ESS IB Exam

Intrinsic Value

Valué just because it exists (inside value)

Extrinsic Value

“use” value humans apply to things (external value)

EVS (environmental value systems)

Worldview that shapes the way people perceive and evaluate environmental issues

Ecocentric

Natured centered with sustainable views

Technocentric

Technology centered with views of technology being able to provide solutions to environmental issues

Antropocentric

People centered with views that humans are responsible for sustaining the earth through control of population and resource use

Natural Capital

The source or stocks of resources and services that are derived from nature

Natural Income

Annual yield of the goods and services provided by the environment (how much natural capital we take)

Primary pollutants

Active at release

Secondary Pollutants

Primary pollutants that have combined or changed

Point Source Pollutants

Pollutant resource form a single evident site

Non-point Source Pollutant

Pollutants released from a wider area with no single clear source

Biodegradable Pollutants

Pollutants that break down quickly and easily

Persistent Organic Pollutants

Pollutants that don’t break down easily

Acute Pollution

Pollution that comes on strong and suddenly

Chronic Pollution

Pollution that steadily released long-term

Sustainable development

Development that meets the needs of the present with compromises that ability of future generations to meet their own needs

MEDC

More economically developed country

LEDC

Less economically developed country

Open system

Materials and energy are exchanged across the boundaries

Closed system

Energy is exchanged across the boundaries but matter is not mater is not rare

Isolated System

Neither energy nor matter are exchanged

Nitrogen fixation

Nitrogen enters the livens world by bacteria and prokaryotes then converted into biologically useable forms

Assimilation

Living organisms take in nitrogen and build it into complex molecules

Nitrification

Nitrogen converts to inorganic forms like ammonium salts when organisms die. The ammonium salts absorbs onto clay and turn into nitrite the nirate

Denitrification

Dissolved nirate return to the atmosphere by certain bacteria

Limiting factor

Any resource (including space) that may limit a population’s size or spread

Density-dependent

Limiting factors that lower birth rate or raise the death rate as a population grows in size, such as habitat, water, food

Density-independent

Limiting factors that affect a population regardless of population density such as temperature, salinity, sunlight

J-Curve

Unchecked growth, Exponential growth, and unlimited carrying capacity

S-Curve

Exponential at first, then growth slows, levels out as the system reaches carrying capacity (logistic)

Malthusian Catastrophe

The “power” of population would exceed that “power” of food population

Carrying Capacity

The maximum size of a population that can be sustained

Logistic Growth Curve

A curve that grows exponentially when resources are plentiful that slows as population approaches carrying capacity

Niche

How an organism survives and the resources it uses to live

Symbiosis

“Living together” and happens when two species have a close long term interaction

Intraspecific

Competition between members of the same species

Interspecific

Individuals of different species, competing for the same resources i

Parasitism

A type of symbiotic relationship in which one organism uses another as a host. Host is harmed in the process, and the parasite receives a benefit

Mutualism

A type of symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from relationship

Commensalism

A type of symbiotic relationship in which one species receives a benefit from another species, and the other is not impacted

Fundamental niche

Full range of resources and space a species could use if there was no competition

Realized niche

The actual range after competition

1st Law of Thermodynamics

Energy is neither created nor destroyed but can be transformed or transferred

2nd Law of Thermodynamics

Energy will naturally go from a concentrated form into a dispersed form, entropy always increases over time

Equilibrium

A state of balance

Negative feedback

Stabilizes systems and helps maintain equilibrium

Positive feedback

Destabilizes systems and takes it out of equilibrium

Resilience

How well a system responds to disturbances; how well it maintains equilibrium

Productivity

Rate washing