Environmental Science Ch. 1-4

Front 1

Environmental Science Definition

Back 1

the use of scientific approaches to understanding the complex systems in which we live

Front 2

Five Methods in Environmental Science

Back 2

observation, scientific method, quantitative reasoning, uncertainty, critical and analytical thinking

Front 3

Observation

Back 3

careful,detailed observation and evaluation of factors involved in pollution, environmental health, conservation, population, resources, and other issues

Front 4

Scientific Method

Back 4

orderly approach to asking questions, collecting observations, and interpreting those observations through careful scientific interpretation

Front 5

Quantitative Reasoning

Back 5

understanding how to compare numbers and interpret graphs

Front 6

Uncertainty

Back 6

knowing that there are limits to our knowledge

Front 7

Critical and analytical thinking

Back 7

stepping back and really thinking about stuff

Front 8

Cause for climate change

Back 8

burning fossil fuels, clearing forests, etc raises levels of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.

Front 9

In the past 200 years, CO2 in the atmosphere has increased ___ percent

Back 9

50

Front 10

By 2100, global temperatures will probably raise __ - ___ degrees celcius compared to 1990. For comparison, the last Ice Age was ___C cooler than it is now

Back 10

2,6,4

Front 11

What is the most critical resource in the 21st century

Back 11

Water

Front 12

How many people lack water to drink

Back 12

1.1 billion

Front 13

Does smog and airborne pollution travel from Asia to California?

Back 13

Yes and on some days 75 percent of California's smog is from there

Front 14

There are over ___ billion people on earth, twice as many as ___ years ago

Back 14

7: 40

Front 15

How many people are we adding each year?

Back 15

80 million

Front 16

By 2050, we will have between __ and __ billion people

Back 16

8, 10

Front 17

Since 1960 the average amount of kids for each woman worldwide has went from __ to ___

Back 17

5 to 2.45

Front 18

By 2050, most countries will have fertility rates below the replacement rate of ___ kids per woman

Back 18

2.1

Front 19

How much more food do we have than we need globally?

Back 19

1/2

Front 20

Over the past century, over __ species have disappeared and at least ___ species are considered threatened

Back 20

800, 10,000

Front 21

___% of all primates and freshwater fish, along with ___% of all plants are considered threatened

Back 21

50, 10

Front 22

At least ___ of all forests existing before agriculture are gone

Back 22

half

Front 23

More than ___% of the 441 fish stocks with information available are severely depleted and in great need of control

Back 23

75

Front 24

____% of all marine predators like bluefin tuna, marlin, swordfish, sharks, etc have been removed from the ocean

Back 24

90

Front 25

Fossil fuels provide about __% of the energy used in industrialized countries

Back 25

80

Front 26

Costs of fossil fuel burning are (4 of them)

Back 26

air and water pollution, mining damage, violent conflicts, and climate change

Front 27

Throughput

Back 27

the amount of resources we use and dispose of

Front 28

Ecosystem services

Back 28

services or resources provided by environmental systems

Front 29

Provisioning

Back 29

things like fossil fuels, food, water are things that the environment has provisioned for use

Front 30

Supporting

Back 30

production of food and oxygen by plants, water purification, decomposition of waste by fungi and bacteria

Front 31

Regulating

Back 31

maintainance of earth's temperature, carbon capture by plants

Front 32

Cultural services

Back 32

things like recreation, aesthetic, and other nonmaterial benefits

Front 33

"Tragedy of the Commons"

Back 33

article that drew attention to population growth and the subsequent overuse of resources

Front 34

Sustainability

Back 34

search for ecological stability and human progress that can last over the long term

Front 35

Sustainable development

Back 35

"meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

Front 36

An average American uses about 1000 pounds of raw material throughout the day, including __kg of fossil fuels, __kg of other minerals, __kg of farm products, __kg of wood and paper, and ___liters of water

Back 36

18, 13, 12, 10, 450

Front 37

Every year, Americans throw away ___ tons of garbage

Back 37

160 million

Front 38

The top 1 percent in America control __% of the wealth

Back 38

35%

Front 39

The world's richest 200 people have more wealth than the bottom half of the world's population, true or false?

