Terms : Hide Images
| 7297304873 | biodiversity | the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem. | 0 | |
| 7297305980 | sustainability | the ability of an ecosystem to stay healthy and productive for very long periods of time | 1 | |
| 7297306922 | natural capital | economists refer to ecological systems that provide public service functions as | 2 | |
| 7297309368 | Natural Resource | anything naturally occurring in the environment that humans use | 3 | |
| 7297310886 | Perpetual Resource | renewed continuously and is expected to last long (solar power) | 4 | |
| 7297311755 | renewable resource | A natural resource that can be replaced at the same rate at which the resource is consumed | 5 | |
| 7297313338 | nonrenewable resource | a resource that comes from the earth and cannot be replaced | 6 | |
| 7297313339 | GDP | the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country during one year. | 7 | |
| 7297314619 | MDC | more developed countries | 8 | |
| 7297315778 | LDC | Less developed countries | 9 | |
| 7297315779 | Degredation | (n) a decline to a lower condition, quality, or level | 10 | |
| 7297322961 | point source | A specific source of pollution that can be identified | 11 | |
| 7297324849 | non point source | A source of pollution that is not easily identified. | 12 | |
| 7297324851 | tragedy of the commons | social trap that involves a conflict over resources between interests and the common good. | 13 | |
| 7297327003 | positive feedback loop | A feedback loop in which change in a system is amplified. | 14 | |
| 7297328266 | negative feedback loop | Output shuts off original effect of the stimulus | 15 | |
| 7297329559 | feedback loop | A circular process in which a system's output serves as input to that same system. | 16 | |
| 7297330681 | autotroph | organisms that can make their own food | 17 | |
| 7297331572 | heterotroph | An organism that cannot make its own food. | 18 | |
| 7297331573 | herbivore | A consumer that eats only plants. | 19 | |
| 7297332428 | carnivore | A consumer that eats only animals. | 20 | |
| 7297332429 | omnivore | An animal that eats both plants and animals | 21 | |
| 7297333766 | detritovore | an animal that feeds on dead organic material, especially plant detritus. | 22 | |
| 7297333767 | decomposer | organism that breaks down waste from other organisms | 23 | |
| 7297335962 | chemotroph | microbes that gain energy from chemical compounds | 24 | |
| 7297336818 | trophic level | each step in a food chain or web is called a trophic level | 25 | |
| 7297337793 | anaerobic | Process that does not require oxygen | 26 | |
| 7297338564 | fermentation | Process by which cells release energy in the absence of oxygen | 27 | |
| 7297338565 | GPP | Gross Primary Productivity | 28 | |
| 7297341464 | NPP | GPP - R | 29 | |
| 7297342391 | affluence | abundance; wealth | 30 | |
| 7297342392 | poverty | Inability to meet basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. | 31 | |
| 7297343239 | IPAT | Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology | 32 | |
| 7297343951 | ecological tipping point | An irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system | 33 | |
| 7297345002 | ecological footprint | A measure of how much an individual consumes, expressed in area of land | 34 | |
| 7297345823 | culture | Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people. | 35 | |
| 7297346806 | exponential growth | Growth pattern in which the individuals in a population reproduce at a constant rate | 36 | |
| 7297347952 | stewardship | responsibility for conserving and restoring the Earth's resources for future generations | 37 | |
| 7297348776 | theory | A hypothesis that has been tested with a significant amount of data | 38 | |
| 7297349400 | hypothesis | A testable prediction, often implied by a theory | 39 | |
| 7297349401 | law | a summary of many experimental results and observations; a law tells how things work | 40 | |
| 7297350308 | high quality matter | Matter that is concentrated and contains a high concentration of a useful resource | 41 | |
| 7297351037 | low quality matter | of poor or inferior quality then high quality matter | 42 | |
| 7297353189 | 1st law of thermodynamics | Energy cannot be created or destroyed | 43 | |
| 7297354138 | 2nd law of thermodynamics | Every energy transfer or transformation increases the entropy of the universe. | 44 | |
| 7297354975 | law of conservation of matter | Matter is not created nor destroyed in any chemical or physical change | 45 | |
| 7297355756 | biomass | total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level | 46 | |
| 7297355757 | energy flow | The passage of energy through the components of an ecosystem | 47 | |
| 7297356791 | surface runoff | Water flowing off the land into bodies of surface water. | 48 | |
| 7297359315 | agricultural runoff | water leaving farm fields because of rain, melted snow, or irrigation. | 49 | |
| 7297359979 | anthropogenic | Human-induced changes on the natural environment | 50 | |
| 7297363042 | anthropocene | the modern geological era during which humans have dramatically affected the environment | 51 | |
| 7297363043 | bycatch | unwanted marine creatures that are caught in the nets while fishing for another species | 52 | |
| 7297364818 | scarcity | the state of being scarce or in short supply; shortage. | 53 | |
| 7297365755 | precipitation | Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth's surface. | 54 | |
| 7297366571 | evaporation | The change of a substance from a liquid to a gas | 55 | |
| 7297366572 | transpiration | Evaporation of water from the leaves of a plant | 56 | |
| 7297367526 | condensation | Gas to liquid | 57 | |
| 7297368385 | percolation | water traveling Through rocks | 58 | |
| 7297368386 | groundwater flow | The movement of groundwater beneath the earth's surface | 59 | |
| 7297369222 | greenhouse gases | atmospheric gases that absorb and reradiate the earth's radiation | 60 | |
| 7297370238 | universal solvent | water | 61 | |
| 7297370239 | overuse | the potential for harm from the provision of a service that exceeds the possible benefit | 62 | |
| 7297371759 | infiltration | Flow of water from the land surface into the subsurface. | 63 | |
| 7297372520 | leaching | removal of dissolved materials from soil by water moving downwards | 64 | |
