AP Environmental Science Prerequisite Flashcards

4791953716	Inorganic	Not formed from living things or the remains of living things	0
4791953717	Organic	of, relating to, or derived from living matter and Carbon-containing	1
4791953718	Natural	Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing	2
4791953719	Synthetic	Artificial	3
4791953720	Kinetic	Energy of motion	4
4791953721	Potential Energy	Stored Energy	5
4791953722	Radioactive decay	A spontaneous process in which unstable nuclei lose energy by emitting radiation	6
4791953723	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
4791953724	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
4791953725	1st Law of Thermodynamics	The principle of conservation of energy. Energy can be transferred and transformed, but it cannot be created or destroyed.	9
4791953726	2nd Law of Thermodynamics	Every energy transfer or transformation increases the entropy of the universe.	10
4791953727	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
4791953728	Organism	A living thing	12
4791953729	Species	Comprising related organisms that share common characteristics and are capable of interbreeding.	13
4791953730	Population	A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area	14
4791953731	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
4791953732	Ecosystem	A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.	16
4791953733	Producers	Make their own food	17
4791953734	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
4791953735	Consumers	An organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains.	19
4791953736	Heterotrophs	An organism that obtains organic food molecules by eating other organisms or their by-products.	20
4791953737	Decomposers	Break down organic matter	21
4791953738	Photosynthesis	carbon dioxide and water --> Glucose and oxygen Conversion of light energy from the sun into chemical energy.	22
4791953739	Cellular Respiration (reactants and products)	C6H12O6 (Glucose) + 6O2--> 6CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) + 6H20 (Water) + ATP (Energy)	23
4791953740	Aerobic	Process that requires oxygen	24
4791953741	Anaerobic	Describes a process that does not require oxygen.	25
4791953742	Adaptation	A trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce	26
4791953743	Mutation	A rare change in the DNA of a gene, ultimately creating genetic diversity.	27
4791953744	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
4791953745	Chromosome	A threadlike, gene-carrying structure found in the nucleus. Each _____ consists of one very long DNA molecule and associated proteins.	29
4791953746	Gene pool	Combined genetic information of all the members of a particular population	30
4791953747	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
4791953748	Extinction	A term that typically describes a species that no longer has any known living individuals.	32
4791953749	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
4791953750	Weathering	The breaking down of rocks and other materials on the Earth's surface.	34
4791953751	Climate Change	Change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over periods of decades	35
4791953752	Rocks	A naturally formed aggregate, or mixture, of minerals; have varied chemical compositions	36
4791953753	Minerals	A solid inorganic substance of natural occurrence.	37
4791953754	Climate	Overall weather in an area over a long period of time	38
4791953755	Weather	The condition of Earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place.	39
4791953756	CO2	carbon dioxide	40
4791953757	CO	Carbon Monoxide	41
4791953758	C6H12O6	glucose	42
4791953759	CH4	methane	43
4791953760	H2	hydrogen	44
4791953761	H2O	oxidane/water	45
4791953762	N2	nitrogen gas	46
4791953763	NOx	nitrogen oxide	47
4791953764	NO3-	nitrate	48
4791953765	NH3	ammonia	49
4791953766	O2	dioxide	50
4791953767	O3	trioxygen	51
4791953768	P	phosphorous	52
4791953769	PO4	phosphate	53
4791953770	S	sulfur	54
4791953771	SO2	sulfur dioxide	55
4791953772	CL	chloride	56
4791953773	K	potassium	57
4791953774	NaCl	sodium chloride	58
4791953775	Pb	lead	59
4791953776	Hg	mercury	60
4791953777	Rn	radon	61
4791953778	U	uranium	62
4791974296	richter scale	A scale that rates an earthquake's magnitude based on the size of its seismic waves.	63
4791975446	biodiversity	The amount of biological or living diversity per unit area. It includes the concepts of species diversity, habitat diversity and genetic diversity.	64
4791976888	gene	A segment of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a specific trait	65
4791976889	trait	A characteristic that an organism can pass on to its offspring through its genes.	66
4791977789	transpiration	Evaporation of water from the leaves of a plant	67
4791978446	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
4791980408	chemosynthesis	Process by which some organisms, such as certain bacteria, use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates	69