Environmental Science
108 flashcards by MentisLibrary
Ecosystems, biodiversity, climate, energy, pollution, water, soil, waste and policy, for a first course in environmental science or an AP style exam.
- What is the greenhouse effect?
- Certain atmospheric gases let sunlight through but absorb the infrared heat the surface radiates back, warming the lower atmosphere.
- What is deforestation?
- The permanent clearing of forest for another land use, usually agriculture, ranching or development.
- What is biodiversity?
- The variety of life at every level, from genes within a population to species in a community to ecosystems in a region.
- What is an ecosystem?
- A community of living organisms together with the non living surroundings they interact with, treated as one working unit.
- What is composting?
- Managed aerobic decomposition of organic waste into a stable soil amendment.
- What is desertification?
- The degradation of dryland into desert like conditions, driven by overgrazing, deforestation, poor irrigation and drought.
- What is a biome?
- A large region defined by its climate and the characteristic plant and animal life that climate supports.
- What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
- A food chain is a single line of who eats whom; a food web is the network of many interlocking chains in a real community.
- What is a trophic level?
- A position in a food chain, counted by how many steps a organism sits from the original energy source.
- What is the ten percent rule?
- Only about ten percent of the energy at one trophic level is passed on to the next; the rest is lost mostly as heat.
- What is a producer?
- An organism that makes its own food from an outside energy source, forming the base of nearly every food web.
- What is a decomposer?
- An organism that breaks down dead matter and waste, returning nutrients to the soil and water.
- What is an ecological niche?
- The full role a species plays: what it eats, where it lives, when it is active and how it interacts with everything else.
- What is carrying capacity?
- The largest population of a species an environment can support indefinitely with the resources available.
- What is ecological succession?
- The predictable sequence of communities that replace one another as an area develops after disturbance or on new ground.
- What is a keystone species?
- A species whose effect on its community is far larger than its abundance would suggest.
- What is mutualism?
- A relationship in which both species benefit.
- What is a limiting factor?
- The resource or condition in shortest supply, which caps growth no matter how plentiful everything else is.
- What is the difference between biotic and abiotic factors?
- Biotic factors are the living parts of an environment; abiotic factors are the non living physical and chemical conditions.
- What is an endemic species?
- A species found naturally in one place and nowhere else on Earth.
- What is an invasive species?
- A species introduced outside its native range that spreads and causes ecological or economic harm.
- What is habitat fragmentation?
- The breaking of continuous habitat into smaller isolated patches, usually by roads, farmland or development.
- What is the IUCN Red List?
- The global inventory of species conservation status, ranking species from Least Concern to Extinct.
- What is a biodiversity hotspot?
- A region with an exceptional concentration of endemic species that has already lost most of its original habitat.
- What is the difference between endangered and threatened?
- Endangered means a species is at serious risk of extinction now; threatened means it is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future.
- What is meant by the sixth mass extinction?
- The claim that current extinction rates are high enough to rank with the five great extinction events in the fossil record.
- Why does genetic diversity matter?
- A population with varied genes is far more likely to contain individuals that survive a new disease, parasite or climate shift.
- What is an indicator species?
- A species whose presence, absence or condition gives an early reading on the health of its environment.
- Name the main greenhouse gases.
- Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and the fluorinated industrial gases.
- What is the difference between global warming and climate change?
- Global warming is the rise in average surface temperature; climate change covers the full set of consequences, including rainfall, storms and circulation.