AP Environmental Science: Basics Flashcards

9877635118	Inorganic	Not formed from living things or the remains of living things	0
9877635119	Organic	of, relating to, or derived from living matter and Carbon-containing	1
9877635120	Natural	Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing	2
9877635121	Synthetic	Artificial	3
9877635122	Kinetic	Energy of motion	4
9877635123	Potential Energy	Stored Energy	5
9877635124	Radioactive decay	A spontaneous process in which unstable nuclei lose energy by emitting radiation	6
9877635125	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
9877635126	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
9877635127	1st Law of Thermodynamics	The principle of conservation of energy. Energy can be transferred and transformed, but it cannot be created or destroyed.	9
9877635128	2nd Law of Thermodynamics	Every energy transfer or transformation increases the entropy of the universe.	10
9877635129	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
9877635130	Organism	A living thing	12
9877635131	Species	Comprising related organisms that share common characteristics and are capable of interbreeding.	13
9877635132	Population	A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area	14
9877635133	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
9877635134	Ecosystem	A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.	16
9877635135	Producers	Make their own food	17
9877635136	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
9877635137	Consumers	An organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains.	19
9877635138	Heterotrophs	An organism that obtains organic food molecules by eating other organisms or their by-products.	20
9877635139	Decomposers	Break down organic matter	21
9877635140	Photosynthesis	carbon dioxide and water --> Glucose and oxygen Conversion of light energy from the sun into chemical energy.	22
9877635141	Cellular Respiration (reactants and products)	C6H12O6 (Glucose) + 6O2--> 6CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) + 6H20 (Water) + ATP (Energy)	23
9877635142	Aerobic	Process that requires oxygen	24
9877635143	Anaerobic	Describes a process that does not require oxygen.	25
9877635144	Adaptation	A trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce	26
9877635145	Mutation	A rare change in the DNA of a gene, ultimately creating genetic diversity.	27
9877635146	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
9877635147	Chromosome	A threadlike, gene-carrying structure found in the nucleus. Each _____ consists of one very long DNA molecule and associated proteins.	29
9877635148	Gene pool	Combined genetic information of all the members of a particular population	30
9877635149	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
9877635150	Extinction	A term that typically describes a species that no longer has any known living individuals.	32
9877635151	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
9877635152	Weathering	The breaking down of rocks and other materials on the Earth's surface.	34
9877635153	Climate Change	Change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over periods of decades	35
9877635154	Rocks	A naturally formed aggregate, or mixture, of minerals; have varied chemical compositions	36
9877635155	Minerals	A solid inorganic substance of natural occurrence.	37
9877635156	Climate	Overall weather in an area over a long period of time	38
9877635157	Weather	The condition of Earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place.	39
9877635158	CO2	carbon dioxide	40
9877635159	CO	Carbon Monoxide	41
9877635160	C6H12O6	glucose	42
9877635161	CH4	methane	43
9877635162	H2	hydrogen	44
9877635163	H2O	oxidane/water	45
9877635164	N2	nitrogen gas	46
9877635165	NOx	nitrogen oxide	47
9877635166	NO3-	nitrate	48
9877635167	NH3	ammonia	49
9877635168	O2	dioxide	50
9877635169	O3	trioxygen	51
9877635170	P	phosphorous	52
9877635171	PO4	phosphate	53
9877635172	S	sulfur	54
9877635173	SO2	sulfur dioxide	55
9877635174	CL	chloride	56
9877635175	K	potassium	57
9877635176	NaCl	sodium chloride	58
9877635177	Pb	lead	59
9877635178	Hg	mercury	60
9877635179	Rn	radon	61
9877635180	U	uranium	62
9877635181	Richter scale	A scale that rates an earthquake's magnitude based on the size of its seismic waves.	63
9877635182	Biodiversity	The amount of biological or living diversity per unit area. It includes the concepts of species diversity, habitat diversity and genetic diversity.	64
9877635183	Gene	A segment of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a specific trait	65
9877635184	Trait	A characteristic that an organism can pass on to its offspring through its genes.	66
9877635185	Transpiration	Evaporation of water from the leaves of a plant	67