Environmental Science Vocabulary Flashcards

Flashcards covering key terms, definitions, and foundational concepts in Environmental Science including ethics, ecosystems, chemistry, ecology, population biology, demography, and toxicology.

The study of environmental science

Study of:

1. The natural and “built” world

2. How humans interact with their environment

Abiotic

Non-living components of an ecosystem, such as water, soil, climate, and sunlight.

Biotic

Living or once-living components of an ecosystem, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi.

Ecosystem Services

Beneficial resources and processes provided to humans by natural ecosystems, such as

• clean water

• oxygen production

• carbon sequestration

• thermoregulation.

Inherent Value

The intrinsic worth of the environment simply because it exists, independent of its usefulness to humans.

Instrumental Value

The value assigned to something based on its usefulness or practical benefit to humans.

Environmental Stewardship

The responsible care, protection, and management of the Earth's natural resources.

Preservation

An environmental philosophy advocating that natural lands should be left undisturbed and untouched by human development.

Conservation

Do something with the land

John Muir

A preservationist who established National Parks and argued that nature should be kept untouched.

Gifford Pinchot- conversationalist

The first chief of the U.S. Forest Service who advocated for a utilitarian conservation approach to manage public lands sustainably for resource extraction like lumber.

Aldo Leopold

A conservationist who worked for the U.S. Forest Service, co-founded the U.S. Wilderness Society in 1935, and wrote Sand County Almanac.

Environmental Justice

The fair treatment and involvement of all people, addressing disparities such as the disproportionate placement of hazardous waste landfills and toxic exposure in poor and minority communities.

Tragedy of the Commons

The economic and environmental problem where shared, open-access resources are overused and degraded due to self-interested individual behavior.

Ways to combat tragedy of the commons?

Private property- now they can keep the people off of the land

• Won’t destroy the land because they want too keep using it

Government regulation

• We can set rules and regulations

• Limits

Elinor Ostrom- managing the commons

A political scientist and economist who demonstrated that local communities can successfully self-govern and sustainably manage shared common resources.

• Refused what Hardin said

Sustainable Development

Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Scientific Method

A systematic, step-by-step process for investigating natural phenomena, involving identifying questions, forming testable hypotheses, collecting data, interpreting results, peer review, and publishing findings.

Hypothesis

A proposed, testable explanation for an observation.

Scientific Theory

An explanation of natural phenomena that is overwhelmingly supported by a large body of empirical evidence.

Atomic Number

The total number of protons contained in the nucleus of an atom.

Mass Number

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

Isotopes

Atoms of the same element that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons, resulting in different mass numbers.

Monosaccharides

Simple sugars, such as glucose ($C_6H_{12}O_6$), that serve as the monomer building blocks for carbohydrates.

Amino Acids

The organic monomer building blocks that join together to form proteins.

First Law of Thermodynamics

The principle stating that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed or transferred from one form to another.

Energy Efficiency

The measure of how much useful work is obtained from a given quantity of energy input into a system.

Detritivores

Organisms, such as earthworms and millipedes, that feed on dead and decaying organic matter to initiate decomposition.

Hadley Cells

Large atmospheric circulation cells where warm air rises at the equator and sinks at medium latitudes near $30^\text{o}$ north or south, heavily influencing global precipitation patterns.

Estuary

An aquatic ecosystem where freshwater from rivers mixes with ocean saltwater.

Interspecific Competition

Competition for shared, limited resources occurring between individuals of different species.

Intraspecific Competition

Competition for shared resources occurring between individuals of the same species.

Batesian Mimicry

A defense mechanism where an edible or harmless species resembles an inedible or toxic species to deter predators.

Mullerian Mimicry

A defense mechanism where two or more harmful or venomous species evolve to resemble each other's warning patterns.

Parasitism

A symbiotic relationship ($+/-$) where a parasite obtains nourishment from a host organism, reducing host fitness without immediately causing death.

