Environmental Science Flashcards

2132785605	Environment	Surroundings	0
2132786423	Ecology	Field of study in biology that comes from the Greek work 'oikos'	1
2132789676	Ecosystem	All of the biotic and abiotic things in a specific area and their interactions.	2
2132796496	Biotic	Living	3
2132797493	Abiotic	Never living or non-living	4
2132798938	Biosphere	The area of the Earth that contains life	5
2132800976	Biome	Very large ecological areas on the earth's surface, with fauna and flora (animals and plants) adapting to their environment.	6
2132809188	Habitat	The organism's home containing food, water and shelter	7
2132811402	Niche	An organism's job in an ecosystem. No two organisms have exactly the same job.	8
2132813705	Food Web	A series of food chains showing the interactions of organisms of different trophic levels.	9
2132819146	Food Chain	A linear example of how energy and matter move through different trophic levels of an ecosystem.	10
2132824352	Heterotroph	An organism that needs to consume food - consumers.	11
2132826240	Autotroph	An organism that makes it's own food - producers.	12
2132830212	Trophic Level	The feeding level of an organism	13
2132830860	Energy pyramid	A model to show the relationships between producers and consumers as energy moves through an ecosystem.	14
2132836372	Herbivore	Plant eater - consumer	15
2132837226	Carnivore	Meat eater - consumer	16
2132837903	Omnivore	Eats both plants and animals - consumer	17
2132841910	Scavenger	Feed on recently deceased organisms	18
2132845891	Decomposer	Feed on dead organisms by breaking them down into nutrients - consumer (Bacteria and Fungi)	19
2132848386	Consumer	Feeds on other organisms - heterotroph	20
2132851425	Producer	Makes own food through photosynthesis or chemosynthesis - autotroph	21
2132854173	Specialist	Has specific requirements for food and habitat.	22
2132857150	Generalist	Not choosy about what it eats or where it lives.	23
2132859173	Photosynthesis	Process by which producers make food (sugars) from carbon dioxide and water	24
2132867567	Chemosynthesis	Process by which producers make food (sugars) from chemicals	25
2132875033	Snag	A standing dead tree	26
2132875978	Nurse log	A fallen tree that is decomposing and providing the nutrients for seedlings.	27
2132879577	Chicxulub	A crater in the Yucatan Penninsula from 65 million years ago	28
2132886270	Foraminifera	One-celled sea creatures that float in the ocean or live in sediments.	29
2132894670	Global Warming	A warming of the earth's atmosphere and oceans that is predicted to result from an increase in the greenhouse effect caused by air pollution	30
2132902597	Fossil Fuel	A fuel (as coal, oil, or natural gas) that is formed in the earth from plant or animal remains	31
2132904840	Greenhouse gases	A gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation, e.g., carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons.	32
2132914768	EPA	The Environmental Protection Agency which was created in 1970 for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress.	33
2132919809	Introduced species	An introduced, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its native distributional range, which has arrived there by human activity, either deliberate or accidental.	34
2132924235	Invasive species	An invasive species is a plant or animal that is not native to a specific location (an Introduced species); and has a tendency to spread, which is believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy and/or human health.	35
2132927612	Restoration	Returning something to its former condition.	36
2132934426	Controlled burning	A process used by fire ecologists to restore ecosystems.	37
2132938395	Pollution	The presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects.	38
2132939360	Pollutant	A substance that contaminates the air, ground, or water.	39
2132942536	Smog	A pollutant made up largely of ozone found at ground level. The term is a combination of the words 'fog' and 'smoke'.	40
2132949652	Acid deposition	Precipitation that is contaminants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide gases. An example would be acid rain.	41
2132954379	Pesticide	Is any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plant or animal life that are considered to be pests.	42
2132955389	Herbicide	Is any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plant life that are considered to be pests.	43
2132955390	Fungicide	Is any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of fungal life that are considered to be pests.	44
2132958103	Insecticide	Is any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of insect life that are considered to be pests.	45
2132962979	Watershed	The area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place	46
2132963915	Population	All the organisms of the same group or species, which live in the same geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding.	47
2132963916	Carrying capacity	The maximum size of a species population that the environment will support.	48
2132965157	Limiting factor	An environmental factor that tends to limit population size.	49