Test One Environmental Biology Vocabulary

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards derived from the environmental biology lecture notes.

Biotic

The living parts of an environment, such as plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria.

Abiotic

The nonliving parts of an environment, such as sunlight, water, air, temperature, soil, minerals, and nutrients.

Environment

The sum of all the conditions surrounding us that influence life.

Environmental Science

The study of how the natural world works, how humans interact with the environment, and how humans affect the environment.

Ecosystem

An area where living organisms interact with each other and with the nonliving environment around them.

Environmental Studies

An interdisciplinary field including environmental science, economics, politics, sociology, ethics, and other social sciences that examines environmental problems from both scientific and human perspectives.

Ecosystem Services

The benefits that humans receive from natural ecosystems, such as clean air and water, pollination, food production, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, flood control, and waste decomposition.

Environmental Indicators

Measurements that help scientists understand the current condition of the environment and whether environmental conditions are improving or getting worse.

Five Global Environmental Indicators

The five key global indicators used to assess environmental health: 1. biological diversity, 2. food production, 3. average global surface temperature and $\text{CO}_2$ concentrations in the atmosphere, 4. human population, 5. resource depletion.

Biological Diversity (Biodiversity)

The variety of life on Earth, encompassing genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity.

Food Production

The amount of food produced to support the human population. While production has increased, it can cause soil degradation, habitat destruction, water use, pollution, and other environmental problems.

Atmospheric $\text{CO}_2$ and Global Surface Temperature

An environmental indicator showing that increasing atmospheric $\text{CO}_2$ contributes to Earth's warming because $\text{CO}_2$ is a greenhouse gas.

Human Population

The total number of people living on Earth; continued population growth increases demand for food, water, energy, land, and other natural resources.

Resource Depletion

The consumption of natural resources faster than they can be replaced, such as fossil fuels, forests, freshwater, minerals, and fish populations.

Sustainability

Using Earth's resources in a way that allows people to meet their needs without preventing future generations from meeting their needs.

Sustainable Development

Development that meets people's present needs while protecting resources and environmental systems for the future.

Ecological Footprint

A measurement of how much land and water is required to provide the resources a person or population uses and to absorb the waste they produce.

Matter

Anything that takes up space and has mass.

Mass

The amount of matter in an object.

Weight

The force of gravity acting on an object's mass.

Atom

The smallest unit of an element that still has the chemical properties of that element.

Element

A substance made of only one type of atom, which can exist as a solid, liquid, or gas.

Periodic Table

A chart that organizes all known chemical elements according to their properties and atomic numbers.

Molecule

Two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds.

Compound

A substance containing atoms of two or more different elements chemically bonded together (e.g., water).

Atomic Number

The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.

Mass Number

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

Isotopes

Different forms of the same element that have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons.

Electrons

Negatively charged particles found outside of the nucleus of an atom.

pH Scale

A scale ranging from 0 to 14 measuring acidity and alkalinity; 7 is neutral, values below 7 are acidic, and values above 7 are basic/alkaline.

Chemical Reaction

A process where chemical bonds are broken or formed, changing substances into different substances.

Law of Conservation of Matter

Matter cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change from one form to another.

Energy

The ability to do work or cause change.

Power

The rate at which energy is used or work is done.

Formula for Energy

$$\text{Energy} = \text{Power} \times \text{Time}$$

Kinetic Energy

The energy of motion (e.g., a moving car or a flowing river).

Potential Energy

Stored energy due to an object's position or condition (e.g., water stored behind a dam).

Chemical Energy

Potential energy stored in chemical bonds (e.g., food, gasoline, coal, batteries).

First Law of Thermodynamics

Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transferred or transformed from one form to another.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Whenever energy is transformed, some usable energy becomes less useful energy, usually released as heat.

Energy Efficiency

The percentage of energy put into a system that becomes useful work.

Energy Quality

A measure of how easily a form of energy can be converted into useful work.

Entropy

A measure of disorder or randomness in a system. Energy transformations generally increase entropy.

Open System

A system where both matter and energy can enter and leave (e.g., an ecosystem).

Closed System

A system where energy can enter or leave, but matter generally does not (e.g., Earth is closed for matter, open for energy).

Steady State

A condition in a system where inputs and outputs are roughly balanced, keeping the system relatively stable.

Negative Feedback Loop

A system response where a change causes a reaction that reduces or reverses the original change, helping to stabilize the system (e.g., body temperature rising triggers sweating to cool down).

Positive Feedback Loop

A system response where a change causes a reaction that increases or amplifies the original change (e.g., ice melting exposes darker surfaces, absorbing more heat and causing more ice to melt).

Producers (Autotrophs)

Organisms that make their own food using sunlight or chemical energy (e.g., plants, algae, some bacteria).

Photosynthesis

The process where producers use sunlight, $\text{CO}_2$, and water to produce glucose and oxygen.

Consumers (Heterotrophs)

Organisms that cannot make their own food and must obtain energy by consuming other organisms.

Primary Consumers

Herbivores that eat producers/plants (e.g., a rabbit eating grass).

Secondary Consumers

Carnivores that eat primary consumers (e.g., a snake eating a mouse).

