BIO 105: Environmental Biology - Soils, Solid Waste, Botany, and Wildlife Management

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering deer overpopulation, pipeline infrastructure, solid waste dynamics, waste-to-energy technologies, botany pathways, and soil science.

Overabundance

A population level at which deer cause substantial ecological, economic, and safety impacts.

Browse / Browsing

The act of wildlife, such as deer, feeding on leaves, shoots, twigs, and young woody plants.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size of a species that a specific environment can sustainably support over time.

Lethal Management

Population reduction accomplished through regulated hunting, professional sharpshooting, or culling.

Nonlethal Management

Techniques designed to reduce human-wildlife conflicts without killing animals, such as plant fencing, eliminating attractants, repellents, and landscaping alterations.

Fertility Control

Medical treatments or sterilization procedures implemented to suppress animal reproduction in limited settings.

Edge Habitat

Boundary zones created where suburban developments—such as homes, lawns, and parks—meet woods, creating ideal shelter and diverse food sources for deer.

Healthy Regeneration Cycle

The natural forest progression where seedlings survive heavy browsing pressure to become young trees, eventually replacing the mature tree canopy.

Enbridge Line 5

A $30\text{-inch}$ diameter, $645\text{-mile}$ long pipeline constructed in 1953 (originally designed to last $20\text{ years}$) that transports up to $540{,}000\text{ barrels}$ of crude oil and propane per day.

Great Lakes Tunnel Project

A proposed replacement project by Enbridge, partnered with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to place a replacement for Line 5 in a tunnel $350\text{ ft}$ underground.

Solid Waste

Any unwanted or discarded material that is not a liquid or gas, colloquially described as "raw materials we are too stupid to use."

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)

The discarded everyday trash generated by consumers, comprising the $1.5\%$ non-industrial portion of total solid waste, of which $24\%$ is currently recycled in the United States.

Leachate

Contaminated liquid ("trash juice") that forms when water filters down through solid waste in a landfill, carrying dissolved pollutants into groundwater if uncontained.

The 4 R's

A waste management paradigm shift focused on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Redesign (such as manufacturing leased, non-toxic carpets or hybrid vehicles).

William McDonough Leased Carpet

An example of industrial redesign where carpets are manufactured from non-toxic materials and leased rather than sold, allowing the manufacturer to reclaim and repurpose materials once used.

Waste to Energy

The process of incinerating municipal trash to generate electricity while using specialized equipment to treat and clean gaseous emissions.

Furnace (Waste to Energy)

The combustion chamber in a waste-to-energy facility that burns refuse and destroys hazardous dioxins by operating at temperatures of $1200^\circ\text{F}$.

$NO_x$ Treatment

The injection of ammonia into the flue gas stream of an incinerator to convert harmful nitrogen oxides ($NO_x$) into nitrogen ($N_2$) and water ($H_2O$).

Limestone Slurry Scrubber

A pollution control device that sprays a limestone slurry mist into exhaust gases to neutralize and capture sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$).

Carbon Scrubber

An emission control device in an incineration plant that utilizes activated carbon to capture vaporized mercury from flue gas.

Baghouse

A fabric filter system in a waste-to-energy plant that traps and removes fine particulate matter before cleaned flue gas is released through the stack.

State of the Art Landfill

An updated engineered landfill facility designed to protect ecosystems by collecting methane gas for energy and pumping out leachate to be cleaned at a wastewater treatment plant.

Solar Fusion

The nuclear reaction powering the Sun, in which two hydrogen atoms are fused under intense heat and pressure to yield helium and solar energy ($72\%$ hydrogen and $28\%$ helium composition).

Photosynthesis

The biological process in plants where solar energy, carbon dioxide, and water are converted into sugar, oxygen, and water: $CO_2 + 2H_2O + \text{Sunlight} \rightarrow O_2 + CH_2O + H_2O$.

Hill Reaction

The light-dependent stage of photosynthesis where plant pigments absorb sunlight and use that energy to split water molecules.

Calvin Cycle

The light-independent stage of photosynthesis during which carbon dioxide entered from the atmosphere is fixed into organic sugars.

Gross Photosynthesis

The total amount of carbon dioxide fixed by a plant per unit of time (e.g., $3\text{ g}$ per hour).

Net Photosynthesis

The true rate of organic matter accumulation in a plant, calculated as gross photosynthesis minus the rate of cellular respiration.

Respiration

The metabolic process in which stored sugars are oxidized to release cellular energy: $C_6H_{12}O_6 + 6O_2 \rightarrow 6CO_2 + 6H_2O + \text{Energy}$.

Glycolysis

The initial metabolic pathway of cellular respiration that breaks down sugar molecules.

Krebs Cycle

The second major stage of cellular respiration that releases carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) as organic molecules are broken down.

Electron Transport Chain

The final stage of cellular respiration that uses electrons to produce water ($H_2O$) and large amounts of usable energy.

Soil

A complex natural body composed of eroded bedrock, minerals, decaying organic matter, water, air, and living organisms.

Clay

The finest mineral component of soil, characterized by the smallest individual particle size.

Silt

A soil texture class composed of mineral particles intermediate in size between clay and sand.

Sand

The coarsest soil texture component, distinguished by having the largest particle size.

Loam

A balanced, fertile soil mixture composed of sand, silt, and clay.

O Horizon

The topmost layer of the soil profile, made up primarily of fresh and decomposing surface litter.

A Horizon (Topsoil)

A dark, nutrient-rich upper soil layer composed of decomposed organic matter, living organisms, and inorganic minerals.

E Horizon (Zone of Leaching)

The soil layer beneath the A horizon where downward-percolating water dissolves and carries away minerals and organic compounds.

B Horizon (Subsoil)

The soil horizon that accumulates iron, aluminum, humic compounds, and clay leached from overlying layers, serving as an anchor zone for mature plant roots.

C Horizon

The soil layer containing weathered parent material and partially broken-down inorganic rock situated directly above solid bedrock.

Immature Soil

An early stage in soil development consisting only of bedrock, coarse rock fragments, and pioneer organisms such as moss and lichen.

Young Soil

A developing soil profile characterized by regolith, decomposing organic debris, grasses, and small shrubs before distinct layers form.

Mature Soil

A fully developed soil system possessing distinct horizons ($O$, $A$, $E$, $B$, $C$), deep root networks, trees, fungi, bacteria, and insects.

Terracing

A soil conservation practice that transforms sloped hillsides into stair-stepped flat benches to minimize runoff and erosion, commonly used in Latin American agriculture.

Nitrogen-Fixing Crops

Plants such as soybeans and clover that work symbiotically with soil bacteria to convert atmospheric nitrogen into bioavailable soil nitrate through crop rotation.

Vegetation Buffer

A protected strip of permanent plant cover planted adjacent to cultivated land or waterways to slow surface runoff and capture eroded soil.