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Environmental Science Terms
Chapter 1-7 key terms
103
Environmental Studies
Undergraduate 1
06/06/2008

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Term

Environmental Science

Definition

 

 

 

The interdisciplinary study of humanity's relationship with other organisms and the nonliving physical environment.

Term

Hypothesis

Definition

 

 

 

An educated guess that provides an explanation for an ovbservation that can be tested.

Term

Experiment

Definition

 

 

A recreation of an event or occurance in a way that enables a scientist to support or disprove a hypothesis.

Term

Extreme Poverty

Definition

 

 A condition in which people cannot meet their basic needs for adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, or health.

 

<$2/day --Nearly 1 in 4 people.

 

 

Term

Ecological Footprint

Definition

 

 

 

The amount of productive land, fresh water, and ocean required on a continuous basis to supply that person food, wood, energy, water, housing, clothing, transportation, and waste disposal.

Term

People Overpopulation

Definition
A situation in which there are too many people in a given geographic area.
Term
Consumption Overpopulation
Definition
A situation that occurs when each individual in a population consumes too large a share of resources.
Term
Common (Global Commons)
Definition
Those parts of our environment available to everyone but for which no single individual has responsibility - the atmosphere, fresh water, forests, wildlife, and ocean fisheries.
Term
Conservation
Definition
  • Management of natural resources on a sustainable basis.
  • Allows the use of resources in a "responsible" manner to preserver for future generations.
Term
Preservation
Definition
  • Keeps the "wilderness" as created or free of human influence.
  • "Locks up" the resources.
Term
Environmental Impact Statement
Definition

A document that summarizes the potential and expected adverse impacts on the environment associated with a project, as well as alternatives to the proposed project. They help federal agencies and the public consider the impacts of proposed activities.

Term
Economics
Definition
  • Study of how people use their limited resources to satisfy their unlimited wants.
  • "The world is a marketplace and everything has a price."
  • Depend on the natural environment as sources for raw materials and sinks for waste products.
Term
Marginal cost of pollution
Definition

 

 

 

The cost, in environmental damage, of a unit of pollution that is emitted into the environment.

Term
Marginal cost of pollution abatement
Definition
  • The cost, in terms of giving up goods, of elminating pollution.
  • The cost associated with reducing a small additonal amount of pollution.
Term
Environmental ethics
Definition

 

 

 

Concerned with the issue of responsible moral conduct with respect to the natural environment.

Term
Ecology
Definition
  • The study of systems that include interactions among organisms and between organisms and their abiotic environment.
  • Broadest field in biology.

 

 

 

Term

Biotic

Definition
  • "Living Environment"
  • Includes all organisms

 

Term
Abiotic Environment
Definition
  • "Nonliving, or physical surroundings."
  • Includes living space, sunlight, soil, precipitation, and wind.
Term
Ecosystem
Definition
  • A community and its physical environments.
  • Includes all the biotic interactions of a community as well as the interactions between organisms and their abiotic environment.
Term
Biosphere
Definition
  • The parts of Earth's atmosphere, ocean, land surface, and soil that contain all living organisms.
  • Contains earth's communities, ecosystems and landscapes.

 

Term
Energy
Definition
  • The ability or capacity to do work.
  • Exists as stored (potential) or kinetic (motion).
  • Chemical, radiant, thermal, mechanical, nuclear, electrical.
Term

Thermodynamics

Definition
Study of energy and its transformations.
Term
Closed system
Definition
  • Does not exchange energy with surroundings.
  • Rare in nature.
Term

Open system

Definition
  • Exchanges energy with surroundings.
Term

Photosynthesis

Definition
  • Biological process by whichh energy from the sun (radiant energy) is transformed into chemical energy of sugar molecules.
  • Energy captured by plants via photosythesis is transferred to the organisms that eat the plants.
Term
Cellular respiration
Definition
  • The process where the chemical energy captured in photosynthesis is released within cells of plants and animals.
  • This energy is then used for biological work...Creating new cells, reproduction, movement, etc.
Term
Chemosynthesis
Definition
  • Utilize inorganic raw materials (e.g. hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen gas) to produce carbohydrate molecules and energy.
  • Bacterica possessing enzymes that cause the inorganic molecule hydrogen sulfide to react with oxygen, producing water and sulfur or sulfate.
Term
Food chain
Definition
  • Energy from food passes from one organism to the next in a sequence.
  • Each "link" is a trophic level.
Term
Food web
Definition
  • A representation of the interlocking food chains that connect all organisms in an ecosystem.
  • A realistic model of the flow of energy and materials through an ecosystem.
Term
Energy Flow
Definition
  • Passage of energy in a one-way direction through an ecosystem.
  • Producers
  • Primary consumers
  • Secondary consumers
  • Decomposers

 

Term
Trophic level
Definition

An organism's position in a food chain, which is determined by its feeding relationships.

