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11 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Environment
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Broadly, anything that is external or internal to an entity. For humans, the environment can include external living, working, and playing spaces and natural resources, and well as the internal physical, mental and emotional states.
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Carbon Neutral
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The maintenance of a balance between producing and using carbon dioxide.
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Carrying Capacity
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The volume of and intensity of use by organisms that can be sustained in a particular place and at a particular time without degrading the environment's future suitability for that use. A resource's carrying capacity has limits that need to be respected for its continued use.
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Entropy
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A measure of disorder of energy, indicating its unavailability for recycling for the same use. Energy tends to break down into lower quality with each use. For instance, a kilowatt of electricity, once it is produced and consumed, can never be used as electricity again and, if stored, will allow far less than 1 kilowatt to be consumed.
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Ecosystem
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All living and nonliving substances present in a particular place, ofter interacting with each other.
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Niche
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The role an organism plays in its natural community, including what it eats and the conditions it requires for survival. Habitats and niches are interrelated concepts.
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Cycle
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The continuous looplike movement of water, air and various nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulfur, through the environment. Such cycles can be impaired in performing their evolutionary roles, such as purification and sustenance, by excessive human caused pollution and depletion.
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Threshold
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The point at which a particular phenomenon, previously suppressed, suddenly begins to be activated. For instance, when a population's carrying capacity threshold is exceeded, the population tends to decrease or even crash as a result of increased morbidity and mortality.
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Pollution
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The existence of material or energy that has gone through a transformation process and is perceived as either unwanted or devalued in a particular place at a particular time.
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Irreversibility
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The inability of humans and nature to restore enviromental conditions to a previous state within relevant time frames. Human environment-related actions that appear irreversible are the destruction of a rain forest or wilderness area and the extinction of a species.
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Sustainability
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The ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
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