AP Environmental Science: Basics Flashcards

5664112850	Inorganic	Not formed from living things or the remains of living things	0
5664112851	Organic	of, relating to, or derived from living matter and Carbon-containing	1
5664112852	Natural	Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing	2
5664112853	Synthetic	Artificial	3
5664112854	Kinetic	Energy of motion	4
5664112855	Potential Energy	Stored Energy	5
5664112856	Radioactive decay	A spontaneous process in which unstable nuclei lose energy by emitting radiation	6
5664112857	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
5664112858	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
5664112859	1st Law of Thermodynamics	The principle of conservation of energy. Energy can be transferred and transformed, but it cannot be created or destroyed.	9
5664112860	2nd Law of Thermodynamics	Every energy transfer or transformation increases the entropy of the universe.	10
5664112861	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
5664112862	Organism	A living thing	12
5664112863	Species	Comprising related organisms that share common characteristics and are capable of interbreeding.	13
5664112864	Population	A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area	14
5664112865	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
5664112866	Ecosystem	A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.	16
5664112867	Producers	Make their own food	17
5664112868	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
5664112869	Consumers	An organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains.	19
5664112870	Heterotrophs	An organism that obtains organic food molecules by eating other organisms or their by-products.	20
5664112871	Decomposers	Break down organic matter	21
5664112872	Photosynthesis	carbon dioxide and water --> Glucose and oxygen Conversion of light energy from the sun into chemical energy.	22
5664112873	Cellular Respiration (reactants and products)	C6H12O6 (Glucose) + 6O2--> 6CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) + 6H20 (Water) + ATP (Energy)	23
5664112874	Aerobic	Process that requires oxygen	24
5664112875	Anaerobic	Describes a process that does not require oxygen.	25
5664112876	Adaptation	A trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce	26
5664112877	Mutation	A rare change in the DNA of a gene, ultimately creating genetic diversity.	27
5664112878	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
5664112879	Chromosome	A threadlike, gene-carrying structure found in the nucleus. Each _____ consists of one very long DNA molecule and associated proteins.	29
5664112880	Gene pool	Combined genetic information of all the members of a particular population	30
5664112881	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
5664112882	Extinction	A term that typically describes a species that no longer has any known living individuals.	32
5664112883	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
5664112884	Weathering	The breaking down of rocks and other materials on the Earth's surface.	34
5664112885	Climate Change	Change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over periods of decades	35
5664112886	Rocks	A naturally formed aggregate, or mixture, of minerals; have varied chemical compositions	36
5664112887	Minerals	A solid inorganic substance of natural occurrence.	37
5664112888	Climate	Overall weather in an area over a long period of time	38
5664112889	Weather	The condition of Earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place.	39
5664112890	CO2	carbon dioxide	40
5664112891	CO	Carbon Monoxide	41
5664112892	C6H12O6	glucose	42
5664112893	CH4	methane	43
5664112894	H2	hydrogen	44
5664112895	H2O	oxidane/water	45
5664112896	N2	nitrogen gas	46
5664112897	NOx	nitrogen oxide	47
5664112898	NO3-	nitrate	48
5664112899	NH3	ammonia	49
5664112900	O2	dioxide	50
5664112901	O3	trioxygen	51
5664112902	P	phosphorous	52
5664112903	PO4	phosphate	53
5664112904	S	sulfur	54
5664112905	SO2	sulfur dioxide	55
5664112906	CL	chloride	56
5664112907	K	potassium	57
5664112908	NaCl	sodium chloride	58
5664112909	Pb	lead	59
5664112910	Hg	mercury	60
5664112911	Rn	radon	61
5664112912	U	uranium	62
5664112913	Richter scale	A scale that rates an earthquake's magnitude based on the size of its seismic waves.	63
5664112914	Biodiversity	The amount of biological or living diversity per unit area. It includes the concepts of species diversity, habitat diversity and genetic diversity.	64
5664112915	Gene	A segment of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a specific trait	65
5664112916	Trait	A characteristic that an organism can pass on to its offspring through its genes.	66
5664112917	Transpiration	Evaporation of water from the leaves of a plant	67
5664112918	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
5664112919	Chemosynthesis	Process by which some organisms, such as certain bacteria, use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates	69