Term
Ecological Prymaid
Definition

Graphically represent the relative energy value of each trophic level.

 

--Important feature is that large amount of energy are lost between trophic levels to heat.

Term
Productivity
Definition

The amount of biomass (biological material) produced in a given area during a given period of time.

Term
GPP -- Gross Primary Productivity
Definition

Total amount of photosynthetic energy captured.

 

Term
NPP-- Net Primary Productivity
Definition
Energy stored in excess of plant's needs (plant cellular respiration)
Term
Evolution
Definition
  • Cumulative genetic changes that occur over time in a population of organisms.
  • Explains many patterns observed in the natural world.

 

Term

Biological community

Definition
Two or more populations or organisms that live in the same place at the same time.
Term

 Primary Succession

Definition
  • The change in species composition over time in a previously uninhabited environment.
  • Starts with a pioneer community--the intial community that devolps.
Term
Secondary Succession
Definition
  • The change in species composition that takes place after some disturbance destroys the existing vegetation; soil is already present.
  • Begins in an environment following distruction of all or part of the earlier community.
Term
Symbiosis
Definition
  • Any intimate relationship or association between members of two or more species.
  • Participants may be benefited, harmed, or unaffected by the relationship.
  • Result of coevolution
Term
Mutualism
Definition

+,+

A symbiotic relationship in which both partners benefit.

 

"Sharing Benefits"

Term

Commensalism

Definition

+, o

Symbiotic relationship where one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped.

 

"Taking without harming"

Term
Parasitism
Definition

+, -

A symbiotic relationship in which one species is benefited and the other is harmed.

 

"Taking at another's expense."

Term
Predation
Definition
  • The consumption of one species (the prey) by another (the predator).
  • Results in an evolutionary "arms race."

 

Term
Competition
Definition
  • The interaction among organisms that vie for the same resources (such as food or living space) in an ecosystem.
  • Intraspecific--competition between individuals in a population.
  • Interspecific--competition between individuals in two different species.
Term
Ecological Niche
Definition
  • The totality of an organism's adaptations, its use of resources, and the lifestyle to which it is fitted.
  • Refers to the fundamental role of an organism in the community.
Term
Limiting resources
Definition

Any environmental resource that, because it is scarce or at unfavorable levels, restricts the ecological niche of an organism.

 

EX. soil mineral content, temperature extremes, precipitation.

Term
Keystone species
Definition

A species, often a predator, that exerts a profound influence on an entire ecosystem.

 

If it disappears, other organisms in the ecosystem may become more common, rare, or disappear.

Term
Species richness
Definition

The number of  different species in a community.

 

**Usually greater at the edge of two communities, than in the center**

Term
Ecotone
Definition

A transitional zone where two or more communities meet--contains all or most of the ecological niches or the adjacent community.

Term
Ecosystem services
Definition
Important environmental benefits that ecosystems provide to people; include clean air to breath, clean water to drink, and fertile soil in which to grow crops.
Term
Fixation
Definition
  • The first step in the nitrogen cycle.
  • žN2 to ammonia--
    The conversion of gaseous nitrogen to ammonia.
  • The process gets its name from the fact that nitrogen is fixed into a form that organisms can use.
Term
Nitrification
Definition
  •  Second step in the nitrogen cycle.
  •  The conversion of ammonia to nitrate.
Term
Assimilation
Definition
  •  Third step in the nitrogen cycle.
  • Plant roots absorb nitrate and incorporate the nitrogen into plant proteins.
  • Animals then consume the plant nitrogen compounds and convert them to animal compounds. (proteins)
Term
Ammonification
Definition
  • Fourth step in the nitrogen cycle.
  • The conversion of biological nitrogen compounds into ammonia and ammonium ions.
  • These ammonia produced enter the nitrogen cycle and are once again available for the processes of nitrification and assimilation.
Term

Denitrification

Definition
  • Final step of the nitrogen cycle.
  • The reduction of nitrate to gaseous nitrogen.
  • nitrate to N2
  • The process recverse the action of nitrogen-fixing and nitrfying bacteria.

 

Term
Albedo
Definition

The proportional reflectance of solar energy from the Earth's surface, commonly expressed as a percentage.