Mutualism

A symbiotic relationship ($+/+$) in which both interacting species receive a biological benefit.

Commensalism

A symbiotic relationship ($+/0$) where one organism benefits while the other is unaffected.

Species Richness

The total number of different species present in a biological community.

Species Evenness

The comparative relative abundance or distribution of individuals among the different species in a community.

Primary Succession

Ecological succession starting in an environment devoid of pre-existing biotic communities and soil, such as exposed rock or lava fields.

Secondary Succession

Ecological succession occurring at a site previously occupied by a biological community following a major disturbance that leaves the soil intact.

Keystone Species

A species that plays an exceptionally critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community relative to its abundance.

Ecosystem Engineers

Organisms that alter, create, or modify physical habitat structures in an ecosystem, such as beavers.

Trophic Cascade

An indirect ecological phenomenon where changes in top predator abundance propagate downward to influence lower trophic levels, including herbivores and primary producers.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size of a given species that a specific habitat can sustainably support over time.

Logistic Growth

Population growth that accelerates initially but slows and levels off as the population size approaches environmental carrying capacity.

r-strategists

Species that produce large numbers of offspring with minimal parental investment, mature early, and are adapted to unpredictable environments.

K-strategists

Species that produce few offspring, invest heavily in parental care, mature later, and tend to maintain populations near carrying capacity.

Bottleneck Effect

A sharp reduction in population size caused by environmental events or disturbances, resulting in significant loss of genetic diversity.

Metapopulation

A collection of geographically separated populations of the same species that interact through occasional gene flow.

Crude Birth Rate

The total number of live births occurring per $1,000$ individuals in a population per year.

Total Fertility Rate

The average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime in a given population.

Zoonotic Disease

An infectious emergent disease that is transmitted from non-human animals to humans.

Environmental toxicology

The study of toxic substances and their effects - particularly on loving organisms and how they interact and are transformed as they move through populations and ecosystems

CAFO

C- Concentrated

A- Animal

F- Feeding

O- Operation

Exposure

• Acute

  • 
    

• Chronic

  • Respiratory issues, cancer , etc form 9/11

Response

• Acute

  • Sudden and severe

  • Pass out and die

• Chronic

  • Long term exposure

  • Liver disease degradation

  • Permanent

Bioaccumulation

The accumulation and build-up of a contaminant or toxic substance within a single individual organism over time.

Biomagnification

The process whereby toxic contaminant concentrations increase progressively at higher trophic levels across a food chain.

EXAMPLE OF biomagnification and bioaccumatioon

DDT in fish-eating birds, large fish(needle fish), small fish (minnows), zooplankton, and in water

The amount of DDT goes up as food chain increases- biomagnification.

The amount of DDT in small fish is small due to specific animal- bioaccumulation

How is toxicity determined?

Toxicity is determined by the dose amount and if it takes a great amount or small to kill an animal

(Ex, A vs B, A is more toxic since it took less pesticide to kill the population

LD50

The dose of a chemical or toxic substance required to cause death in 50% of a tested population.

What is risk?

• Possibility of suffering harm or loss

Risk assessment

• Scientific process of estimating the thrust that particular hazards pose too human health

How do we perceive risks differently?

• Risks that are unknown, unpredictable or undetectable

  • Higher risk

  • Airplane (less likely to die)

• Risks that are voluntary, detectable, or immediate

  • Lower risk

  • Driving (more likely to die)

What is the precautionary principle?

A strategy to manage potential risks by taking preventive action in the face of uncertainty. It emphasizes caution, pausing, and reviewing before leaping into new technologies or actions that could cause harm.

What example did we discuss in class related to precautionary principle?

Bees

• The understanding of risk assessment can be different

• There is a type of pesticide

  • Neonicitinoids: a pesticide that attacks the nervous system

  • NON TARGET organisms can be impacted

  • Pesticide was not banned in the US

  • European Union has been banned