Back 39

true

Front 40

Countries with the highest per capita income, 40,000, make up only ___ of the world's population

Back 40

10%

Front 41

More than 70% of the world's population lives in countries with per capita income of less than ___

Back 41

5,000 dollars

Front 42

Science definition

Back 42

a process for producing knowledge based on observations

Front 43

7 basic principles of science

Back 43

empiricism, uniformitarianism, parsimony, uncertainty, repeatability, proof is elusive, testable questions

Front 44

Empiricism

Back 44

careful observation leads to understanding fundamental processes of the world

Front 45

Uniformitarianism

Back 45

basic patterns and processes are uniform across time and space

Front 46

Parsimony

Back 46

when 2 explanations are plausible, the simpler is preferred

Front 47

Uncertainty

Back 47

we can't say anything for sure, so we can continually test what we know

Front 48

Repeatibility

Back 48

tests and experiments should be repeatable

Front 49

Proof is elusive

Back 49

we rarely expect science to provide absolute answers

Front 50

Testable questions

Back 50

to find out whether a theory is correct, it must be tested

Front 51

Scientific Method

Back 51

1.Observe

2. hypothesize

3. test the hypothesis

4. gather data

5. interpret the results

Front 52

Inductive reasoning

Back 52

reasoning from many different observations

Front 53

Natural experiment

Back 53

observation of natural events and interpretation of a causal relationship between variables. It studies natural events that have happened

Front 54

Manipulative experiments

Back 54

conditions are altered deliberately and all other variables are held constant, like studies with control groups

Front 55

Blind experiments

Back 55

researchers don't know which group is treated until after the data is analyzed

Front 56

Double blind experiments

Back 56

where neither the researchers or the subjects know what is the control group and what is not

Front 57

What is another name for independent variables

Back 57

explanatory variables

Front 58

Paradigm shifts

Back 58

new ideas that cause major shifts in science

Front 59

Analytical thinking

Back 59

breaking a problem down into parts

Front 60

Creative thinking

Back 60

looking at problems in new ways

Front 61

Logical thinking

Back 61

"does my argument make sense?"

Front 62

Reflective thinking

Back 62

"what does my results mean?"

Front 63

Steps in critical thinking

Back 63

identify and evaluate premises and conclusions in an argument, acknowledge and clarify uncertainties, vagueness, contradicitons, distinguish between facts and values, recognize and assess assumptions, distinguish source reliability, recognize and understand conceptual frameworks

Front 64

Four groups of reasons for responding to climate change

Back 64

1. resource conservation for optimal use

2. nature preservation for moral and aesthetic reasons

3. concern over health and ecological consequences of pollution

4. global environment citizenship

Front 65

Man And Nature significance

Back 65

written in 1864, this book brought about attention to ecological consequences of land overuse, which became the stepping stone for American environmental protection

Front 66

Basis of Theodore Roosevelt and Pinchot's policy regarding environmental conservation

Back 66

utilitarian conservationism. Ideas like resource being used for the greatest good for the most amount of people

Front 67

John Muir's philosophy

Back 67

nature should be preserved for its beauty, unlike what Roosevelt thought it should be preserved for its usefulness

Front 68

Conservation vs preservation

Back 68

conservation is looking at the best way to use resources, and preservation is looking at how to preserve the resources

Front 69

System

Back 69

network of interdependent components and processes, with materials and energy flowing from one component to another

Front 70

Ecosystem

Back 70

complex assemblages of animals, plants, the environment, through which energy and materials move

Front 71

Open systems

Back 71

receive inputs from their surroundings and produce outputs that leave the system; pretty much ass natural systems are open to some extent

Front 72

Closed system

Back 72

theoretical system in which no energy or matter is exchanged with the surrounding. An example could be a closed aquarium, but still energy is exchanged

Front 73

Throughput

Back 73

flow of energy and matter into, through, and out of a system

Front 74

thresholds

Back 74

tipping points in which rapid change occurs after meeting certain limits

Front 75

Positive feedback loop vs negative

Back 75

increases a process or component, whereas negative diminishes it

Front 76

dynamic equilibrium

Back 76

equilibrium that hovers around a certain point

Front 77

Matter

Back 77

anything that takes up space and has mass

Front 78

Conservation of matter principle

Back 78

under ordinary circumstances, matter is neither created or destroyed but rather recycled over and over again

Front 79

Elements

Back 79

substances that cannot be broken down into simpler forms by ordinary chemical reactions

Front 80

What four elements make up over 96% of the mass of most living organisms?

Back 80

oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen

Front 81

Atoms

Back 81

smallest particles that exhibit the characteristics of an element

Front 82

Atomic number

Back 82

number of protons per atom

Front 83

isotopes

Back 83

forms of a single element that differ in atomic mass

Front 84

why do we care about isotopes?

