Environmental Science and Earth Physical Systems Vocabulary

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key topics in environmental science, basic chemistry, physics of energy, cellular respiration, photosynthesis, plate tectonics, and geology based on lecture presentations.

Environmental Science

The interdisciplinary study of how the natural world works, how the environment affects us, and how we affect the environment.

Renewable Natural Resources

Natural resources that replenish over short periods, including inexhaustible resources like solar and wind energy, as well as exhaustible resources like timber, fresh water, and soil.

Nonrenewable Natural Resources

Natural resources that exist in finite supply and form far more slowly than they are consumed by human activity, such as crude oil, natural gas, coal, and minerals.

Ecosystem Services

Essential biological and physical processes provided by healthy natural systems, including air and water purification, nutrient cycling, climate regulation, flood prevention, and erosion control.

Agricultural Revolution

A major historical transition approximately $10{,}000$ years ago when humans began cultivating crops and domesticating animals, leading to settled village life and accelerated population growth.

Industrial Revolution

A historical shift beginning in the mid-$1700\text{s}$ from rural agricultural life to an urban society powered by fossil fuels and industrial factory production.

Fossil Fuels

Nonrenewable energy sources formed from the compressed remains of ancient organisms, including coal, crude oil, and natural gas.

Ecological Footprint

The cumulative area of biologically productive land and water required to provide the resources a person or population consumes and to dispose of or assimilate their generated waste.

Overshoot

The condition of surpassing Earth's biocapacity to sustainably support human resource consumption and waste production.

Natural Capital

Earth's total accumulated wealth of natural resources and ecological services.

Environmentalism

A social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world from human-induced degradation, distinct from the objective scientific discipline of environmental science.

Descriptive Science

A scientific approach that involves gathering basic factual information and detailed observations about organisms, materials, systems, or phenomena.

Hypothesis-Driven Science

Scientific research structured around forming and testing proposed explanations for natural phenomena through experiments and data analysis.

Scientific Method

A formalized, logical sequence of steps used to test ideas, consisting of observation, question formation, hypothesis creation, prediction, testing, and result analysis.

Peer Review

The formal evaluation process where expert scientists critique a researcher's experimental design, data, and conclusions prior to publication in a scientific journal.

Theory

A broad, extensively tested explanation of natural phenomena that unifies many related hypotheses and is supported by a large body of evidence.

Paradigm Shift

A major change in the dominant scientific view or framework resulting from new evidence and scientific breakthroughs.

Sustainability

A guiding principle of resource management aimed at conserving Earth's resources and ecosystem functions so that human society can satisfy present needs without compromising future generations.

Environmental Literacy

A basic working knowledge of Earth's physical and ecological systems and human-environment interactions.

Matter

All material in the universe that has mass and occupies physical space.

Law of Conservation of Matter

The fundamental physical principle stating that matter can be transformed from one substance into another, but cannot be created or destroyed.

Element

A fundamental chemical substance possessing specific physical and chemical properties that cannot be broken down into simpler substances.

Protons

Positively charged subatomic particles located within the atomic nucleus that define an element's atomic number.

Neutrons

Uncharged subatomic particles located inside the atomic nucleus.

Electrons

Negatively charged subatomic particles that orbit the atomic nucleus in discrete shell levels.

Atomic Number

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

Mass Number

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

Isotopes

Atoms of the same chemical element that contain identical numbers of protons but varying numbers of neutrons, resulting in different mass numbers.

Radioisotopes

Unstable isotopes that decay over time by emitting subatomic particles and high-energy radiation until transforming into stable isotopes.

Half-Life

The precise amount of time required for half of the radioisotopes in a given sample to decay.

Ions

Electrically charged atoms or groups of atoms formed by the gain or loss of electrons.

Ionizing Radiation

High-energy radiation emitted by radioisotopes that can strip electrons from atoms or molecules, creating reactive ions.

Compound

A molecule composed of two or more different elements chemically bonded together, such as water ($H_2O$) or carbon dioxide ($CO_2$).