| 7297373215 | permeate | to spread through, penetrate, soak through | 65 | |
| 7297374064 | deforestation | Destruction of forests | 66 | |
| 7297374065 | aquafer | continuous groundwater systems. also referred to as the phreatic zone | 67 | |
| 7297374757 | species | A group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring. | 68 | |
| 7297375673 | biome | A group of ecosystems that share similar climates and typical organisms | 69 | |
| 7297376592 | natural selection | A natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment. | 70 | |
| 7297377359 | edward o wilson | Social behavior is based on natural selection | 71 | |
| 7297378881 | mutation | A rare change in the DNA of a gene, ultimately creating genetic diversity. | 72 | |
| 7297379615 | adaptation | A trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce | 73 | |
| 7297379616 | speciation | the process by which new species are generated | 74 | |
| 7297381249 | geographic isolation | Physical separation of a group of individuals from others of the same species | 75 | |
| 7297382157 | reproductive isolation | Barriers that impede members of two different species fro producing fertile offspring. | 76 | |
| 7297382880 | temporal isolation | Form of reproductive isolation in which two populations reproduce at different times | 77 | |
| 7297384281 | BOD | biological oxygen demand- how much oxygen the organisms in the water are consuming | 78 | |
| 7297384282 | Dissolved oxygen | oxygen dissolved into the water from the air and released from plants and algae | 79 | |
| 7297386567 | outgassing | gases escape from earth's crust | 80 | |
| 7297387385 | carbonic acid | a very weak acid formed in solution when carbon dioxide dissolves in water. | 81 | |
| 7297388493 | chemical weathering | The process that breaks down rock through chemical changes | 82 | |
| 7297388494 | oxidation | the loss of electrons from the atoms of a substance in a chemical reaction | 83 | |
| 7297389705 | CHONPS | the 6 essential elements of all living things | 84 | |
| 7297390511 | sedimentation | the action or process of forming or depositing sediment | 85 | |
| 7297391277 | wet deposition | acidic rain, snow, fog, and cloud vapor | 86 | |
| 7297392997 | dry deposition | acid pollutants that settle on the earth as solids | 87 | |
| 7297393918 | nitrogen fixation | Process of converting nitrogen gas into ammonia | 88 | |
| 7297395722 | ammoniafication | The process of converting nitrogen into ammonium by bacteria. | 89 | |
| 7297397048 | nitrification | ammonia is converted to nitrate ions (NO3-). | 90 | |
| 7297398147 | nitrogen assimilation | incorporation of nitrogen into biomolecules | 91 | |
| 7297399429 | denitrification | Conversion of nitrates into nitrogen gas | 92 | |
| 7297400433 | eutrophication | an increase in the amount of nutrients, such as nitrates, in a marine or aquatic ecosystem | 93 | |
| 7297401663 | limiting factor | factor that causes population growth to decrease | 94 | |
| 7297402326 | keystone species | A species that influences the survival of many other species in an ecosystem | 95 | |
| 7297403684 | generalist | Species that does not rely on a single source of prey | 96 | |
| 7297404770 | specialist | better adapted to eat a particular food | 97 | |
| 7297405693 | artificial selection | process by which humans modify a species by breeding it for certain traits | 98 | |
| 7297406270 | extinction | A term that typically describes a species that no longer has any known living individuals. | 99 | |
| 7297407231 | background extinction | extinction caused by slow and steady process of natural selection | 100 | |
| 7297408009 | mass extinction | event in which many types of living things become extinct at the same time | 101 | |
| 7297408010 | niche | An organism's particular role in an ecosystem, or how it makes its living. | 102 | |
| 7297409064 | native species | Species that normally live and thrive in a particular ecosystem | 103 | |
| 7297583420 | indicator species | species that serve as early warnings that an ecosystem is being damaged | 104 | |
| 7297585815 | invasive species | plants and animals that have migrated to places where they are not native | 105 | |
| 7297586633 | exotic species | a species that is not native to a particular region | 106 | |
| 7297590719 | interspecific competition | competition between members of different species | 107 | |
| 7297591657 | resource partitioning | when species divide a niche to avoid competition for resources | 108 | |
| 7297593492 | predator prey | Relationship where one organism eats another organism. | 109 | |
| 7297594237 | coevolution | Reciprocal evolutionary adaptations of two interacting species. | 110 | |
| 7297595839 | mimicry | Ability of an animal to look like another more harmful animal | 111 | |
| 7297597183 | ecological succession | gradual change in living communities that follows a disturbance | 112 | |
| 7297597184 | primary succession | succession that occurs on surfaces where no soil exists | 113 | |
| 7297598044 | secondary succession | Succession following a disturbance that destroys a community without destroying the soil | 114 | |
| 7297599298 | range of tolerance | The ability to survive and reproduce under a range of environmental circumstances | 115 | |
| 7297599799 | population density | The number of individuals in an area of a specific size | 116 | |
| 7297600305 | carrying capacity | Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support | 117 | |
| 7297600306 | logistic growth | occurs when the growth rate decreases as the population reaches carrying capacity. | 118 | |
| 7297601224 | exponential growth | Occurs when the individuals in a population reproduce at a constant rate | 119 | |
| 7297602583 | population crash | dramatic decline in the size of a population over a short period of time When carrying capacity of environment drops suddenly | 120 | |
| 7362466527 | HIPPCO | Habitat loss Invasive species Population Pollution Climate change Over exploitation | 121 | |
| 7362472574 | pioneer species | First species to populate an area during primary succession | 122 | |
| 7362482959 | density independent | factor unrelated to population density that limits a population | 123 | |
| 7362485481 | density dependent | Referring to any characteristic that varies with population density. | 124 |
