Unit 1 Flashcards
Define Environmental Science
The interdisciplinary study of Earth’s support system, and all of the social sciences as well.
What are five examples of life support systems?
- Nutrient cycling
- Evolution
- Soil formation
- Spatial structure
- Primary productivity
What are five types of provisioning services?
- Food
- Water
- Fuel wood
- Fiber
- Biochemicals
What are five examples of Regulating services?
- Climate regulation
- Disease regulation
- Water regulation
- Water purification
- Pollution
What are five examples of cultural services?
- Spiritual
- Religious
- Recreation
- Ecotourism
- Aesthetic
Explain how the natural sciences and social sciences interact in environmental sciences?
Cultural services control how a living species reacts to their environment, it affects disease, water, and how a species pollutes the environment around them. This affects the environmental science in an area.
Define ecology
Comes from the Greek word oikos meaning house( the study of houses)
The ecological study
Study of Earth
Define ecology
Comes from the Greek word oikos meaning house( the study of houses)
The ecological study
Study of Earth
What are the five levels of organization in the biosphere?
Population - given species
Community - all species
Ecosystem - Abiotic and biotic factors
Biome - large area with climate
Biosphere - portion of earth that supports life
What is a habitat?
An organisms address
What is a niche?
An organisms occupation or way of making a living: overall role in an ecosystem
What is an indicator species?
A species with a narrow range of tolerance for important biotic and abiotic factors within an ecosystem.
What is a keystone species?
A species that has a niche that contributes to many other species within the ecosystem.
What is a generalist species?
Will eat anything (raccoon)
What is a specialist?
Will only eat one thing (koala)
What are heterotrophs?
Organisms that consume other organisms. (Herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, scavengers)
What is an Autotroph
Organisms that make their own food (Plants, primitive)
What are detritivores?
Ingests non-living organic matter (earthworms, woodlice)
What are Saprotrophs
Lives in or on non living organic matter, secreting digestive enzymes into it and absorbing digestive products. (Bacteria and fungi)
What is afood chain?
A series of organisms in an ecosystem related by their feeding patterns
What is a food web?
A series of multiple overlapping food chains
Why do all pyramids, numbers, energy, and biomass look the same?
With plants you can support herbivores which can support carnivores which eat large amounts of each other
What is the 90 10 rule
90% of energy is lost at every tropic level to heat and waste, only 10% becomes biomass
Why is eating lower on the food chain means more food for all humans?
Eating vegetarian makes 10x as much plant energy available for other humans
What is gross primary productivity
Total amount of solar energy captured (Co2 incorporated into C6H1206)
What is net primary productivity
Gross productivity - respiration
What are the predator and prey benefits from acquiring food
Prey benefits from “culling of the heard” aka weakest of the population die off pushing evolution of the group to make it more fit.
What is intraspecies competition?
Between members of the same species
What is interspecies competition?
Between members of different species
What is symbiosis?
A close, long term relationship between two species in which at least one species benefits
What are Ectoparasites?
Things that live on the host surface
What are endoparasites?
Live inside the body of a host
What is commensalism
One organism benefits while the other is not affected.
What is mutualism?
Both species benefit
The relationship is often obligatory, as neither can exist without the other
What is an indicator species?
Low tolerance for habitat change
What is a keystone species
Has a niche that affects other animals in the ecosystem
What happens when water goes into ground from rain?
It infiltrates into the ground and collects as groundwater in aquifers
What is water that evaporates from plants?
Transpiration
What is water that comes from ice?
Sublimation
What is when nitrogen fixing soil in bacteria is converted to ammonium?
Ammonification
What is when nitrifying bacteria’s convert ammonium to nitrates
Nitrification
Decomposes turn into this in the nitrogen cycle
Ammonium
What is when nitrates are used by plants?
Assimilation
What is respiration
When a consumer releases carbon into the atmosphere
What is combustion?
When fire or volcanic sources release stuff into atmosphere
What do fossil fuels lead to?
Extraction
Decomposers and fires result in blank which makes fossil fuels
Burial
In the ocean dissolved phosphates become
Phosphate rocks
Dissolved phosphates are consumed by
Producers
When a human uses phosphate mining in their house it is
Detergents
Fertilizers and humans do this to phosphates in soil
Leaching
What are three ways humans are increasing the CO2 in the biosphere?
- Burning fossil fuels atmospheric CO2 and global climate change
- Cutting down trees and burning rainforest adds Co2 to the atmosphere
- Making cement released Co2 from the (chemical formula i can’t read) converted into limestone
What is the primary negative effect of having too much phosphorus in bodies of water?
Fertilizer and detergent get into bodies of water where p along with n is the limiting nutrient for algae growth. Trigger eutrophication.
