APES Flashcards

8087043028	Freshwater	water that is relatively pure, holding only a few dissolved salts	0
8087044263	Floodplain	the region of land over which a river has historically wandered and periodically floods	1
8087045749	wetlands	a system that combines elements of freshwater adn dry land. These are biologically productive systems.	2
8087049778	groundwater	water held in aquifers underground	3
8087052133	aquifers	a body of permeable rock that can contain or transmit groundwater	4
8087054296	water table	the upper limit of ground water held in an aquifer	5
8087055888	artesian aquifer	a water-bearing, porous layer of rock, sand or gravel that is trapped between an upper and lower layer of less permeable substrate.	6
8087057548	unconfined aquifer	a water-bearing, porous layer of rock, sand, or gravel that lies atop a less-permeable substrate.	7
8087280565	Consumptive Use	Freshwater use in which water is removed from a particular aquifer or surface water body and is not returned to it.	8
8087285258	Nonconsumptive use	Freshwater use in which the water from a particular aquifer or surface water body either is not removed or is removed only temporarily and then returned.	9
8087290661	Dam	any obstruction placed in a river or stream to block the flow of water so that water can be stored in a reservoir	10
8087291718	Sinkhole		11
8087291719	Desalination	removal of salt from sea water	12
8087292875	Point Source	a specific spot- such as factory smoke stacks- where large quantities of pollutants are discharged	13
8087292876	Non-point source	A diffuse source of pollutants, often consisting of many small sources	14
8087292877	Waste water	any water that is used in households, businesses, industries, or public facilities and is drained or flushed down pipes, as well as the polluted runoff from streets and storm drains.	15
8087294111	Septic System	a wastewater disposal method, common in rural areas, consisting of an underground tank and series of drain pipes.	16
8087294112	Primary Treatment	a stage of wastewater treatment in which contaminants are physically removed. Wastewater flows into tanks in which sewage solids, grit, and particulate matter settle to the bottom. Greases and oils float to the surface and can be skimmed off.	17
8087295791	Secondary Treatment	a stage of wastewater treatment in which biological means are used to remove contaminants remaining.	18
8126570342	Affluenza	term coined by social critics to describe the failutre of material goods to bring happiness to people who have the financial means to afford them.	19
8126574045	allopatric speciation	species formation due to physical separation of populations over some geographic distance	20
8126575894	alpine tundra	occurs at the top of mountains	21
8126577800	anthropocentrism	a human centers view of our relationship with the environment	22
8126579564	artificial selection	natural selection conducted under human direction	23
8126581569	autotroph	an organism that can use the energy from sunlight to produce its own food.	24
8126583401	bedrock	the continuous mass of solid rock that makes up the Earth's crust	25
8126585104	benthic	(or relating to) living on the bottom of a body of water	26
8126588159	biodiversity	the sum total of all organisms in an area, taking into account the diversity of species, their genes, their populations, and communities	27
8126590683	biodiversity hotspot	an area that supports an especially great diversity of species, particularly species that are endemic to the area	28
8126593922	biological weathering	weathering that occurs when living things break down parent material by physical or chemical means	29
8126595327	biomass	organic material that makes up living organisms	30
8126596461	biome	a major regional complex of similar plant communities, defined based on climate.	31
8126601923	biotic potential	an organisms capacity to produce offspring	32
8126602474	carbon footprint	the cumulative amount of carbon that a person or institution emits	33
8126608701	carnivore	an organism that consumes animals	34
8126611450	carrying capacity	the maximum population size than an environment can sustain	35
8126613650	chaparral	a biome consisting of mostly densely thicketed evergreen shrubs occurring in limited small patches- mediterranean. mild, wet winters with warm, dry summers.	36
8184281765	chemical weathering	weathering that results when water or other substances chemically interact with parent material	37
8184298499	Chloroplast	a cell organelle containing chlorophyll in which photosynthesis occurs	38
8184309386	Clear-cutting	the harvesting of timber by cutting all the trees in an area leaving only stumps.	39
