APES Midterm

Unit 1-5

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 interacting biotic and abiotic components.

Biotic

Living components of an ecosystem.

Abiotic

Nonliving components of an ecosystem.

Environmentalism

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

Sustainability

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

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 testable 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.

Dependent variable

A variable that is dependent on other factors.

Control group

A group that experiences exactly the same conditions as the experimental group, except for the single variable under study.

Replication

The data collection procedure of taking repeated measurements.

Sample size (n)

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

Tragedy of the commons

The tendency of shared, limited resources to become depleted if it is not regulated in some way.

Externality

An area similar to a suburb, but unconnected to any central city or densely populated area.

Carbon Footprint

A measure of the total carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emissions from the activities, both direct and indirect, of a person, country, or other entity.

Sustainable development

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

Maximum sustainable yield (MSY)

The largest quantity of a renewable resource that can be harvested indefinitely.

Anthropogenic

Derived from human activities.

Ecosystem services

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

Provision

A good produced by an ecosystem that humans can use directly.

Aquaculture

The farming of fish, shellfish, and seaweed.

Point source

A distinct location from which pollution is directly produced.

Nonpoint source

A diffuse area that produces pollution.

Eutrophication

Excess nutrients from human activities that make their way into water bodies; it causes nutrient pollution that alters food webs and harms water quality.

Thermal pollution

Occurs when humans cause a substantial change in the temperature of a water body.

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)

The amount of oxygen a quantity of water uses over a period of time at specific temperature.

Septic system

A relatively small and simple sewage treatment system, made up of a septic tank and a leach field, often used for homes in rural areas.

Kyoto Protocol

An international agreement that sets a goal for global emissions of greenhouse gases from all industrialized countries to be reduced by 5.2 percent below their 1990 levels by 2012.

Marine Mammal Protection Act

A 1972 U.S. law that prohibits the killing of all marine mammals in the United States and prohibits the import or export of any marine mammal body parts.

Endangered species

Species that are likely to go extinct in the near future.

Thermal inversion

An atmospheric condition in which a relatively warm layer of air at mid-altitude covers a layer of cold, dense air below.