Environmental Science - Key Concepts and Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering core terms, definitions, principles, and models from environmental science, ecosystems, chemistry, energy systems, and biological evolution.

Environmental Science

An interdisciplinary study of how the earth works and has survived and thrived, how humans interact with the environment, and how humans can live more sustainably.

Ecology

The branch of biology that focuses on how living organisms interact with the living and nonliving parts of their environment.

Ecosystem

A biological community of organisms within a defined area that interact with one another and with the nonliving chemical and physical factors in their environment.

Solar Energy (Principle of Sustainability)

The principle of sustainability in which the sun's energy warms the planet and provides energy that plants use to produce nutrients.

Biodiversity

The variety of genes, species, ecosystems, and ecosystem processes.

Chemical Cycling

The circulation of nutrients from the environment (mostly from soil and water) through various organisms and back to the environment.

Full-Cost Pricing

An economic principle of sustainability that gives consumers information about the harmful environmental impacts of the goods and services that they use.

Natural Capital

Natural resources and ecosystem services that keep humans and other species alive and that support human economies.

Natural Resources

Materials and energy provided by nature that are essential or useful to humans.

Inexhaustible Resources

Natural resources expected to last forever on a human timescale, such as solar energy, wind energy, and geothermal energy.

Renewable Resources

Resources that can be used repeatedly because they are replenished through natural processes as long as they are not used up faster than nature can renew them.

Nonrenewable Resources

Resources that exist in a fixed amount, or stock, in the earth's crust and take millions to billions of years to form through geological processes.

Ecosystem Services

Natural services provided by healthy ecosystems that support life and human economies at no monetary cost.

IPAT Model

An environmental impact model developed by Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren where Environmental Impact $(I)$ equals Population $(P) \times \text{Affluence } (A) \times \text{Technology } (T)$.

Ecological Footprint

A rough measure of the total harmful environmental impacts of individuals, cities, and countries on Earth's natural resources, ecosystem services, and life-support systems.

Biocapacity

The ability of an area's ecosystems to regenerate the renewable resources used by a population in a given time period and to absorb the resulting wastes and pollution.

Ecological Deficit

A condition that occurs when the total ecological footprint in a defined area is larger than its biocapacity.

Exponential Growth

Growth that occurs when a quantity increases at a fixed percentage per unit of time.

Poverty

A condition in which people lack enough money to fulfill their basic needs for food, water, shelter, health care, and education.

Biomimicry

The scientific effort to understand, mimic, and catalog the ingenious ways in which nature has sustained life on the earth for $3.8\text{ billion}$ years.

Atom

The smallest unit of matter.

Element

A fundamental type of matter with a unique set of properties that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical means.

Compound

A combination of two or more different elements held together in fixed proportions.

Atomic Number

A value equal to the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.

Mass Number

The total number of neutrons and protons in an atom's nucleus.

Isotopes

Forms of an element having the same atomic number but different mass numbers.

Molecule

A combination of two or more atoms of the same or different elements held together by chemical bonds.

Ion

An atom or group of atoms with one or more net positive or negative electrical charges resulting from the loss or gain of negatively charged electrons.

Cell Theory

The scientific idea that all living things are composed of cells.

Genes

Segments of DNA containing instructions, or codes, called genetic information, for making specific proteins.

Chromosome

A double helix DNA molecule wrapped around one or more proteins.

Law of Conservation of Matter

A scientific law stating that whenever matter undergoes a physical or chemical change, no atoms are created or destroyed.

First Law of Thermodynamics

A scientific law stating that whenever energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

A scientific law stating that when energy is changed from one form to another, it always goes from a more useful to a less useful form.

System Model

A set of components interacting in a regular way, consisting of inputs from the environment, throughputs within the system, and outputs to the environment.

Feedback Loop

A process that occurs when an output of matter, energy, or information is fed back into a system as input and leads to changes in that system.

Troposphere

The densest layer of the atmosphere extending up to $12\text{ km}$ from Earth's surface where weather formation occurs.

Stratosphere

The atmospheric layer extending from approximately $12\text{ km}$ to $50\text{ km}$ above Earth's surface where ozone exists.

Hydrosphere

All the water on the planet, including oceans, lakes, rivers, groundwater, glacial water, and water vapor.

Geosphere

The Earth's rocks, minerals, and soil, consisting of an intensely hot core, a thick mantle, and a thin outer crust.

Biosphere

The part of Earth's surface, atmosphere, and oceans where living organisms exist.

Producers

Organisms that make their own food from chemical compounds obtained from their abiotic environment through processes like photosynthesis.

Primary Consumers

Organisms, also known as herbivores, that eat producers to obtain energy and occupy the second trophic level.

Secondary Consumers

Organisms, also known as carnivores, that eat primary consumers to obtain energy and occupy the third trophic level.

Tertiary Consumers

Organisms, also known as top predators, that eat other carnivores to obtain energy and occupy the fourth trophic level.

Decomposers

Organisms that get their nutrients by breaking down the wastes or remains of plants and animals.

Detritivores

Organisms that get their nutrients by feeding on the wastes or dead bodies (detritus) of other organisms.

Aerobic Respiration

Cellular respiration that uses oxygen to convert glucose and other organic compounds back into carbon dioxide and water.

Anaerobic Respiration

Cellular process involving the breakdown of glucose or other organic compounds in the absence of oxygen.

Soil Profile

A cross-sectional view of the horizontal layers (horizons) of a soil.

Pyramid of Energy Flow

A graphic display of the energy loss at each trophic level in a food chain or web.

Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)

The rate at which an ecosystem's producers convert solar energy into chemical energy.

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

The rate at which producers use photosynthesis to produce and store chemical energy minus the rate at which they use some of this stored energy through aerobic respiration.

Ecological Niche

The specific role of each species within the ecosystem it inhabits.

Generalist Species

Species with a broad niche that can live in many different places and consume a variety of foods.

Specialist Species

Species that occupy a narrow niche, living in only one type of habitat or eating specified types of food.

Native Species

Species that normally live and thrive in a particular ecosystem.

Nonnative Species

Species that migrate into or are deliberately or accidentally introduced into a new ecosystem.

Indicator Species

Species that provide early warnings of environmental change in a community or an ecosystem.

Keystone Species

Species that have a large effect on the types and abundance of other species in an ecosystem.

Evolution

The process by which species change genetically over time through natural selection.

Speciation

The evolutionary process by which one species evolves into two or more different species.

Endemic Species

Species that are found in only one specific area and are especially vulnerable to extinction.