AP Environmental Science MId Term
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| 592412027 | 3 Principles of Sustainability | 1. Reliance on Solar Energy 2. Biodiversity 3. Chemical Cyclying | |
| 592412028 | Reliance on Solar Energy | The sun provides practically all energy on Earth | |
| 592412029 | Biodiversity | The large variety of organisms | |
| 592412030 | Chemical Cycling | Circulation of chemicals in the environment through living organisms | |
| 592412031 | 3 Goals of Environmental Science | 1. Learn how nature works 2. To understand how we interact with the environment 3. Find ways to deal with environmental problems and to live more sustainably | |
| 592412032 | 4 Causes of Environmental Problems | 1. Population Growth 2. Unsustainable Resource Use 3. Poverty 4. Exclusion of Environmental costs from market prices | |
| 592412033 | 5 Limitations of Science | 1. Scientists cannot absolutely prove or disprove anything due to uncertainty (looking for high probability) 2. Scientists are human, not free to biases 3. Many systems in the natural world involve many variables with complex interactions (develop mathematical models) 4. Use of statistical tools (look for trends) 5. Focus is understanding the natural world | |
| 592412034 | Scientific Method | 1. Identify a Problem 2. Find out what is known about he problem 3. Ask a question to investigate 4. Collect data to answer the question 5. Propose a hypothesis to explain the data 6. Make testable projections 7. Test the projections with further experiments, models, or observations 8. Accept or reject the hypothesis | |
| 592412035 | Scientific Theory | A well-tested widely accepted scientific hypothesis or a group of related hypothesis. | |
| 592412036 | Scientific Law | Law of Nature. A well-tested widely accepted description of what we find happening repeatedly in nature in the same way. CANNOT BE BROKEN! | |
| 592412037 | Tentative Science | (Frontier Science) Preliminary scientific results that capture news headlines (Controversial because they have not been widely tested and accepted by peer review) | |
| 592412038 | Reliable Science | Consists of data hypotheses, models, theories, and laws that are widely accepted by all or most scientists that care experts in the field under study | |
| 592412039 | Unreliable Science | Scientific hypothesis that re presented as reliable without having undergone the rigors of widespread peer review or have been discarded as a result of peer review | |
| 592412040 | Positive Feedback | Causes the system to change further in the same direction | |
| 592412041 | Negative Feedback | Causes the system to change further in the opposite direction | |
| 592412042 | Organic Compounds | Compounds that contain carbon | |
| 592412043 | Inorganic Compounds | Compounds that don't contain carbon | |
| 592412044 | High Quality Matter | Highly concentrated, found near Earth's surface, great potential as resource | |
| 592412045 | Low Quality Matter | Not highly concentrated, located deep underground or dispersed in ocean or atmosphere, little potential as resource | |
| 592412046 | Physical Change: | Changes some properties but not the composition of material Change can be reversible or irreversible Phase Change: Transition of matter from one state to another. | |
| 592412047 | Chemical Change | Changes the composition of substance. Will normally change properties | |
| 592412048 | Energy | The capacity todo work or transfer heat | |
| 592412049 | Kinetic Energy | Moving Energy | |
| 592412050 | Potential Energy | Stored Energy. Potentially available for use. | |
| 592412051 | Energy Quality | Measure of the capacity of a type of energy to do useful work. | |
| 592412052 | High Quality Energy | Great capacity due to concentration | |
| 592412053 | Examples of High Quality Energy | High temp, high speed wind, concentrated sunlight | |
| 592412054 | Low Quality Energy | Little capacity because it is so dispersed | |
| 592412055 | Examples of Low Quality Energy | Moving molecules in atmosphere | |
| 592412056 | Pollution | Any presence within the environment of a chemical or other agent that is harmful to the health, survival, or activities of humans or other organisms | |
| 592412057 | Point Source | Single, identifiable sources | |
| 592412058 | Nonpoint Source | Dispersed and often difficult to identify | |
| 592412059 | Tragedy of the Commons | Situation in which people acting individually and in their own interest use up commonly available but limited resources, creating disaster for the entire community | |
| 592412060 | Perpetual Resource | The supply is continuous and is expected to last | |