Covalent Bond

A chemical bond formed when participating atoms share electrons.

Hydrogen Bond

A weak electrical attraction between the positively charged hydrogen atom of one polar molecule and the negatively charged atom of another polar molecule.

Proteins

Biological polymers made up of amino acid chains that serve as structural components, immune defenses, and chemical catalysts (enzymes).

Nucleic Acids

Macromolecules composed of nucleotide chains, including $DNA$ and $RNA$, that encode and transmit hereditary genetic information.

Carbohydrates

Organic compounds consisting of simple sugars like glucose ($C_6H_{12}O_6$) and complex structural polymers like cellulose and chitin.

Lipids

A diverse class of non-polar, water-insoluble organic compounds that includes energy-storing fats and oils, structural waxes, and steroid hormones.

pH Scale

A logarithmic measurement scale quantifying hydrogen ion ($H^+$) concentration in solution, ranging from $0$ (highly acidic) to $14$ (highly basic), with $7$ representing neutral pure water.

Potential Energy

The energy of position or chemical composition stored within physical or biological systems.

Kinetic Energy

The active energy of motion.

First Law of Thermodynamics

The law of physics stating that energy can change form from one type to another, but cannot be created or destroyed.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

The law of physics stating that energy spontaneously changes from a higher-quality, more-ordered state to a lower-quality, less-ordered state (increasing entropy) during energy transfers.

Autotrophs

Organisms that utilize solar radiation directly to produce their own organic food molecules via photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis

The biochemical pathway by which autotrophs synthesize glucose ($C_6H_{12}O_6$) and oxygen ($O_2$) from carbon dioxide ($CO_2$), water ($H_2O$), and light energy.

Chloroplasts

Specialized cell organelles in plant and algal cells where photosynthetic reactions take place.

Chlorophyll

The primary light-absorbing pigment in chloroplasts that absorbs solar energy to initiate light reactions.

Cellular Respiration

The metabolic process in organisms that breaks down glucose ($C_6H_{12}O_6$) using oxygen ($O_2$) to produce usable energy, releasing carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and water ($H_2O$).

Heterotrophs

Organisms that gain energy and organic nutrients by consuming other living or dead organisms.

Plate Tectonics

The movement of rigid lithospheric plates over Earth's surface at rates of $2$ to $15$ centimeters per year, driven by thermal convection currents in the mantle.

Divergent Plate Boundary

A tectonic region where tectonic plates pull apart from one another as magma wells up from the asthenosphere and cools to create new crust.

Transform Plate Boundary

A tectonic region where two plates slip and grind horizontally past each other along strike-slip faults, creating friction that leads to earthquakes.

Subduction

The tectonic process at convergent boundaries where dense oceanic lithosphere sinks beneath lighter continental lithosphere into the mantle.

Continental Collision

The tectonic process at convergent boundaries where two continental landmasses compress, bend, and buckle upward to form mountain ranges.

Rock Cycle

The continuous geologic process through which rocks and minerals are formed, broken down, transformed, and reassembled over long time scales.

Extrusive Igneous Rock

Rock formed when magma erupts as lava onto Earth's surface and cools rapidly, resulting in fine-grained, smooth textures like basalt.

Intrusive Igneous Rock

Rock formed when magma cools slowly beneath Earth's surface, permitting mineral crystallization and producing coarse, grainy rocks like granite.

Sedimentary Rock

Rock formed when weathered mineral or biological sediments accumulate, undergo compaction, and are cemented together by minerals over time, such as sandstone.

Metamorphic Rock

Rock whose mineral structure and physical properties are altered by extreme underground heat and pressure, such as gneiss formed from granite.

Mass Wasting

The downward gravitational movement of soil, regolith, and rock along unstable hillsides and slopes.

Tsunami

A massive surge or series of ocean waves generated by the sudden displacement of large volumes of ocean water by undersea earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or coastal landslides.