ESS - Summative 2

Open System

a system that exchanges both energy and matter across its boundaries

Closed System

a system that only exchanges energy across its boundaries

example: Earth

Isolated System

a system that exchanges neither matter nor energy with its surroundings. There is no known example.

Positive Feedback

a disturbances that leads to an amplification of that disturbance, destabilizing the system and driving it away from its equilibrium

Negative Feedback

a self-regulating process in which a system counteracts a change to return it back to equilibrium

Gaia Theory

Created by James Lovelock.

That the Earth behaves like a living thing and it maintains its own homeostasis, especially like keeping its temperature (relatively) constant. He proposed that living things and physical Earth are in collaboration to maintain homeostasis, and create negative feedback loops

Eutrophication

excessive nutrients in a lake or other body of water due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen

1. Fertilizers run off into the body of water

2. Algae blooms due tothe  presence of nutrients

3. Algae die because light is blocked off

4. Bacteria use oxygen to break down the algae (respires)

5. Fish/aquatic life die due to lack of oxygen (hypoxia)

System Approach

a way of visualizing a complex set of interactions which may be ecological or societal

Store

usually rectangles in a diagram and represent a temporary or permanent store of matter in a system.

Example: a glacier in the water cycle

Flow

a movement into or out of a system and between stores in a system (energy or matter)

Transfer

a flow with a change in location

example: water entering a lake

Transformation 

a flow with a change in chemical nature or state of matter

example: condensation in the water cycle

Model

a simplified version of reality that can be used to understand how a system works and to predict how it will respond to change

Biosphere

The biosphere is an ecological system composed of individuals, populations, communities,ecosystems.

Abiotic Factors in a Compost Pile

• Temperature

• Water

• Oxygen concentration

• Minerals released through decomposition

• Carbon dioxide levels

• pH of run-off

deep ecologist

place intrinsic importance on nature for the humanity of man and believe ecological laws should dictate human morality