8184336460	climate	the pattern of atmospheric conditiona found across large geographic regions over long periods of time.	40
8184348154	climatograph	a visual representation of a region's average monthly temperature and precipitation	41
8184354141	climax community	in the traditional view of ecological succession, a community that remains in place with little modification until disturbance restarts the successional process.	42
8184365015	clumped distribution	distribution pattern in which organisms arrange themselves in patches, generally according to the availability of the resources they need	43
8184405297	coevolution	a process by which two or more species evolve in response to one another	44
8184425850	command and control	an approach to protecting the environment that sets strict legal limitation and threatens punishment for violations of those limits.	45
8184440094	commensalism	a relationship between members of different species in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected	46
8184450890	community	an assemblage of populations of organisms that live in the same place at the same time	47
8184459066	competition	a relationship in which multiple organisms seek the same limited resource	48
8184466995	competitive exclusion	an outcome of interspecific competition in which one species excludes another species from resource use entirely	49
8184478163	conservation biology	a scientific discipline devoted to understanding the factors, forcesm and processes that influence the loss, protection, and restoration of biological diversity within and among ecosystems	50
8184511174	control	the portion of an experiment in which a variable has been left unmanipulated, to serve as a point of comparison with the treatment.	51
8184538195	CITES	A 1973 treaty facilitated by the United Nations that protects endagered species by banning the international transport of their body parts.	52
8184549886	convergent plate boundary	area where tectonic plates collide- can result in subduction or mountain range formation	53
8184576008	deciduous	term describing trees that lose their leaves each fall and remain dormant during winter, when hard freezes would endanger leaves	54
8184584644	decomposer	an organism, such as a fungus or bacterium, that breaks down leaf litter and other nonliving matter into simple constituent that can be taken up by plants	55
8184598285	deforestation	the clearing and loss of forests	56
8184706789	demand	the amount of a product people will buy at a given price if free to do so	57
8184717520	denitrifying bacteria	bacteria that convert the nitrates in soil of water to gaseous nitrogen and release it back to the atmosphere	58
8184766100	density-dependent factor	a limiting factor whose effects on a population increase or decrease depending on the population density	59
8184775859	density-independent factor	a limiting factor whose effects on a population are constant regardless of population density	60
8184790210	dependent variable	the variable that is affected by manipulation of the independent variable	61
8184797650	desert	the driest biome on Earth, with annual precipitation of less than 25 cm.	62
8184826396	dynamic equilibrium	the state reached when processes within a system are moving in opposing directions at equivalent rates so that their effects balance out.	63
8188418827	ecosystem	all organisms and nonliving entities that occur and interact in a particular area at the same time	64
8188447294	ecosystem diversity	the number and variety of ecosystems in a particular area.	65
8188452525	ecosystem service	an essential service an ecosystem provides that supports life and makes economic activity possible	66
8188459780	ecotone	a transitional zone where ecosystems meet	67
8188462708	ecotourism	visitation of natural areas for tourism and recreation. Most often involves tourism by more-affluent people, which may generate economic benefits for less affluent communities near natural areas and thus provide economic incentives for conservation of natural areas.	68
8188500207	emigration	the departure of individuals in a population	69
8188500208	Endangered Species Act	the primary legislation, enacted in 1973, for protecting biodiversity in the United States. It forbids the government and private citizens from taking actions that would destroy endangered species or their habitats and it prohibits trade in products made from endangered species.	70
8188508293	Endemic	native or restricted to a particular geographic region, occuring in one area and nowhere else on Earth	71
8188515554	Entropy	the degree of disorder in a substance, systemm or process	72
8188515555	Environment	the sum total of our surroundings, including all of the living things and nonliving things with which we interact.	73
8188519684	Environmental Impact Statement	a report of results from detailed studies that assess the potential effects on the environment that would likely result from development projects or other actions undertaken by the government	74
8188525431	Environmental Protection Agency	An administrative agency created by executive order in 1979, charged with conducting and evaluating research, monitoring environmental quality, setting standards, enforcing those standards, assisting the states in meeting standards and goals, and educating the public.	75
8188535726	Erosion	the removal of material from one place and its transportation to another by the action of wind or water	76
8188544494	evolution	genetically based change in the appearance, functioning, and/or behavior of organisms across generations, often by the process of natural selection	77
8188556956	Exotic species	non-native to an area	78
8188561021	exponential growth	the increase of a population (or of anything) by a fixed percentage each year	79
8188566477	extinction	the disappearance of an entire species from the face of the earth	80
8188571636	extirpation	the disappearance of a particular population from a given area, but not the entire species globally	81
8188580165	factory fishing	a highly industrialized approach to commercial fishing	82
8188585490	feedback loop	a circular process in which a systems output serves as input to that same system.	83
8237461031	Currents	the flow of a liquid in a certain direction	84
8237462537	Upwelling	In the ocean, the flow of cold, deep water toward the surface	85
8237464420	Downwelling	in the ocean, the flow of warm surface water toward the ocean floor	86
8237471014	Continental Shelf	the gently slopping underwater edge of a continent	87
8237474598	Photic zone	in the ocean of freshwater body, the well lit top layer of water where photosynthesis occurs.	88
8237474599	Pelagic	of, or relating to, living between the surface and floor of the ocean.	89
8237474600	Benthic	of, relating to, or living on the bottom of a water body.	90
8237475690	Coral Reef	A mass of calcium carbonate composed of the skeletons of tiny colonial marine organisms.	91
8237475702	Intertidal	of, relating to, or living along shorelines between the highest reach of the highest tide and the towest reach of the lowest tide.	92
8237477169	Littoral	the region ringing the edge of water body.	93
8237477170	Tide	the periodic rise and fall of the ocean's height at a given location, caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun.	94
8237477171	Salt Marshes	flat land that is intermittently flooded by ocean where the tide reaches inland. occur along temperate coastlines that are thickly vegetated with grasses, shrubs, and other herbaceous plants.	95
8237478272	Mangroves	a tree with a unique type of roots that curve upward to obtain oxygen, which is lacking in the mud in which they grow, and that serve as stilts to support the tree in changing water levels. Mangrove forests grow on the coastlines of the tropics and subtropics	96
8237478273	Estuaries	An area where a river flows into the ocean, mixing freshwater with salt water.	97
8237478274	Methane Hydrate	an ice-like solid consisting of molecules of methane embedded in a crystal lattice of water molecules. These are being investigated as a potential new source of energy from fossil fuels.	98
8237479910	Red tide	A harmful algal bloom consisting of algae that produce reddish pigments that discolor surface waters.	99
8237479911	By-catch	that portion of commercial fishing consisting of animals caught unintentionally.	100
8237482142	Marine Protected Areas	An area of ocean set aside to protect marine life from fishing pressures. This area may be protected from some human activities but be open to others.	101
8237484277	Marine Reserves	An area of the ocean designated as a "no-fishing" zone, allow no extra activities.	102
8370993440	Troposphere	the bottom most layer of the atmosphere	103
8411872176	Stratosphere	the layer of the atmosphere above the troposphere and below the mesosphere	104
8411876684	Ozone Layer	a portion of the stratosphere, responsible for absorbing UV rays	105
8411885562	Atmospheric Pressure	the weight per unit area produced by a column of air.	106
8411891988	Relative Humidity	the ratio of water vapor contained in a given volume of air to the maximum amount the air could contain, for a given temperature	107