| 592412061 | Renewable Resource | A resource that takes anywhere form several days to several hundred years to be replenished through natural process (As long as not use up, before nature replenish it) | |
| 592412062 | Nonrenewable Resource | Resources that exist in a fixed quantity, or stock, in the earth's crust. Humans deplete those resources faster than nature can replenish them | |
| 592412063 | Natural Resources | Materials and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans | |
| 592412064 | Natural Services | Processes in nature, such as purification of air and water and renewal of topsoil, which support life and human economies | |
| 592412065 | Nutrient Cycling | The natural service that recycles chemicals needed by organisms from the environment (soil and water) through those organisms and back to the environment | |
| 592412066 | Thermodynamics | Study of energy transformations | |
| 592412067 | First Law of Thermodynamics | Law of conservation of energy, energy cannot be created or destroyed | |
| 592412068 | Second Law of Thermodynamics | When energy is changed from one form to another, it always goes from a more useful to a less useful form | |
| 592412069 | Environmental Science | An interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the living and nonliving parts of their environment | |
| 592412070 | Ecological Footprint | The amount of biologically productive land and water needed to provide the people in a particular country or area with an indefinite supply of renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use | |
| 592412071 | Resource | Anything that can be obtain front eh environment to meet our needs and wants | |
| 592412072 | System | Set of components that function and interact in some regular way | |
| 592412073 | Environmental Degradation | Humans are living unsustainable by wasting, depleting, and degrading the earth's natural capital at an accelerating rate (Natural Capital Degradation) | |
| 592412074 | Ecological Tipping Point | Threshold level of an environmental problem. Causes an often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system | |
| 592412075 | Synergistic Interaction | Occurs when two or more processes interact so that the combined effect is greater than the sum of their separate effects. | |
| 592412076 | Atmosphere | Layers of Gases 1st Layer: Troposhere Nitrogen=78% Oxygen=41% Greenhouse Gases(Methane,Water Vapor,CO2)=1% 2nd Layer: Stratosphere Ozone -> Filters Ultra Violet Radiation from Sun (95%) | |
| 592412077 | Hydrosphere | Consists of all the water (liquid, gas, solid) on Earth | |
| 592412078 | Geosphere/Lithosphere | Consists of all the land on Earth (core, mantle, crust) | |
| 592412079 | Biosphere | Includes all spheres BUT! Its only LIFE | |
| 592412080 | Food Chain | A chain illustrating the organisms and their food source A food chain also illustrates the transfer of energy from one trophic level to the next (Energy Transfer) | |
| 592412081 | Shannon Wiener Index Calculations | B= -Changes in Pi ln Pi (Pi= number of individual (number counted of certain species))/ Total number of individuals (from all species) B= - (6/37 ln (6/37)) + (13/37 ln (13/37)) etc. | |
| 592412082 | Ecological Niche | Roe Species play in Environment | |
| 592412083 | Generalist Species | Can live in variety of environments; Broad Niche | |
| 592412084 | Specialist Species | Can live only in 1 type of environment; Narrow Niche | |
| 592412085 | Native | Normally live in specific environment | |
| 592412086 | Non-Native | Introduced to environment (Alien species, Invasive) | |
| 592412087 | Indicator Species | Quickly affected by environmental changes. Found almost everywhere (Birds and Butterflies) | |
| 592412088 | Keystone Species | Have large effect on types and abundance of other species in ecosystem (Bees/Butterflies polinate -> Flower -> Animal) | |
| 592412089 | Top Predator Keystone Species | Predator regulating other species populations (Eagle/Hawk -> Mice, Lion -> Antelope | |
| 592412090 | Foundation Species | Play major role in shaping community and entrancing environment to benefit others (Birds bringing seeds/plants Elephant -> trample land to access grazing) | |
| 592412091 | Interspecific Competition | Gain access to same source (Water, Sunlight) | |
| 592412092 | Predation | Food Chain | |
| 592412093 | Parasitism | Host-parasite; Parasite feeds n host (Fleas, Tapeworms) | |
| 592412094 | Mutualism | Both living together and benefiting (Clownfish and Anemone) | |
| 592412095 | Commensalism | There are two, one species benefits, but little or no effect on other species (Tree and Bromeliad) |
