ESS SL VOCAB

Ecological Footprint

The amount of land needed to support an individual's lifestyle.

Carbon Footprint

The total amount of greenhouse gas emissions as a result of activities.

Water Footprint

The total amount of water use to support consumption.

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs)

Assesses the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the project, predicting and evaluating possible impacts and suggesting mitigation strategies for the project.

Solid Domestic Waste (SDW)

Solid waste from households, businesses, schools, ect. Waste "stream" refers to flow of solid waste to recycling centers, landfills,s or trash incineration.

Niche

The role an organism plays in an ecosystem.

Gross Secondary Productivity

The total energy or biomass assimilated by consumers and is calculated by subtracting the mass of fecal loss from the mass of food consumed. GSP = food eaten - fecal loss

Net Secondary Productivity

Calculated by subtracting respiratory losses (R) from GSP. NSP = GSP - R

Carbon Cycle

The process that moves carbon between plants, animals, and microbes; minerals in the earth; and the atmosphere.

Nitrogen Cycle

The biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into multiple chemical forms as it circulates among atmospheric, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems.

Net Primary Productivity

Calculated by subtracting respiratory losses (R) from gross primary productivity (GPP).

NPP = GPP - R

Respiration

The process of breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. However, the term more formally refers to the chemical process organisms use to release the energy from food, which typically involves the consumption of oxygen and release of carbon dioxide.

Aerobic respiration

Represented by the following word equation. glucose + oxygen →carbon dioxide + water

Photosynthesis

The process by which plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create oxygen and energy in the form of sugar.

Trophic Level

The position that an organism occupies in a food chain, or the position of a group of organisms in a community that occupy the same position in food chains. • Producers (autotrophs) are typically plants or algae that produce their own food using photosynthesis and form the first trophic level in a food chain. Exceptions include chemosynthetic organisms that produce food without sunlight.

Ecological Pyramids

Include pyramids of numbers, biomass and productivity and are quantitative models that are usually measured for a given area and time.

Pyramid of Biomass

Shows the total biomass of the organisms involved at each trophic level of an ecosystem. Biomass is a measure of the total mass of living material in each trophic level.

Bioaccumulation

The build-up of persistent or non-biodegradable pollutants within an organism or trophic level because they cannot be broken down.

Zonation

The distribution of plants or animals into specific zones according to such parameters as altitude or depth, each characterized by its dominant species.

Succcession

Succession is the process of change over time in an ecosystem involving pioneer, intermediate and climax communities. During succession, the patterns of energy flow, gross and net productivity, diversity, and mineral cycling change over time.

Simpson's Diversity Index

A measure of diversity which takes into account the number of species present, as well as the relative abundance of each species.

Lincolns Index

Allows conservationists to estimate population sizes of individual animal species. Individuals are captured, marked, released back into the population and recaptured.

Density-dependent factors

Factors that lower the birth rate or raise the death rate as a population grows in size. They are negative feedback mechanisms leading to the stability or regulation of the population.

Density- independent factors

Factors that affect a population irrespective of population density notably environmental change.

Autotroph

An organism that is able to form nutritional organic substances from simple inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide.

Heterotroph

An organism deriving its nutritional requirements from complex organic substances.

Genetic Diversity

The genetic range that is present in a population of a species. Species that have a small genetic diversity are more at risk of being wiped out by diseases. Selective breeding by humans to domesticate animals or grow plants with specific traits has reduced the gene pool in many species.

Vegetative Diversity

The number of different species of vegetation present. The greater the number of species, the greater the vegetative diversity. Communities with diverse vegetation are more likely to provide the necessary food for certain species.

Natural Selection

The process by which organisms that have better adapted to their environment will survive to produce more offspring. Theory was founded by Charles Darwin and is now known to be the main explanation for the evolution cycle.

Succession

Succession is a directed or predictable change in community structures over a certain period of time. This is due to shifts in inhabitants of an area as well as relative abundance of different species as time passes over years to centuries.

• Diversity changes through succession

• Human Activities modify succession (logging, grazing, burning)

Habitat Fragmentation

This happens when parts of a habitat are destroyed, leaving behind smaller unconnected

Hydrological Cycle

The circulation of water between the earth's oceans, atmosphere, and land.

Water cycle:

Evaporation ⟶ condensation ⟶ precipitation ⟶ runoff

OZONE

A gas molecule that is made up of three oxygen atoms

CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons)

Are a primary anthropogenic (human) cause of O3 breakdown. Used as refrigerant chemicals and propellants in aerosol containers (hair spray, febreeze, etc.)

Photochemical Smog (VOC's and 03)

Without NO to react with, O3 builds up instead of returning to O2 & NO2 overnight. O3 combines with photochem. oxidants (NO + VOCS) to form photochemical smog

Mixture of pollutants from nitrogen oxide mixed with VOC's allowing for a brown haze over very populated places like cities, most photochemical smog is from cars all being used at a specific time.

Deposition

Combustion of FF produces sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen as prim. pollutants. These gases may be converted into sec. pollutants of dry deposition or wet deposition.

Wet deposition = pollutants incorporated into clouds

Dry deposition = pollutants removed by gravity

Acid Deposition

Sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, emitted by burning fossil fuels, enter the atmosphere-where they combine with oxygen and water to form sulfuric acid and nitric acid-and return to Earth's surface

Greenhouse Gas

Gases in earth's atmosphere trap heat from the sun & radiate it back down to earth, Without greenhouse effect, earth would be too cold to support life

Stratospheric Ozone

Ozone in the stratosphere absorbs UV-C and much of UV-B radiation

Human health benefits of stratospheric ozone:

Prevention of skin cancer & cataracts

UV-B & C mutate DNA (skin cancer) & cause oxidative stress in eyes (cataracts)

Renewable Sources

Hydroelectric power- turbines that switch on whatever reliable energy is needed . Dam used to flows of water to power

Tidal Power- produces energy by using turbines in the water

Solar energy, biofuels (burning plant material), wind power, geothermal energy (waste heat from the ground)

Non Renewable

All fossil fuels, burning of fossil fuel (coal, gas) allow for a release of carbon to generate excess amount of power that led to a warming in the atmosphere, they are the cheapest use of energy meaning that most country will resort to this for their most used energy source

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

Average number of children a woman in a population will bear throughout her lifetime.

Replacement Level Fertility

The TFR required to offset deaths in a pop. and keep pop. size stable About 2.1 in developed countries (replace mom & dad) Higher in less developed countries due to higher infant mortality

Calculating Growth Rate (r)

Crude Birth Rate & Crude Death Rate (CBR & CDR)

Doubling Time (Rule of 70)

The time it takes (in years) for a population to double is equal to 70 divided by the growth rate

Age Cohorts

Groups of similarly aged individuals 0-14 = prereproductive;

15 - 44 = reproductive age;

45 + = post reproductive

Size difference between 0-14 & 15-44 indicates growth rate

Larger 0-14 cohort = current & future growth

Roughly equal 0-14 & 15-44 = slight growth/stable

Larger 15-44 = pop. decline