8411897537	Conductive Circulation	a circular current driven by temperature differences. In the atmosphere warm air rises into regions of lower atmospheric pressure, where it expands and cools and then descends and becomes denser, replacing warm air that is rising. the air picks up heat nad moisture near ground level and prepares to rise again, continuing the process.	108
8411932077	weather	the local physical properties of the troposphere such as temperature, pressure, humidity, cloudinessm and wind over a relatively short time period	109
8411940608	Warm front	the boundary where a mass of warm air displaces a mass of colder air	110
8411951779	Cold front	the boundary where a mass of cold air displaces a mass of warmer air	111
8411959176	high pressure system	an air mass with elevated atmospheric pressure contianing air that descents, typically bringin fair waeather	112
8411967314	low pressure system	an air mass in which the air moves toward the low atmospheric pressure at the center of the stustem and spirals upward typically bringin clouds and precipitation	113
8411978427	Inversion layer	in a temperature inversion, the band of air in which temperature rises with altitude	114
8411982724	Hadley Cells	one pair of cells of convection circulation between the equator and 30 degrees north and south latitude that influence global climate patterns	115
8412006904	Ferrel Cells	one pair of cells of convection circulation between 30 degrees and 60 degrees noth and south latitude that influence global climate patterns	116
8412014525	Polar Cells	one pair of cells of convection circulation between the poles and 60 degrees north and south latitude that influence global climate patterns.	117
8427925651	Coriolis Effect	the apparent deflection of north-south air currents to a partly east-west direction, caused by the faster spin of regions near the equator than of regions near the poles as a result of Earth's rotations	118
8427939231	Air pollution	the act of polluting the air, of the condition of being polluted by air pollutants	119
8427945600	Outdoor air pollution	air pollution that occurs outdoors	120
8427947208	Indoor air pollution	air pollution that occurs indoors	121
8427953337	Aerosols	very fine liquid droplets or solid particles alotft in the atmosphere	122
8427966291	Primary Pollutants	a hazardous substance, such as soot or carbon monoxide, that is emitted into the troposphere in a form that is directly harmful	123
8427980774	Secondary Pollutants	a hazardous substance produced through the reaction of substances added to the atmosphere with chemnicals normally found in the atmosphere.	124
8427992269	Clean Air Act of 1970	revision of prior congressional legislation that stengthened regulations pertaining to air qualitiy standards, imposed limits on emissions from new stationary and mobile sources, provided funds for pollution control research and enabled citizens to sue parties violating the standards.	125
8472802194	Clean Air Act of 1990	Congressional legislation that stengthened regulations pertaining to air quality standards, auto emissions, toxic air pollution, acific deposition, and depletion of the ozone layer, while introducing marke-based incentives to reduce pollution	126
8472808895	carbon monoxide	a colorless, odorlessgas oriduced orimarily by the incomplete combustion of fuel.	127
8472815266	Sulfur dioxide	a colorless, odorless gas resulting in part from the combustion of coal. In the atmospheer, it may react to form sulfuiric acid, which may return to Earth in acidic deposition	128
8472819332	Nitrogen dioxide	a foul smelling reddish brown gas that contributes to smog and acid deposition. It results when atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen react at the high tempertures created by combustion engines.	129
8472826574	Tropospheric Ozone	ozone that occurs in the troposphere, where it is a secondary pollutant created by the interaction of sunlight, heat, nitrogen oxides and VOC chemicals It can injure living tissues and cause respiratory problems.	130
8472832833	particulate matter	solid or liquid particles small enough to be suspended in the atmosphere and able to damage respiratory tissues when inhaled. examples include dust and soot as well as some secondary pollutants such as sulfates and nitrates.	131
8472837669	Lead	a heavy metal that may be ingested through water or paint, of that, may enter the atmosphere as a particulate pollutant through combustion of leaded gasoline or other processes. Atmospheric lead deposited on land and water can enter the food chain, accumulate within body tissues, and cause lead poisoning in animals and people.	132
8472847920	Volatile Organic Compound	one of a large group of potentially harmful organic chemicals used in industrial processes.	133