Tertiary Consumers

Carnivores that eat secondary consumers and are often higher-level predators (e.g., a hawk eating a snake).

Decomposers

Organisms that break down dead organisms and waste, returning nutrients to the environment (e.g., bacteria and fungi).

Detritivores

Organisms that feed on dead and decaying organic matter, known as detritus (e.g., earthworms and some insects).

Scavengers

Animals that consume dead animals that they did not kill themselves (e.g., vultures).

Food Chain

A linear sequence showing who eats whom and how energy moves from one organism to another.

Food Web

A complex network of interconnected food chains showing the multiple feeding relationships in an ecosystem.

Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)

The total amount of solar energy that producers capture through photosynthesis over a given unit of time.

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

The energy producers have left after using some energy for their own respiration; represents the energy available to consumers ($\text{NPP} = \text{GPP} - \text{Respiration}$).

Ecological Efficiency

The percentage of energy transferred from one trophic level to the next, typically around $10\text{\%}$, with about $90\text{\%}$ lost as heat or used in life processes.

Hydrologic Cycle

The continuous movement of water through Earth, driven by processes such as evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and infiltration.

Carbon Cycle

The movement of carbon between the atmosphere, organisms, oceans, soil, and rocks via photosynthesis, consumption, cellular respiration, decomposition, and combustion.

Natural Ecosystem

An ecosystem that develops mainly through natural processes with limited human control (e.g., a natural forest).

Anthropogenic Ecosystem

An ecosystem created or heavily modified by human activities (e.g., farms, cities, lawns, reservoirs).

Ecosystem Resilience

The ability of an ecosystem to recover after experiencing a disturbance.

Weather vs. Climate

Weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions at a particular time and place; climate is the long-term average weather pattern in a region over many years.

Troposphere

The lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, where humans live and where most weather occurs.

Stratosphere

The atmospheric layer above the troposphere containing the ozone layer, which absorbs harmful solar ultraviolet radiation.

Rain Shadow Effect

An occurrence where mountains block precipitation, producing a cool, wet climate on the windward side and a warm, dry climate on the leeward side.

Windward vs. Leeward

Windward is the side of a mountain facing incoming wind (cooler and wetter); leeward is the side facing away from the wind (warmer and drier).

Biome

A large regional community characterized by a specific climate (temperature and precipitation) and distinct types of plant and animal life.

Tundra Biome

A cold, dry biome with low precipitation, permafrost, few to no trees, and plants like mosses, lichens, grasses, and small shrubs.

Boreal Forest (Taiga) Biome

A biome characterized by cold temperatures, long winters, short summers, moderate precipitation as snow, and forests of coniferous evergreen trees.

Temperate Seasonal Forest Biome

A biome with warm summers, cold winters, moderate to high precipitation, and broadleaf deciduous trees that lose their leaves in autumn.

Temperate Grassland (Prairie) Biome

A biome with hot summers, cold winters, fertile soil, and plant life dominated by grasses due to precipitation being insufficient to support large forests.

Tropical Rainforest Biome

A warm, wet biome located near the equator with very high rainfall, dense forests with tall trees, and extremely high biodiversity.

Tropical Seasonal Forest (Savanna) Biome

A warm biome with distinct wet and dry seasons, dominated by grasses and scattered trees, maintained by frequent fires and seasonal droughts.

Subtropical Desert Biome

An extremely hot and dry biome with very low precipitation, where water is severely limited and organisms (like cacti) are adapted to conserve water.

Biotic

living parts of an environment (plants, animals, fungi, bacteria)

Abiotic

nonliving parts of an environment (sunlight, water, air, temperature, soil, minerals, nutrients)

Environment

the sum of all the conditions surrounding us that influence life

Environmental Science

study of how the natural world works, how humans interact w the environment, and how humans affect the environment

Ecosystem

an area where living organisms interact w each other and w the nonliving environment around them

Environmental Studies

environmental science, economics, politics, sociology, ethics, other social sciences it looks at environmental problems from both scientific and human perspectives

Ecosystem Services

benefits that humans receive from natural ecosystems

Environmental Indicators

measurements that help scientists understand the current condition of the environment and whether environmental conditions are improving or getting worse

Biological Diversity (Biodiversity)

the variety of life on earth (ex. genetic diversity, species diversity, ecosystem diversity)

Resource Depletion

using natural resources faster than they can be replaced (ex. fossil fuels, forests, freshwater, minerals, and fish populations)

Sustainability

using earths resources in a way that allows people to meet their needs without preventing future generations from meeting their needs

Sustainable Development

development that meets peoples present needs while protecting resources and environmental systems for the future

Ecological Footprint

a measurement of how much land and water is required to provide the resources a person or population uses and to absorb the waste they produce

Matter

anything that takes up space and has mass

Mass

the amount of matter in an object

Weight

the force of gravity acting on an objects mass

Atom

the smallest unit of an element that still has the properties of that element

Element

substance made of only one type of atom, they can exist as solids, liquids or gases

Periodic Table

a chart that organizes all known chemical elements according to their properties and atomic numbers

Molecule

two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds