AP Environmental Science Ch.1 Modules 1-3

Not completed yet, but vocab for modules 1 and 2 are completed.

Environment

The sum of all the conditions surrounding us that influence life.

Environmental Science

The field of study that looks at interactions among human systems and those found in nature

Ecosystem

A particular location on Earth with interaction biotic and abiotic components.

Biotic

A living organism

Abiotic

A nonliving thing.

Environmentalism

A social movement that seeks to protect the environment through lobbying, activism, and education.

Environmental Studies

The field of study that includes environmental science and additional subjects such as environmental policy, economics, literature, and ethics.

Ecosystem services

The processes by which life-supporting resources such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops are produced.

Environmental Indicator

An indicator that describes the current state of an environmental system.

Biodiversity

The diversity of life forms in an environment.

Genetic Diversity

A measure of the genetic variation among individuals in a population.

Species

A group of organisms that is distinct from other groups in its morphology (body form and structure), behavior, or biochemical properties.

Species diversity

The number of species in a region or in a particular ecosystem.

Speciation

The evolution of new species.

Background extinction rate

The average rate at which species become extinct over the long term.

Greenhouse gasses

Gasses in Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat near the surface.

Anthropogentic

derived from humans

Per capita

Amount per person in a country or unit of population.

Development

Improvement in human well-being through economic advancement.

Sustainability

Living on Earth in a way that allows humans to use resources without future generations of those resources.

Sustainable development

Development that balances current human wellbeing and economic advancement with resource management for the benefit of future generations.

Biophilia

Love of life.

Ecological footprint

A measurement of how much an individual consumes, expressed in the area of land.

Scientific Method

An objective method to explore the natural world, draw inferences from it, and predict the outcome of certain events, processes, or changes.

Hypothesis

A testible conjecture about how something works.

Variable

Any categories, conditions, factors, or traits that differ in the natural world or in experimental situations.

Independent variable

A variable that is not dependent on other factors.

Example: Age of individual or elevation above sea level.

Dependent variable

A variable that is dependent on other fcators.

Example: Concentrations of a pollutant or number of deformities in a fish population

Null Hypothesis

A prediction that there is no difference between the groups or conditions that are being compared.

Example: Fish deaths have no relationship to something in the water.

Replication

The data collection procedure of taking repeated measurements.

Sample size (n)

The number of times a measurement is replicated in a data collection.

A sample size that is too small can lead to misleading results.

Accuracy

How close measured value is to the actual true value.

Precision

How close the repeated measurements of a sample are to one another.

Uncertainty

An estimate of how much a measured or calculated value differs from a true value.

Inductive reasoning

The process of making general statements from specific facts or examples.

Deductive reasoning

Applying a general statement to specific facts or examples.

Theory

A hypothesis that has been repeatedly tested and confirmed by multiple groups of researchers and has reached wide acceptance.

Control groups

In a scientific investigation, a group that experiences exactly the same conditions as the experimental group, except for the single variable under study.

Natural Experiment

A natural event that acts as an experiment treatment in an ecosystem.