Notecards for Chapter 1-8
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MacDaddyGil76 on October 28, 2010
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150 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Natural Selection | process by which individuals that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully; also called survival of the fittest |
| Adaptation | the process of adapting to something (such as environmental conditions) |
| Mutations | Random errors in gene replication that lead to a change in the sequence of nucleotides; the source of all genetic diversity |
| Artificial Selection | selection by humans for breeding of useful traits from the natural variation among different organisms |
| Biodiversity | the diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat (or in the world as a whole) |
| Population | a group of organisms of the same species populating a given area |
| Speciation | the formation of new species as a result of evolution |
| Extinction | no longer in existence |
| Mass Extinction event | the elimination of a large proportion of the world's species in a very short time period due to some extreme and rapid change or catastrophic event |
| Biosphere | part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere |
| Ecosystem | collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place, together with their nonliving environment |
| Communities | assemblages of different populations that live together in a defined area |
| Habitat | Place where an Organism lives |
| Population Density | number of individuals per unit area |
| Population Diversity | the number of individuals that live in a given area |
| Sex ratio | The number of males per females in the population. |
| Survivorship curves | They show the likelihood of survival at different ages throughout the lifetime of the organism. |
| Immigration | migration into a place (especially migration to a country of which you are not a native in order to settle there) |
| Emigration | migration from a place (especially migration from your native country in order to settle in another) |
| Exponential Growth | occurs when the individuals in a population reproduce at a constant rate |
| Limiting factors | any biotic or abiotic factor that restricts the existence, numbers, reproduction, or distribution of organisms |
| Carrying capacity | largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support |
| Logistic growth curve | phase A is exponental growth, Phase B is when population reaches carrying capacity and stops increasing rapidly |
| R Selected | term denoting a species with high biotic potential whose members produce a large number of offspring in a relatively short time but do not care for their young after birth |
| K Selected | organisms that reproduce later in life, produce fewer offspring and devote significant time and energy to the nurturing of their offspring |
| Ecotourism | a form of tourism that supports the conservation and sustainable development of ecologically unique areas |
| Competition | the act of competing as for profit or a prize |
| Predation | the act of preying by a predator who kills and eats the prey |
| Parasitism | the relation between two different kinds of organisms in which one receives benefits from the other by causing damage to it (usually not fatal damage) |
| Herbivory | An interaction in which an herbivore eats parts of a plant or alga |
| Mutualism | symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the relationship |
| Fundamental Niche | the full range of conditions that a species can tolerate and resources it can use |
| Realized Niche | the part of its fundamental niche that a species actually occupies |
| Trophic Level | step in the movement of energy through an ecosystem; an organism's feeding status in an ecosystem. |
| Producers | organisms that make their own food |
| Consumers | an organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains. |
| Decomposers | organisms that break down wastes and dead organisms and return raw materials to the environment |
| Food web | (ecology) a community of organisms where there are several interrelated food chains |
| Keystone Species | a species whose impact on its community or ecosystem are much larger and more influential than would be expected from mere abundance |
| Primary Succession | succession that occurs on surfaces where no soil exists |
| Secondary Succession | succession on a site where an existing community has been disrupted |
| Pioneer species | first species to populate an area during primary succession |
| Invasive species | plants and animals that have migrated to places where they are not native |
| Ecological Restoration | Deliberate alteration of a degraded habitat or ecosystem to restore as much of its ecological structure and function as possible. |
| Climatograph | shows profiles of precipitation and temperature for various biomes |
| Hypoxia | lack of oxygen |
| Positive feedback loops | Amplify deviation or change and serve to disrupt the system's steady state. |
| Negative feedback loops | Reduce deviation & help a system to maintain its status quo |
| Equilibrium | equality of distribution |
| Eutrophication | process by which a body of water becomes too rich in dissolved nutrients, leading to plant growth that depletes oxygen |
| Atmosphere | the mass of air surrounding the Earth |
| Lithosphere | the solid part of the earth consisting of the crust and outer mantle |
| Hydrosphere | the watery layer of the earth's surface |
| Gross Primary Production | The total primary production of an ecosystem. |
| Net Primary Production | (NPP) the gross primary production of an ecosystem minus the energy used by the producers for respiration |
