Environmental Geology: Biodiversity, Evolution, and Extinction

Vocabulary flashcards covering chapter 4 topics on biodiversity, ecosystem roles, evolution, speciation, geographic isolation, and mass extinctions.

Biodiversity

All of the variety of life (species) on Earth.

Gross Primary Productivity

The rate at which plant matter biomass is produced from the available nutrients and sunlight.

Rivet Hypothesis

A hypothesis stating that an ecosystem slowly loses species like an airplane losing rivets, until at some point the ecosystem will collapse (the plane will crash).

Global Ecosystem Services Value

Services provided by nature globally estimated to be worth approximately US$150\text{ trillion}$ annually (The Nature Conservancy 2025).

Native Species

A species that normally lives and thrives in a particular ecosystem.

Nonnative and Invasive Species

Species that migrate or are introduced into an ecosystem.

Indicator Species

Species that provide an early warning to changes in environmental conditions of the ecosystem.

Keystone Species

Species that have a large effect on types and abundance of other species in an ecosystem.

Evolution

Also described as 'Descent with Modification', the process by which genes of populations of species change genetically (random mutations) over time and are inherited.

Fossil Record

Remains found in a definite and determinable order, from least to most advanced in rock layers around the world, providing evidence for evolution.

Natural Selection

The process where individuals with certain heritable mutations/genetic traits are more likely to survive and reproduce under specific environmental conditions, passing these traits on to offspring as adaptations.

Species

A group of organisms with a unique set of characteristics that can no longer interbreed with the ancestor group.

Evolutionary Tree Diagram

A phylogenetic diagram illustrating evolutionary lineages from protocells branching into Eubacteria, Archaebacteria, Protists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals.

Geographic Isolation

Physical separation driving the evolution of new species, caused by factors such as changing river migration, natural hazards, roads/development, and plate tectonics.

Geologic Time Scale Chart

A table outlining Earth's eras, periods, time in millions of years ago, and major evolutionary and mass extinction events.

Extinction

The irreversible loss of an entire species.

Mass Extinctions Graph

A timeline graph tracking the number of biological families over millions of years, highlighting five prior mass extinction events.