AP Environmental Science: Basics Flashcards

6623675545	Inorganic	Not formed from living things or the remains of living things	0
6623675546	Organic	of, relating to, or derived from living matter and Carbon-containing	1
6623675547	Natural	Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing	2
6623675548	Synthetic	Artificial	3
6623675549	Kinetic	Energy of motion	4
6623675550	Potential Energy	Stored Energy	5
6623675551	Radioactive decay	A spontaneous process in which unstable nuclei lose energy by emitting radiation	6
6623675552	Half life	the time required for something to fall to half its initial value (in particular, the time for half the atoms in a radioactive substance to disintegrate)	7
6623675553	Law of Conservation of Matter	The principle that the total amount of matter is constant during any physical or chemical change (matter is neither created nor destroyed during these types of changes).	8
6623675554	1st Law of Thermodynamics	The principle of conservation of energy. Energy can be transferred and transformed, but it cannot be created or destroyed.	9
6623675555	2nd Law of Thermodynamics	Every energy transfer or transformation increases the entropy of the universe.	10
6623675556	Entropy	A measure of disorder or randomness and a function of thermodynamic variables, as temperature, pressure, or composition, that is a measure of the energy that is not available for work during a thermodynamic process	11
6623675557	Organism	A living thing	12
6623675558	Species	Comprising related organisms that share common characteristics and are capable of interbreeding.	13
6623675559	Population	A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area	14
6623675560	Community	an interacting group of various species in a common location. For example, a forest of trees and undergrowth plants, inhabited by animals and rooted in soil containing bacteria and fungi	15
6623675561	Ecosystem	A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.	16
6623675562	Producers	Make their own food	17
6623675563	Autotrophs	any organism capable of self-nourishment by using inorganic materials as a source of nutrients and using photosynthesis or chemosynthesis as a source of energy, as most plants and certain bacteria and protists.	18
6623675564	Consumers	An organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains.	19
6623675565	Heterotrophs	An organism that obtains organic food molecules by eating other organisms or their by-products.	20
6623675566	Decomposers	Break down organic matter	21
6623675567	Photosynthesis	carbon dioxide and water --> Glucose and oxygen Conversion of light energy from the sun into chemical energy.	22
6623675568	Cellular Respiration (reactants and products)	C6H12O6 (Glucose) + 6O2--> 6CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) + 6H20 (Water) + ATP (Energy)	23
6623675569	Aerobic	Process that requires oxygen	24
6623675570	Anaerobic	Describes a process that does not require oxygen.	25
6623675571	Adaptation	A trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce	26
6623675572	Mutation	A rare change in the DNA of a gene, ultimately creating genetic diversity.	27
6623675573	Gene Trait	Represented in pairs with an upper case letter for the dominant (A) and a lower case letter for the recessive (a). Since half the genetic material is from each parent, the offspring's traits are represented as a combination of these.	28
6623675574	Chromosome	A threadlike, gene-carrying structure found in the nucleus. Each _____ consists of one very long DNA molecule and associated proteins.	29
6623675575	Gene pool	Combined genetic information of all the members of a particular population	30
6623675576	Natural Selection	A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits.	31
6623675577	Extinction	A term that typically describes a species that no longer has any known living individuals.	32
6623675578	Plate Tectonics	A theory stating that the earth's surface is broken into plates that move. Geological processes, such as continental drift, volcanoes, and earthquakes, resulting from plate movement	33
6623675579	Weathering	The breaking down of rocks and other materials on the Earth's surface.	34
6623675580	Climate Change	Change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over periods of decades	35
6623675581	Rocks	A naturally formed aggregate, or mixture, of minerals; have varied chemical compositions	36
6623675582	Minerals	A solid inorganic substance of natural occurrence.	37
6623675583	Climate	Overall weather in an area over a long period of time	38
6623675584	Weather	The condition of Earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place.	39
6623675585	CO2	carbon dioxide	40
6623675586	CO	Carbon Monoxide	41
6623675587	C6H12O6	glucose	42
6623675588	CH4	methane	43
6623675589	H2	hydrogen	44
6623675590	H2O	oxidane/water	45
6623675591	N2	nitrogen gas	46
6623675592	NOx	nitrogen oxide	47
6623675593	NO3-	nitrate	48
6623675594	NH3	ammonia	49
6623675595	O2	dioxide	50
6623675596	O3	trioxygen	51
6623675597	P	phosphorous	52
6623675598	PO4	phosphate	53
6623675599	S	sulfur	54
6623675600	SO2	sulfur dioxide	55
6623675601	CL	chloride	56
6623675602	K	potassium	57
6623675603	NaCl	sodium chloride	58
6623675604	Pb	lead	59
6623675605	Hg	mercury	60
6623675606	Rn	radon	61
6623675607	U	uranium	62
6623675608	Richter scale	A scale that rates an earthquake's magnitude based on the size of its seismic waves.	63
6623675609	Biodiversity	The amount of biological or living diversity per unit area. It includes the concepts of species diversity, habitat diversity and genetic diversity.	64
6623675610	Gene	A segment of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a specific trait	65
6623675611	Trait	A characteristic that an organism can pass on to its offspring through its genes.	66
6623675612	Transpiration	Evaporation of water from the leaves of a plant	67
6623675613	Fermentation	A catabolic process that makes a limited amount of ATP from glucose without an electron transport chain and that produces a characteristic end product, such as ethyl alcohol or lactic acid. Process by which cells release energy in the absence of oxygen	68
6623675614	Chemosynthesis	Process by which some organisms, such as certain bacteria, use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates	69