| Nutrients | all the chemical substances that an organism needs to sustain life |
| Geographic information system (GIS) | a computer system that can capture, store, query, analyze, and display geographic data |
| Nutrient Cycle | Continuous flow of nutrients into and out of stores in the ecosystem; balanced, unless disturbed by human activity |
| Biogeochemical cycle | process in which elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another |
| Carbon cycle | the organic circulation of carbon from the atmosphere into organisms and back again |
| Phosphorus cycle | The movement of phosphorus atoms from rocks through the biosphere and hydrosphere and back to rocks. |
| Nitrogen cycle | the circulation of nitrogen, the circulation and reutilization of nitrogen in both inorganic and organic places., the cycle in which nitrogen gas is changed into forms of nitrogen that plants can use |
| Nitrogen fixation | the assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen by soil bacteria and its release for plant use on the death of the bacteria |
| Nitrification | process by which certain bacteria convert ammonium to nitrates |
| Denitrification | conversion of nitrates into nitrogen gas |
| Hydrologic Cycle | the natural process by which water is purified and made fresh through evaporation and precipitation. The cycle provides all the fresh water available for biological life. |
| Groundwater | water that fills the cracks and spaces in underground soil and rock layers |
| Aquifer | underground bed or layer yielding ground water for wells and springs etc |
| Water table | underground surface below which the ground is wholly saturated with water |
| Transpiration | the emission of water vapor from the leaves of plants |
| Rock Cycle | sequence of events in which rocks are formed, destroyed, altered, and reformed by geological processes |
| Igneous Rock | rock formed by the solidification of molten magma |
| Sedimentary Rock | rock formed from consolidated clay sediments |
| Metamorphic Rock | rock altered by pressure and heat |
| Plate tectonics | the theory that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle |
| Crust | the outer layer of the Earth |
| Mantle | the layer of the earth between the crust and the core |
| Core | the central part of the Earth, a bar of magnetic material (as soft iron) that passes through a coil and serves to increase the inductance of the coil, the central part of the Earth |
| Transform Plate boundary | Boundary between two plates that are sliding past each other. |
| Divergent Plate boundary | where two plates are moving apart, magma comes up to create new crust |
| Convergent plate boundary | A tectonic plate boundary where two plates collide, come together, or crash into each other. |
| Life expectancy | the average age that a newborn infant can expect to attain in a particular time and place |
| Demographic transition | change in a population from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates |
| Fertility | the ratio of live births in an area to the population of that area |
| One Child Policy | Act in China that allows people to have only 1 child in the city and 2 children in the countryside. |
| IPAT Model | a formula that represents how humans's total impact on the environment results from the interaction among three factors: population, affluence, and technology |
| Demography | study of populations |
| Age Pyramids | A way to display information about the number of organisms alive in particular age groups of a population |
| Population Density | number of individuals per unit area |
| Population Distribution | how population is spread out in an area |
| Total Fertility Rate (TFR) | The average number of children born to a woman during her childbearing years. |
| Replacement Fertility | The total fertility rate at which women would have only enough children to replace themselves and their partner. |
| Natural Rate of Population Change | birth rate minus death rate plus migration rate determines how many people are in a population |
| Renewable Natural Resources | natural resources that can be replenished |
| Nonrenewable Natural Resources | A natural resource that cant be replaced |
| Tragedy of the Commons | Title of an Article written Garrett Harden, 1968, said there will always be a struggle because individuals will use up resources that are common even though that's not what they intend. |
| Ecological Footprint | The amount of biologically productive land and water needed to support a person or population. |
| Independent Variable | the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied |
| Dependent Variable | the outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable |
| Control | a standard against which other conditions can be compared in a scientific experiment |
| Constant | a quantity that does not vary |
| Ecology | the environment as it relates to living organisms |
| Biodiversity | the variety of species living within an ecosystem |
| Millennium Ecosystem Assessment | a four year effort by over 1360 scientists to produce reports on the state of Earth's ecosystems. The reports are aimed at policy makers and the public and are all availble on the Internet |
| Sustainability | The ability to keep in existence or maintain. A sustainable ecosystem is one that can be maintained |
| Triple Bottom Line | Demand that our current human population limit its environmental impact while also promoting economic well-being and social equity |
| Culture | the raising of plants or animals |
| Worldview | basic belief that shapes a persons view of the world |
