Environmental Change & Landscape Ecology

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture notes on environmental change, landscape ecology, human land use, citizen science, soundscape ecology, noise pollution, and scientific writing.

Human Footprint Index

Measures the overall human impact on the environment, including roads, agriculture, land use, and cities.

Planetary Boundaries

Limits or safe operating spaces for environmental systems like the atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere.

Landscape Ecology

A spatially heterogeneous area whose extent depends on the organism, including composition and configuration of habitats.

Sustainability

Development that meets present needs without compromising future quality of life.

Landscape Ecology

The study of spatial patterns in the biosphere, the processes that produce them, and their relationships.

Patch-Corridor-Matrix Framework

Components consisting of patches (distinct areas), corridors (strips of land), and matrix (background landscape with high connectivity).

Human Land Use

Affects the environment by altering forests, waterways, and the atmosphere on a large scale.

Deforestation Causes

Common causes include cattle ranching and soybean farming.

Scale (in Environmental Science)

The spatial or temporal dimension of an object or process.

Grain (in Spatial Data)

The finest level of resolution; finer grain shows more detail.

Extent (in Spatial Data)

The size of the area viewed; increasing extent means zooming out.

Citizen Science

Public participation in scientific research.

Community Science

Organized by communities to address local issues.

VGI (Volunteered Geographic Information)

Publicly contributed geographic data.

VGI Quality Assessment Approaches

Three approaches include crowdsourcing, social (designated reviewers), and geographic (area-based checks).

Merlin Bird ID

A bird identification app used in citizen science and soundscape ecology.

Land Cover

The physical material covering the land surface, like vegetation.

Soundscape Ecology

The study of soundscapes to analyze biodiversity and ecosystem changes.

Biophony, Geophony, Anthrophony

Biophony: sounds of living organisms; Geophony: natural abiotic sounds; Anthrophony: human-made sounds.

Diurnal Variation

Daily changes in sound or biodiversity patterns.

Seasonal Variability

Changes in patterns across seasons.

Ecological Niche

The lifestyle, adaptations, and resource use of a species.

Acoustic Niche Hypothesis

Species avoid sound competition by vocalizing at different pitches and times.

Noise Pollution Effects

Impaired reading, studying, hearing, and sleep.

Species Adaptation to Urban Noise

Species adapt by changing their sound frequency and amplitude.

DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)

Software for recording and editing sound.

Scientific Paper Components

Includes title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and references.