Back 84

radioactive waste, nuclear waste and bombs etc. are all made of radioactive isotopes

Front 85

Ions definition. Also, what are anions and cations?

Back 85

charged atoms (or combinations of atoms); positively charged; negatively charged

Front 86

Compounds

Back 86

substances composed of different kinds of atoms

Front 87

molecule

Back 87

pair/group of atoms that can exist as a single unit

Front 88

ionic bond

Back 88

when positively and negatively charged ions go together

Front 89

covalent bonds

Back 89

bonds where the atoms share the same charge and thus orbit eachother equally

Front 90

oxidized and reduced

Back 90

oxidized is when an atom gives up one or more of its electrons; when atoms gain electrons, it is reduced

Front 91

acids

Back 91

substances that readily give up hydrogen ions in water

Front 92

bases

Back 92

substances that readily bond with H+ ions

Front 93

pH

Back 93

the negative logarithm of its concentration of H+ ions; pH of 7 is considered neutral

Front 94

pH6 represents ___ more times the hydrogen atoms in a solution than pH7

Back 94

10

Front 95

Organic compounds

Back 95

material of which biomolecules, and therefore living organisms, are made

Front 96

Four major categories of organic compounds in living things

Back 96

lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acids

Front 97

Cells

Back 97

minute compartments within the precesses of life are carried out

Front 98

Where carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and phosphorus come into play

Back 98

carbon is taken from the air by plants, hydrogen and oxygen are derived from air and water. Nitrogen and phosphorus are essential parts of the lipids, proteins, sugars, and nucleic acids keeping us alive

Front 99

Energy

Back 99

the ability to do work

Front 100

kinetic energy

Back 100

energy contained in moving objects

Front 101

potential energy

Back 101

stored energy available for use

Front 102

chemical energy

Back 102

stored in the food you eat and the gasoline you put in your car

Front 103

Joule and calorie

Back 103

the amount of energy done when 1 kilogram is accelerated at 1 meter per second is 1 joule. One calorie is the amount of energy needed to heat 1 gram of pure water 1 degree celcius (4.184 joules)

Front 104

Heat

Back 104

the energy that can be transferred between objects of different temperature

Front 105

First law of thermodynamics

Back 105

Energy is conserved, so not created or destroyed

Front 106

Second law of thermodynamics

Back 106

with each successive energy transfer or transformation in a system, less energy is available to do the work. So, as energy is used, it is degraded to lower quality forms, or dissapates and is lost

Front 107

Entropy

Back 107

disorder; it tends to increase in living organisms under the second law of thermodynamics

Front 108

Primary producers

Back 108

green plants because they take energy directly from the sun

Front 109

chemosynthesis

Back 109

extracting energy from inorganic chemical compounds, such as hydrogen sulfide

Front 110

Photosynthesis

Back 110

the conversion of radiant energy into useful, high-quality chemical energy in the bonds that hold together organic molecules

Front 111

Amount of incoming solar energy at the top of the stmosphere

Back 111

1,372 watts/m^2

Front 112

How much solar energy is reflected or absorbed by clouds, dusts, and gases?

Back 112

over half

Front 113

Of the solar radiation that reaches the earth, __% is visible, ___% is ultraviolet, and __% is infrared

Back 113

45, 10, 45

Front 114

In the end, only __-__% of sunlight falling on plants is available for photosynthesis

Back 114

1-2

Front 115

Photosynthesis equation

Back 115

water +carbon+energy=sugar+oxygen

6H20 + 6CO2 +solar energy producess c6H12O6(sugar) +6O2

Front 116

cellular respiration equation

Back 116

reverse of photosyntesis

Front 117

in photosynthesis, energy is ___ whereas in respiraton, energy is ___

Back 117

captured, released

Front 118

Photosynthesis uses water and carbon dioxide to produce sugar and oxygen, whereas ___ does the opposite

Back 118

respiration

Front 119

species

Back 119

all organisms of the same kind that are genetically similar enough to breed in nature and produce live, fertile offspring

Front 120

Population

Back 120

all members of a species living in 1 area at 1 time

Front 121

Biological community

Back 121

all populations of organisms living and interacting in a particular area

Front 122

Ecosystem

Back 122

a biological community and its physical environment

Front 123

Producers

Back 123

organisms that create organic material by photoynthesis

Front 124

Productivity

Back 124

the amount of biomass(biological material) produced in a given area during a given amount of time

Front 125

trophic level

Back 125

are you a producer, consumer, or decomposer? Autotrophs like plants, then primary consumers that eat plants, secondary consumers eat primary consumers, and teriary consumers eat secondary consumers, and so on. Highest trophic level is top predators

Front 126

scavengers

Back 126

clean up dead carcasses (jackals and vultures)

Front 127

Detritivores

Back 127

ants and beetles; consume litter, debris, and dung

Front 128

Decomposers

Back 128

fungi and bacteria; breakdown and recycle dead matter

Front 129

Hydrologic cycle

Back 129

how water moves throughout the earth through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, etc

Front 130

carbon cycle

Back 130

this is a structual and energetic component of organisms. Begins with photosynthesis (carbon fixation)

Front 131

Global warming and the carbon cycle

Back 131

the problem that occurs when so much carbon is released and the environment can't keep up

Front 132

Nitrogen cycle

Back 132

nitrogen is about 78% of the air around us. Plants can't use most nitrogen, but bacteria can, so plants get it from bacteria. Then plants reduce and manipulate the atoms to eventually create amino acids for proteins and peptides

Front 133

General rule of thumb for energy between trophic levels

Back 133

About 10% of the energy in the lower trophic level is represented in the next highest level. For example, it takes about 100g of clover to make 10 g of rabbit, and 10kg of rabbit to make 1 kg of fox

Front 134

Phosphorous cycle

Back 134

phosphorous is introduced to organisms by being released from rocks and minerals. IT is usually transferred in water

Front 135

Sulfur cycle

Back 135

most sulfur is tied up in underground rocks and minerals, but it is released through weathering, volcanic eruptions, and the like. Humans also release sulfur into the air through burning of fossil fuels.

Front 136

ecological niche

Back 136

the role played by a species in a biological community and the set of environmental factos that determine its distribution

Front 137

generalists

Back 137

species that thrive in many environments

Front 138

specialists

Back 138

species that thrive in narrow ecological niches

Front 139

endemic species

Back 139

only live in 1 type of environment

Front 140

principle of competitive exclusion

Back 140

no two species can occupy the same ecological niche for long

Front 141

resource partitioning

Back 141

when a species exploites resources differently in an effort to survive

Front 142

speciation

Back 142

the development of a new species

Front 143

geographic isolation

Back 143

exactly what I think it is

Front 144

allopatric speciation

Back 144

speciation that occurs when populations are geographicall isolated

Front 145

sympatric speciation

Back 145

speciaton that occurs when populations are not geographically isolated

Front 146

selection pressure

Back 146

factors that make certain mutations advantageous

Front 147

Taxonomy

Back 147

the study of types of organisms and their relationships; studying how organisms are related to one another through time

Front 148

Three domains of life according to taxonomy

Back 148

Bacteria (cells have no membrane), archaea (dna differs from bacteria and allowing to live in extreme conditions), eukarya (cells do have a membrane)

Front 149

Eukarya kingdoms (4 of them)

Back 149

animals, plants, fungi, protists

Front 150

predator-mediated competition

Back 150

a superior competitor in a habitat builds up a larger population than its competing species; predators take note and increase their hunting pressure on competing species, reducing its abundance and allowing the weaker predator to gain control again

Front 151

coevolution

Back 151

ex: when a predator gets faster but the prey gets more long-term stamina

Front 152

Batesian mimicry

Back 152

when a harmless species evolves to look like a harmful one so that it isn't preyed on so uch

Front 153

Mullerian Mimicry

Back 153

when 2 unpalatable species look alike, so both the predator and prey benefit

Front 154

symbiosis

Back 154

two or more species live intimately together

Front 155

Commensalism

Back 155

one member benefits but the other is unharmed/unbenefitted

Front 156

parasitism

Back 156

where one member benefits and the other is the opposite

Front 157

mutualism

Back 157

when both members benefit

Front 158

keystone species

Back 158

a species super important to the rest of the environment out of proportion to its abundance

Front 159

biotic potential

Back 159

how much a species can grow if unrestrained

Front 160

equation for exponential growth

Back 160

dN/dT=rN, or

change in number of individuals/change in time = rate of growth times the number of individuals in a population

Front 161

J curve

Back 161

the exponential growth curve of populations

Front 162

carrying capacity

Back 162

the amount of biomass of animals tha can be supported in a certain area or habitat

Front 163

logistic growth

Back 163

changes in growth rate over time

Front 164

logistic growth rate equation

Back 164

dN/dt=rN(K-N)/K, or change in numbers over time equals the exponential growth rate times the portion of the carrying capacity not already taken by the current population size

Front 165

s-curve

Back 165

logistical growth rate curve

Front 166

density-dependent and density-independent

Back 166

dependent means as population size increases, the effect intnsifies. Independent means the population is affected no matter the size

Front 167

r-selected species `

Back 167

large reproductive rate in hopes that some will survive

Front 168

k-selected species

Back 168

less high reproduction rates but more survival

Front 169

true/false: r-selected species tend to have lower trophic levels

Back 169

true

Front 170

diversity

Back 170

number of different species in an area

Front 171

abundance

Back 171

number of individuals of a particular species in an area

Front 172

community structure

Back 172

general term for spatial patterns

Front 173

core habitat

Back 173

relatively uniform environment that is free of the influence of the edges

Front 174

edege effects

Back 174

when communities meet and environmental conditions blend and species and microclimate of one community can penetrate the other

Front 175

resilience

Back 175

a community's abilit to recover from disturbance

Front 176

complexity

Back 176

number of trophic levels in a community and the number of species at each of those trophic levels

Front 177

primary productivity

Back 177

production of biomass by photosynthesis

Front 178

net primary productivity

Back 178

amount of biomass stored after respiration

Front 179

stability

Back 179

resistance to disturbance etc

Front 180

climax community

Back 180

when a communit starts off simple but builds complexity as time goes on

Front 181

primary succesion

Back 181

land that is bare is colonized by living organisms where none lived before

Front 182

secondary succession

Back 182

when a new biological community develops from the biological legacy of the previous one

Front 183

pioneer species

Back 183

first colonists on bare land, often microbes, mosses, and lichens

Front 184

disturbance

Back 184

any force that disrupts the established patterns of species diversity and abundance

Front 185

disturbance-adapted speices

Back 185

species that learned to survive in disturbances common in their area

Front 186

____ more humans per second is the net gain right now

Back 186

2.5

Front 187

what percent of humans are we adding every year

Back 187

1.1

Front 188

How many peope are we adding per year

Back 188

75 million

Front 189

What was the world's population in 5000 BC?`

Back 189

50 million

Front 190

after ____AD, human populations started growing very rapidly

Back 190

1600

Front 191

Thomas Malthus idea of population growth

Back 191

argued that humans would outstrip their food supply, saying that increasing population did not increase industrial output to a good degree

Front 192

Karl Marx idea

Back 192

population growth results from social issues

Front 193

I=PAT formula

Back 193

environmental impacts(I)= Population size(P) times technology(T) times affluence(A)

Front 194

ecological footprint

Back 194

relative amount of productive land needed to support each of us

Front 195

The average US citizen uses about __ha of bioproductive land, whereas a Malawian uses about ___ha

Back 195

9.7, 0.5

Front 196

It would take about ____ more earths to support the world at a current American lifestyle. If everybody lived like Malawians, the world could host another ___ people

Back 196

3.5; 20 billion

Front 197

Demography

Back 197

the study of people and how they are laid out

Front 198

How many people were there in 2011?

Back 198

7 billion or so

Front 199

What are a couple countries that are expected to lose some population?

Back 199

Japan, Europe, maybe US and Canada if no immigration

Front 200

The United States population is growing at __ per year

Back 200

0.86 percent

Front 201

crude birht rate

Back 201

number of births in a year per thousand person

Front 202

total fertility rate

Back 202

number of children born to an average woman in a population during her entire reproductive life

Front 203

Zero Population Growth

Back 203

when births and immigration equal deaths plus emigration

Front 204

replacement rate

Back 204

2.1 children per couple

Front 205

population momentum

Back 205

when there are a lot of young people so the growth occurs at a high rate for a while

Front 206

Average fertility rate for the whole world

Back 206

2.6

Front 207

what was the life expectancy in most of human history

Back 207

35-40 years

Front 208

World life expectancy has risen from ____-____ in the past 100 years

Back 208

40, 67.2

Front 209

dependency ratioj

Back 209

number of working vs. non working in a population

Front 210

pronatalist pressures

Back 210

factors that increase people's desires to have children

Front 211

TF: most demographers predict that human population will stabilize in the next century

Back 211

true

Front 212

the end and good luck

Back 212

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