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37 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is a universal solvent? |
Dissolves tons of stuff |
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What is surface tension? |
Liquid (water) strong at surface |
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What is a high melting and boiling point? |
Takes lots of energy to melt and boil |
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What is a high specific heat capacity? |
Can take lots of energy before changing temperature |
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What is cohesion? |
Sticks to itself |
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What is adhesion? |
Sticks to other stuff |
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What biogeochemical cycles are there? |
Water, carbon/oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus |
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What is a nutrient reservoir? |
Houses nutrients. |
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What is rapid cycling of nutrients? |
Nutrients cycle rapidly between reservoirs |
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What is slow cycling of nutrients |
Nutrients accumulate, taking millions of years to become available. E.g. fossil fuels |
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Example of carbon rapid cycle? |
Producer, consumer, decomposer, atmosphere |
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What is the water cycle powered by? |
Sun |
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What is transpiration? |
Water loss through leaves |
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What is condensation? |
Gas to liquid |
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What is evaporation? |
Liquid to gas |
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What is photosynthesis? |
6C02 + 6H2O -- light > C6H12O6 + 602 |
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What is cellular respiration? |
6O2 + C6H12O6 -> 6CO2 + 6H2O |
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How does most carbon exist as? |
CO2(g) in abiotic environment |
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What is a carbon sink? |
Store carbon (e.g. gasoline, trees) |
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What is a carbon source? |
Releases carbon (e.g. burned gasoline) |
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What is the greenhouse effect? |
Greenhouse gases prevent some heat from leaving Earth after coming in, causing global warming |
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What are fossil fuels? |
Formed after a long time, mostly carbon from organism remains |
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What is deforestation? |
Cut down forests |
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What is the form of atmospheric nitrogen? |
N2(g) |
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What forms or nitrogen can be used by plants and animals? |
NO3-, NO2-, NH3+, NH4 |
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What is nitrogen fixation? |
Nitrogen gas converted to usable forms |
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How is nitrogen fixed? |
Lightning, bacteria |
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What do decomposing bacteria decompose? |
Dead plants, animals and NH3 waste |
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What is denitrifying bacteria? |
Usable nitrogen turned into nitrogen gas then released to atmosphere. The bacteria which does this are anaerobic |
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How dies most phosphorus exist as? |
PO4 ^3- (phosphate ion) |
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What is an algal bloom? |
Algae overgrowth from over nutrients like phosphorus or nitrogen in water |
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Why are algal blooms bad? |
Lots of algae end up dying, decomposers use lots of dissolved oxygen in decomposing, less oxygen means lots of aquatic life die |
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What is productivity? |
Ecosystem energy capture and storage rate vs time. Biomass added to an ecosystem per year for example |
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What does productivity depend on? |
Solar radiation, precipitation, nutrients, producers |
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What is the Gain Hypothesis? |
Earth regulates itself, energy, nutrients, to maintain balance |
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What is a stromatolite? |
Fossilized sedimentary structure formed formed from ancient bacteria |
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What do stromatolites tell about Earth's history? |
Initially, atmosphere was anoric, iron oxide bands in rock show increased oxygen levels. Oxygen came from photosynthetic bacteria |
