All Vocabulary Words from Sections 1-27

Juan :--)

~All vocabulary words from sections 1-27~

Introduction to Environmental Systems

·  Gaia Hypothesis: States that the Earth is a living organism in which feedback mechanisms maintain equilibrium. Developed by James Lovelock.

·  Society: An arbitrary group of individuals who share common characteristics - location, cultural background, religion, etc

·  Sustainability: thequalityofnotbeingharmfultotheenvironmentordepletingnatural resources,andtherebysupportinglong-termecologicalbalance

·  MEDC: More Economically Developed Countries, includes US, Australia, European Nations, Japan

·  LEDC: Less Economically Developed Countries, includes African, Asian & Latin American nations

·  Biosphere: Part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere

·  Pollution: Any addition to water, air, or soil that threatens the health of survival of any organism

Models and the behavior of systems

·  Entropy: Measure of disorder or chaos, in isolated systems entropy tends to increase spontaneously

·  Equilibrium: A sort of equalization of end point

·  Feedback: Self-regulation of natural systems in an attempt to attain equilibrium. Can be either negative or positive.

·  Negative Feedback: One change leads to a results that lessens the original change, leads to steady state equilibrium. IE Prey

·  Positive Feedback: Runaway cycle in which a change in a certain direction provides output that further increases the change. IE Global Warming

·  Model: A deliberately simplified construct of nature. The model can be a physical working model, a pictorial model, a set of mathematical equations, or a computer simulation.

·  Stable Equilibrium: AKA Static equilibrium: No change at all – condition to which most natural systems can be compared but this does not exist

·  Steady State Equilibrium: constant changes in all directions maintain a constant state (no net change) – common to most open systems in nature

·  System: A set of components that function and interact in some regular, predictable manner and can be isolated for the purposes of observation and study.

·  Closed System: Exchange energy but not matter, IE Earth

·  Isolated System: Exchange neither matter nor energy with its surroundings, IE the cosmos lol

·  Open System: Exchange matter and energy with its surroundings, IE Coral reef

Population Dynamics

·  Abiotic Factor: The physical, or nonliving, factor that shapes an ecosystem

·  Biotic Factor: biological influence on organisms within an ecosystem

·  Carrying Capacity: The largest number of individuals of a population that a given environment can sustainably support. Depends on interaction between biotic potential and environmental resistance.

·  Habitat: the type of environment in which an organism or group normally lives or occurs

·  K-Strategist: Species that have small numbers of offspring, increasing survival rates and adapting them for long-term communities

·  Population: A group of individuals of the same species found in the same area (habitat) at the same time

Succession

·  Climax Community: community of organisms that is more or less stable, in equilibrium with natural environmental conditions

·  Community: A group of populations interacting in a particular area. IE Fish community of Ponce Inlet

·  Evolution: The cumulative, gradual change in genetic characteristics of successive generations of a species or race of an organism, making them different from ancestors

·  K strategists:

·  R strategists:

·  Sere: A seral community (or sere) is an intermediate stage found in ecological succession in an ecosystem advancing towards its climax community.

·  Succession: The gradual change in species composition of a given area over time.

o  Primary Succession: The Gradual establishment of biological communities on lifeless ground

o  Secondary Succession: The reestablishment of biotic communities in an area where they already existed

·  Zonation: Horizontal / Vertical bands or zones of animals and organisms. Created by physical and biological factors

Community Ecology:

·  Community: A group of populations interacting in a particular area. IE Fish community of Ponce Inlet

·  Competition: The common demand by two or more organisms upon a limited supply of a resource

·  Mutualism: A relationship between two species in which both species benefit

·  Niche: The role of an organism in its environment (multidimensional): nocturnal predator of small mammals in the forest

·  Parasitism: A relationship in which one partner obtains nutrients at the expense of the host

Food Chains, Webs, and Pyramids

·  Abiotic Factor: The physical, or nonliving, factor that shapes an ecosystem

·  Biomass: The total mass of organic matter in organisms and ecosystems in a given unit area

·  Biotic Factor: biological influence on organisms within an ecosystem

·  Ecosystem: A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment

·  Standing Crop:

·  Trophic Level: The position an organism has in the food chain

Terrestrial Biomes

·  Biome: Regions of the earth characterized by specific climates and community types

o  Do not have sharply defined boundaries

o  Cross national boundaries

·  Latitude: Measurement of distance north or south of the Equator, measured in degrees

Ecosystem Productivity

·  Gross productivity: Total biomass produced

·  Gross primary productivity: Rate at which producers use photosynthesis to make more biomass

·  Gross secondary productivity:

·  Net productivity: Total biomass produced minus amount used by organism

·  Net primary productivity: Rate at which energy for use by consumers is stored in new biomass