 

**Dark surfaces have lower albedo, absorb more.**

 

Term
Coriolis effect
Definition
  • The effect of the earth's rotation on the direction of the wind.
  • Tends to turn fluids (air and water) toward the right in the Northern Hemisphere and toward the left in the Southern Hemisphere.
Term
Gyres
Definition
  • Large, circular ocean current systems that often encompass an entire ocean basin.
Term
Ocean conveyor belt
Definition
Term
Weather
Definition
Refers to the conditions in the atmosphere at a given place and time; it includes temperature, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, cloudiness, humidity, and wind.
Term
Climate
Definition

Average weather conditions that occur in a place over a period of years.

 

Two most important factors include temperature and precipitation.

Term
Polar easterlies
Definition
Term
Westerlies
Definition
Term
Trade winds
Definition
Term
Rain shadow
Definition
Dry conditions, often on a regional scale, that occur on the leeward side of a mountain barrier; the passage of moist air across the mountains removes most of the moisture.
Term
El Nino
Definition
Term
Upwelling
Definition
  • Where deeper waters come to the surface, occurs in the Pacific Ocean along the S. America coast.
  • Provides nutrietts for microscopic algae, which support a complex food web.
  • Weakens considerably during years with El Nino events.
Term
Lithosphere
Definition

Earth's outermost rigid rock layer composed of seven large plates.

Term
Plate tectonics
Definition
The study of processes by which the lithospheric plates move over the asthenosphere.
Term
Biomes
Definition

A large, relatively distinct terrestrial region with a similar climate soil, plants, and animals, regardless of where it occurs in the world.

 

**9 Major Biomes**

Term

Vertical zonation

Definition
Term
Permafrost
Definition
Term
Aquatic ecosystems
Definition
Term
Plankton
Definition

One of the main categories of aquatic ecosystems.

 

--Small microscopic organisms that are relatively feeble swimmers. 

--They are carried about at the mercury of currents and waves.

Term
Nekton
Definition
Larger than plankton, more strongly swimming organisms such as fishes, turtles, and whales.
Term
Benthos
Definition
Bottom dwelling oragnisms that fix themselves to one spot (sponges, oysters and barnacles), burrow into the sand (worms, clams, and sea cucumbers), or simply walk on the bottom (crawfish, aquatic insect larvae, and brittle stars.)
Term
Delta
Definition
Term
Wetlands
Definition

Lands that shallow fresh water covers for at least part of the year.

 

--Marshes, swamps.

Term
Marshes
Definition

Type of freshwater wetlands, in which grasslike plants dominate.

Term
Swamps
Definition

Type of freshwater wetlands in which woody trees or shrubs dominate.

Term
Mangroves
Definition
Term
Thermocline
Definition
Term
Spring turnovers
Definition
Term
Fall turnovers
Definition
Term
Estuaries
Definition
A coastal body of water, partly surrounded by land, with access to the open ocean and a large supply of fresh water from a river.
Term
Toxicant
Definition

A chemical with adverse human health effects.

 

 

Term
Acute toxicity
Definition
Adverse effects that occure within a short period after exposure to a toxicant.
Term
Chronic toxicity
Definition
Adverse effects that occur some time after exposure to a toxicant, or after some extended exposure to the toxicant.
Term
Persistence
Definition
A characteristic of certain chemicals that are extremely stable and may take many years to be broken down into simpler forms by natural processes.
Term
Bioaccummulation
Definition
The buildup of a presistent toxic substance, such as certain pesticides, in an organism's body, often in fatty tissues.
Term
Biomagnification
Definition
The increased concentration of toxic chemicals, such as PCBs, heavy metals, and certain pesticides, in the tissues of organisms that are at higher levels in food webs.
Term
Endocrine disrupters
Definition
A chemical that mimics or interferes with the actions of the endocrine system in humans and wildlife.
Term
 LD50
Definition
Term
 
üED50
Definition
Term
Dose
Definition

The amount that enters the body of an exposed organism.

Term
Response
Definition
The type and amount of damage that exposure to a particular dose.
Term
Toxicology
Definition
The study of the effects of toxic chemicals on human health.
Term
Epidemiology
Definition
The study of the effects of toxic chemicals and diseases on human populations.
Term
Ecotoxicology
Definition
The study of contaiminants in the biosphere, including their harmful effects on ecosystems.
Term
Risk assessment
Definition
The scientific process of estimating the threat a hazard poses to human health.
Term
Cost-benefit analysis
Definition
The estimated cost of regulation is compared with potential benefits to determine how much expense society is willing to incur to derive the benefits.
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