| Environmental Ethics | a search for moral values and ethical principles in human relations with the natural world |
| Anthropocentrism | the belief that humans hold a special place in nature; being centered primarily on humans and human affairs. |
| Biocentrism | The belief that all creatures have rights and values; being centered on nature rather than humans. |
| Ecocentrism | Moral principle that regards the ecosphere as the most important being in existence in an attempt to redress the imbalance created by anthropocentrism |
| Transcendentalism | any system of philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical and material |
| Philosophers | "Lovers of wisdom", a thinker who uses logic and reason |
| Conservation | the preservation and careful management of the environment and of natural resources |
| Preservation | the activity of protecting something from loss or danger |
| Aldo Leopold | wrote A Sand County Almanac published a year after his death in 1948; promoted a "Land Ethic" in which humans are ethically responsible for serving as the protectors of nature. |
| Environmental Justice | A recognition that access to a clean, healthy environment is a fundamental right of all human beings. |
| Economics | the branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management |
| Subsistence Economy | a type of economy in which human groups live off the land with little or no surplus |
| Capitalist Market Economy | the interactions among buyers and sellers determine which goods and services are produced, how much are produced, and how these are produced and distributed |
| Classical Economics | the idea that free markets can regulate themselves |
| Adam Smith | Scottish economist who advocated private enterprise and free trade (1723-1790) |
| Neoclassical Economics | an approach to economics based on supply and demand which depends on economic agents operating rationally based on available info |
| Cost Benefit Analysis | economic model that compares the marginal costs and marginal benefits of a decision |
| Gross Domestic Product | the sum total of the value of all the goods and services produced in a nation |
| Genuine Progress Indicator | An economic indicator that attempts to differentiate between desirable and undesirable economic activity |
| Contingent Valuation | uses surveys to determine how much people are willing to pay to protect or restore a resource |
| Ecolabeling | serves to tell consumers which brands use environmentally benign processes |
| Watershed | a ridge of land that separates two adjacent river systems |
| Environmental Policy | regulates resources use or reduce pollution to promote human welfare/natural systems |
| Free Rider | An individual who does not join a group representing his or her interests yet receives the benefit of the group's influence. |
| External Costs | Spillover effects that reduce the well-being of nonconsenting third parties. |
| National Environmental Policy Act | Environmental Impact Statements must be done before any project affecting federal lands can be started |
| Environmental Impact Statement | Required studies &reports of likely environmental impacts, filed w. the Environmental Protection Agency prior to the beginning of a project |
| Environmental Protection Agency | an independent federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment |
| Federal Water Pollution Control Act | Authorized the surgeon general of the Public Health Service, with others, to prepare comprehensive programs for eliminating or reducing the pollution of interstate waters and tributaries and improving the sanitary condition of surface and underground waters. |
| Clean Water Act | Federal Law setting a national goal of making all natural surface water fit for fishing and swimming by 1983, banned polluted discharge into surface water and required the metals be removed from waste |
| Four Waves of Environmental Policy | identifies four successive waves of environmental thought and action. The first wave, conservation, emerged in the mid 1800s and focused on the responsible use of natural resources and the preservation of isolated tracts of wilderness. By the 1960s, the general public had become aware of the widespread impact of environmental problems on human health and welfare. |
| Customary | usual, expected, routine |
| Conventional Law | an international ruling that arises from treaties that nations agree to enter into |
| United Nations | International organization founded in 1945 to promote world peace and cooperation. It replaced the League of Nations. |
| European Union | an international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members |
| World Trade Organization | an international organization based in Geneva that monitors and enforces rules governing global trade |
| Nongovernmental Organization | an organization that is not part of the local or state or federal government |
| World Bank | a United Nations agency created to assist developing nations by loans guaranteed by member governments |
| Lobbying | direct contact made by an interest group representative in order to persuade government officials to support the policies their interest group favors |
| Command and Control Approach | an approach that involves the government imposing quantitative limits on the amount of pollution firms are allowed to emit or requiring firms to install specific pollution control devices. |
| Subsidies | a grant or contribution of money, especially one made by a government in support of an undertaking or the upkeep of a thing |
| Green Taxes | penalties on environmentally harmful activities or products |
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