·  Primary productivity: productivity at 1st trophic level

·  Secondary productivity: Productivity at higher trophic level

Human Populations: Population Dynamics

·  Crude Birth Rate: # live births / 1000 people in year population

·  Crude Death Rate: # deaths / 1000 people in year population

·  Demographic Transition: A general model describing changing levels of fertility and mortality in human population over time

o 

·  Doubling Time: Time necessary for population to double

o  70 / rate of increase = doubling time

·  Fertility:

o  Replacement Fertility – number of children a couple must bear to replace themselves – roughly 2.1

o  Total fertility rate (TFR)= # of children a woman will have in her childbearing years (15-49)

§  1.6 in developed countries, 3.1 in developing countries

·  Rate of natural increase: The percentage by which a population grows in a year

o  Crude birth rate – crude death rate

Resources and Natural Capital

·  GNP (Gross national product): Sum of goods and services produced in a country

o  GDP = GNP – net income from abroad

·  Natural Capital: The natural assets and the services they perform. One component of the wealth of a nation.

·  Nonrenewable natural capital: Like inventories, using it requires liquidating part of the stock

·  Renewable natural capital: Self producing and self maintaining

·  Replenishable natural capital: Non living and dependent on solar engine for renewal

o  Groundwater, Ozone layer

Comparison of Energy Resources

·  Greenhouse gases: Gases that absorb infrared radiation, causing global warming

o  CO2, N2O,O3

·  Renewable natural capital: natural assets that can be renewed

·  Nonrenewable natural capital: natural assets that cannot be renewed

·  Pollution: The addition to the environment of a substance/agent by human activity at a rate greater then what would render it harmless

Soil resources

·  Soil: mixture of mineral particles and organic material

·  Soil Profile: Cross sectional view of soil horizons

·  Biodegradable: able to be decomposed by biological forces, especially bacteria

Limits to Growth of Human Population

·  Ecological footprint: The area of land and water required to support a defined human population at a given standard of living

·  Environmental Impact Assessment: A method of detailed survey required in some countries before initiating a major development

Biodiversity in Ecosystems

·  Biodiversity: the amount of biological or living diversity per unit area. It includes the concepts of species diversity, genetic diversity and habitat diversity

·  Diversity: A generic term for heterogeneity. The scientific meaning of diversity becomes clear from the context in which it is used; it may refer to heterogeneity of species, habitats or genes.

o  Diversity = Stability

·  Diversity index: A numerical measure of species diversity that is derived from both the number of species (variety) and their proportional abundance.

·  Genetic diversity: The range of genetic material present in a gene pool or population of a species

·  Habitat diversity: The range of different habitats or number of ecological niches per unit area in an ecosystem, community or biome. Conservation of habitat diversity usually leads to conservation of species and genetic diversity

·  Isolation: The process by which two populations become seperated by geographical, behavioral, genetic, or reproductive factors - may lead to new species

·  Plate Tectonics: The movement of 8 major and several minor rigid plates of the earth's lithosphere in relation to each other

·  Species diversity: Variety among species per unit area. Includes both the number of species present and their abundance.

·  Speciation: The formation of new species as a result of evolution

·  Species: A group of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile viable offspring

Pollution

·  Pollution: The addition to an environment of a substance or an agent (such as heat) by human activity faster than it can be rendered harmless by the environment and which has an appreciable effect on organisms within it

o  Results from:

§  Combustion of fossil fuels

§  Domestic and industrial waste

§  Manufacturing

§  Agriculture systems

·  Point source pollution: Pollutants discharged from a single identifiable location

·  Non-point source pollution: Pollution that comes from many different sources

Eutrophication

·  Biological oxygen demand: Measure of the amount of dissolved oxygen required to break down the organic material in a given volume of water through aerobic biological activity

·  Eutrophication: The natural or artificial enhancement of a body of water, particularly with respect to nitrates and phosphates, that results in depletion of the oxygen content of the water

o  Accelerated by human activities that add detergents, sewage or agricultural fertilizers to bodies of water

·  Positive feedback: Runaway cycle in which a change in a certain direction provides output that further increases the change. IE Global Warming

Stratospheric Ozone Depletion

·  Halogenated organic gases: Often regarded as halocarbons, potent greenhouse gases

·  Pollution: The addition to the environment of a substance/agent by human activity at a rate greater then what would render it harmless

·  Non-point source pollution: Pollution that comes from many different sources

·  Replenishable natural capital: Non living and dependent on solar engine for renewal

o  Groundwater, Ozone layer

Urban Air Pollution

·  Smog: Haziness in atmosphere caused by air pollutants

·  Photochemical smog: Mix of primary & secondary pollutants formed under influence of sunlight

Global Warming

·  Correlation: Measure of association between two variables

·  Global warming: Increase in average temperature of Earth's atmosphere

·  Greenhouse gases: Gases that absorb infrared radiation, causing global warming

·  Negative Feedback: One change leads to a results that lessens the original change, leads to steady state equilibrium. IE Prey

·  Positive Feedback: Runaway cycle in which a change in a certain direction provides output that further increases the change. IE Global Warming