Environmental Science Unit 1 Test

Front 1

Environment

Back 1

all the living and nonliving things around us

Front 2

Environmental Science

Back 2

the study of how the natural world works and how the environment affects humans and vice versa

Front 3

Environment <-- Impacts--> Humans

Back 3

Applied goal: solving environmental problems; interdisciplinary field (natural sciences, social sciences)

Front 4

Science

Back 4

a systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it; essential to sort fact from fiction; civilization depends on it

Front 5

Policy

Back 5

a formal set of general plans and principles to address problems and guide decision making

Front 6

Environmental Policy

Back 6

•pertainsto human interactions with the environment –Regulates resource use or reducespollution –To promote human welfare and/orprotect resources

Front 7

Tragedy of the commons

Back 7

commonly held resources will become overused and degraded; best prevented by oversight and regulations ; overuse

Front 8

General Mining Act (1878)

Back 8

poor law; people could mine on public landfor $5/acre with no government oversight; mining leaves land permanently scarred; any land that the federal government owns-> pay $5 and then get resources, sell them, don't owe government anything; abused

Front 9

Scientific Method

Back 9

Observations lead to questions lead to hypothesis then predictions then test then results; if FTR hypothesis, test new prediction; reject hypothesis, form new one

Front 10

Natural resources

Back 10

substances and energy sources needed for survival (renewable and nonrenewable)

Front 11

Renewable natural resources

Back 11

can be replenished; sunlight, wind, wave energy, geothermal energy; perpetually renewed and essentially inexhaustable

Front 12

nonrenewable natural resources

Back 12

unavailable after depletion; minerals, crude oil; metals; natural gas; coal; finite supply and formed more slowly than we use them

Front 13

Renewable Resources (intermediate)

Back 13

fresh water, forest products, agricultural crops, soils

Front 14

Ecosystem services

Back 14

ecological systems purify air and water, cycle nutrients, regulate climate, pollinate plants, and receive and recycle our waste; arise from the normal functioning of ecosystems

Front 15

We degrade ecosystem services by:

Back 15

deplete resources, destroy habitat, generate pollution; rising population

Front 16

Env. Science is interdisciplinary how?

Back 16

borrows techniques from multiple disciplines and brings them together (ecology, earth science, chemistry, biology, geography, economics, political science, demography, ethics)

Front 17

Amplified impacts of human growth

Back 17

Agricultural revolution

Industrial revolution

Front 18

Agricultural revolution

Back 18

people began to grow crops, domesticate animals, live sedentary lives on farms and villages, produced more food to meet needs and started having more children

Front 19

industrial revolution

Back 19

mid-1700s; entailed a shift from rural life, animal powered agriculture, and handcrafted goods toward an urban society provisioned by the mass production of factory-made goods and powered by fossil fuels; technological advances and improvements in sanitation and medicine meaning people lived longer; stress on ecosystems and availability of resources

Front 20

Changed Earth's Landscape

Back 20

human settlement, roads and transportation networks, nighttime light pollution, and agricultural influence terrestrial ecosystems

Front 21

Ecological Footprint

Back 21

the environmental impact of a person or population (area of biologically productive land and water needed to supply raw resources and dispose/recycle waste); larger than grandparents (much larger impact)

Front 22

CHOPKINS Ca Fe Mg NaCl

Back 22

Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Iodide, Nitrogen, Sulfur, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Sodium, Chloride

Front 23

Isotopes

Back 23

Same protons, different neutrons

Front 24

Methane

Back 24

Greenhouse gas, traps heat in

Front 25

DNA nucleotide made of

Back 25

phosphate group, sugar, nitrogenous base

Front 26

Flow of energy

Back 26

potential energy (stored in molecular bonds of wood) to kinetic energy (released as heat and light) to increase in entropy

Front 27

Longest and shortest wavelength

Back 27

radio waves longest, gamma rays highest

Front 28

Water Chemistry facilitates life

Back 28

cohesion (transport nutrients and waste); adhesion; bond well with ions, can hold in solution, dissolve many molecules, water molecules in ice far apart, so ice less dense than water and floats ; water absorbs lots of heat with small changes in temperature

Front 29

Carbon dioxide+ water + heat--> Oxygen + glucose ( photosynthesis)

Back 29

opposite is cellular respiration

Front 30

Primary layers

Back 30

core, mantle, crust

Front 31

lithosphere

Back 31

Earth's crust and uppermost mantle above asthenosphere; the rock and sediment beneath our feet; oldest

Front 32

atmosphere

Back 32

layer of gases surrounding planet ; 5 billion years;

Front 33

Hydrosphere

Back 33

encompasses all water (salt or fresh, liquid, ice, or vapor,in surface bodies, underground, and in the atmosphere) ; 4.6 billion years

Front 34

biosphere

Back 34

all the planet's organisms and the abiotic (nonliving) portions of the environment with which they interact; 3.5 billion years

Front 35

Natural Selection

Back 35

traits that enhance survival and reproduction are passed on more frequently to future generations

Front 36

Logic behind natural selection

Back 36

1. organisms struggle to survive and reproduce

2. organisms produce more offspring than can survive

3. individuals' characteristics vary

- best supporting and most illuminating; standpoint of modern biology

- better adapted pass on genes, others pass on less

Front 37

Evolutionary processes influence

Back 37

pesticide resistence, agriculture, medicine, health, etc.; all life from one common ancestor (evolution)

Front 38

Artificial Selection

Back 38

Selection conducted under human direction; humans select for certain traits (ie dog breeding)

Front 39

Evolution generates

Back 39

biological diversity

Front 40

biological diversity

Back 40

species, genes, populations, communities; 1.8 million species (up to 100 million may exist); tropical rainforests rich in biodiversity

Front 41

fossil

Back 41

an imprint in stone of dead organism

Front 42

fossil record

Back 42

the cumulative body of fossils worldwide; shows:

1. life for >3.5 billion years

2. earlier types into later ones

3. # of species increased over time

4. most species have gone extinct

5. several mass extinctions in pst

Front 43

What types of diversity important?

Back 43

species: different plants and animals

genetic variation: variations w/in species; without it, doomed to go extinct

Front 44

Extinction

Back 44

disappearance of species from earth; diversity being lost at astounding rate

Front 45

Mass Extinction Events

Back 45

occured 5x in history ( in 6th one now) (50-95% of planet's species each time)

1. Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T event: 65 million years)-- dinosaurs

2. End-Permian event: 250 million years (75-95%)

Front 46

6th extinction event (b/c of us)

Back 46

Resource depletion, population growth, development; destruction of natural habitats; hunting and harvesting; introduction of non-native species; amphibians disappearing fastest

Front 47

HIPPO - top reasons for extinction

Back 47

1. Habitat Loss/destruction

2. Invasive Species

3. Population (human, overpopulating)

4. Pollution

5. Overharvesting