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35 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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environment |
the sum of all conditions surrounding us that influence life |
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environmental science |
the field that looks at interactions among human systems and those found in nature |
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ecosystem |
a particular location on Earth whose interacting components include living, or biotic, components and nonliving, or abiotic, components |
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biotic |
living |
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abotic |
non-living |
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environmentalist |
a person who participates in environmentalism |
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environmental studies |
includes additional subjects other than environmental science such as environmental policy, economics, literature, and ethics |
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ecosystem services |
the processes by which life-supporting resources such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops are produced. |
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environmental indicators |
describes the current state of an environmental system. |
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sustainability |
living on Earth in a way that allows humans to use its resources without depriving future generations of those resources |
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biodiversity |
diversity of life forms in an environment |
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species |
a group of organisms that is distinct from other groups in its morphology, behavior, or biochemical properties |
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speciation |
the evolution of a new species |
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background extinction rate |
the average rate at which species become extinct over the long term |
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greenhouse gases |
in the Earth's atmosphere and traps heat near the surface |
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anthropogenic |
derived from human activities |
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development |
improvement in human well-being through economic advancement |
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sustainable development |
balances current human well-being and economic advancement with resource management for the benefit of future generations |
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ecological footprint |
a measure of how much an individual consumes, expressed in area of land |
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scientific method |
an objective method to explore the natural world, draw inferences from it, and predict the outcome of certain events, processes, or changes |
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hypothesis |
a testable theory or supposition about how something works |
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null hypothesis |
a statement or idea that can be falsified, or proven wrong |
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replication |
the data collection procedure of taking repeated measurements |
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sample size |
the number of times a measurement is replicated in the data collection process |
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accuracy |
how close a measurement value is to the actual or true value |
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precision |
how close the repeated measurements of a sample are to one another |
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uncertainty |
an estimate of how much a measured or calculated value differs from a true value |
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inductive reasoning |
the process of making general statements from specific facts or examples |
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deductive reasoning |
the process of applying a general statement to specific facts or situations |
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critical thinking |
the process of questioning the source of information, considering the methods used to obtain the information, and drawing conclusions; essential to all scientific endeavor |
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theory |
a hypothesis that has been repeatedly tested and confirmed by multiple groups of researchers and has reached wide acceptance |
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natural law |
a theory for which there is no known exception and that has withstood rigorous testing |
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control group |
in a scientific investigation, a group that experiences exactly the same conditions as the other group, except for the single variable under study |
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natural experiment |
a natural event that acts as an experimental treatment in an ecosystem |
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environmental justice |
a social movement and field of study that focuses on equal enforcement of environmental laws and eliminating disparities in the exposure of environmental harms to different ethnic and socioeconomic groups within a society |