8472855810	Scrubbers	technology to chemically treat gases produced in combustion to remove hazardous components and neutralize acidic gases such as sulfur dioxide and hydrochloric acid, turning them into water and salt, in order to reduce smokestack emissions	134
8472863639	Toxic Air Pollutant	air pollutant that is known to cause cancer, reproductive defects, or neurological, developmental, immune system, or respiratory problems in humans, and/or to cause substantial ecological harm by affecting the health of nonhuman animals and plants	135
8472869975	Industrial Smog	gray air smog caused by the incomplete combustion of coal or oil when burned.	136
8472873238	Photochemical Smog	Brown-air smog caused by light driven reactions of primary pollutants with normal atmospheric compounds that produce a mix of over 100 different chemicals, ground-level ozone often being the most abundant among them	137
8472881691	Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)	One of a group of human-made organic compounds derived from simple hydrocarbons, such as ethane and methane, that are responsible for the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer.	138
8472886538	Montreal Protocol	International Treaty in which 180 signatory nations agreed to restrict production CFCs in order to forestall stratospheric ozone depletion. Because of its effectiveness in decreasing global CFC emission, it is considered the most successful effort to date in addressing a global environmental problem.	139
8472898448	Acidic Deposition	the settling of acidic or acid-forming pollutants from the atmosphere onto Earth's surface. This can take place by precipitation, fog, gases, or the deposition of dry particles	140
8472903875	Atmospheric deposition	the wet or dry deposotion on land of a wide variety of pollutants, including mercury, nitrates, organochlorines, and others	141
8472907829	Indoor Air Pollutant	Pollution that occurs indoors	142
8475689429	Global Climate Change	Any change in aspects of Earth's climate, such as temperature, precipitation, and storm intensity	143
8475716448	Global Warming	An increase in Earth's average surface temperature. The term is most frequently used in reference to the pronounced warming trend of recent years and decades.	144
8475732823	Greenhouse gas	a gas that absorbs infrared radiation released by Earth's surface and then warms the surface and troposphere by emitted energy, thus giving rise to the greenhouse effect. Examples include carbon dioxide, water vapor, ozone, nitrous oxide, halocarbon gases and methane.	145
8475784498	Radiative Forcing	the amount of change in energy that a given factor (such as aerosols, albedo, or greenhouse gases) exerts over Earth's energy balance. Positive radiative forcing warms the surface, whereas negative radiative forcing cools it.	146
8478145132	Milankovitch Cycles	One of three types of variations in Earth's rotation and orbit around the sun that result in slight changes in the relative amount of solar radiation reaching Earth's surface at different latitudes.	147
8478174883	El Nino	the exceptionally strong warming of the easter Pacific Ocean that occurs every 2 to 7 years and depresses local fish and bird populations by altering the marine food web in the area.	148
8478194980	El Nino- Southern Oscillation (ENSO)	A systematic shift in atmospheric pressure, sea-surface temperatrue, and ocean circulation in the tropical Pacific Ocean	149
8478199357	la Nina	An exceptionally strong cooling of surface water in the equatorial Pacific Ocean that occurs every 2 to 7 years and has widespread climatic consequences	150
8478215621	thermohaline circulation	a worldwide system of ocean currents in which warmer, fresher water moves along the surface and colder, saltier water (which is more dense) moves deep beneath the surface.	151
8478224904	Proxy indicator	a type of indirect evidence that serves as a proxy for substitute for direct measurement, and that sheds light on conditions of the past.	152
8478232795	Kyoto Protocol	An agreement draft in 1997 that calls for reducing emissions of six greenhouse gases to levels lowers. US did not sign in agreement.	153
8478247030	Carbon offset	a voluntary payment to another entity intended to enable that entity to reduce the greenhouse gas emission that one is unable or unwilling to reduce oneself.	154
8478253579	Carbon footprint	the cumulative amount of carvon, or carbon dioxide, that a person or institution emits, and is indirectly responsible for emiting into the atmosphere contributing to global climate change.	155