Chemical energy
Mod 5: The energy of motion
Kinetic energy
Mod 5: measure of the average kinetic energy in a substance
Temperature
Mod 5: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can change from one form to another
1st law thermodynamics
Mod 5: when energy is transformed, the quantity stays the same, but its ability to do work diminishes
2nd law thermodynamics
Mod 5: the ratio of the amount of energy expended in the form you want to the total amount of energy that is introduced into the system.
energy efficiency
Mod 5: the ease with which an energy source can be used for work
Energy quality
Mod 5: randomness in a system
Entropy
Mod 5: exchanges of matter or energy occurs across system boundaries
Open system
Mod 5: matter and energy exchanges do not do not happen across boundaries
closed system
Mod 5: addition to the system
input
Mod 5: a loss from the system
output
Mod 5: to determine inputs, outputs, and change in a system under various conditions
system analysis
Mod 5: inputs=outputs, system is unchanging over time
steady state
Mod 5: a system responds to change by returning to it’s original start, or decreasing the rate which change is happening
neg. feedback
change in a system is amplified
pos. feedback
