APES Midterm Semester 1

Capital

assets or resources; whatever interest exists in a situation

Natural capital

solar capital from the sun; sun-driven energy, hydropower, air, soil, wildlife, minerals, forests, oceans, natural purification system

Rule of 70

calculate doubling time of a population by dividing 70 by the growth rate

Carrying capacity

maximum population that can be supported which stops populations from doubling endlessly

Sustainable

Allows for continued life

Globalization

the increase in the interaction of people worldwide through the international flow of money, ideas, and culture

Sustainable yield

the highest rate renewable energy can be used without depleting its supply

Perpetual resource

resources that will carry on with or without human interference

Environmental degradation

resources' natural replacement rate is exceeded

Environmental degradation

eg water logging, salinization of soil, deforestation

ozone layer depletion, pollution, biodiversity depletion, groundwater depletion

Ecological footprint

amount of land necessary to provide daily needs

Pollution

Any addition to air, water, soil, or food that threatens health, survival, and activities of humans/animals; natural, volcanic eruptions, or anthropogenic, burning coal

Point source pollution

originates from a specific identifiable source, eg car exhaust pipe, drain pipe, coal burning factor's smoke stack; easier to pinpoint and manage/control

Non-point source pollution

widely dispersed sources make it hard to pinpoint and manage; eg sprayed/windblown pesticides fertilizer runoffs, lawns, farms, gardens, motor oil runoff

Leaching

when rain filters through electronic waste, leachate, toxic liquid, seeps into ground and into waterways

Greenhouse gas formation

Green waste, kitchen/yard waste, is added to landfills and packed down, forcing it to undergo anaerobic decomposition producing methane

Methane

primary greenhouse gas, 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide

Slash and burn method

Plot of soil left alone for a few years for soil to restore fertility naturally

Conservationists

Believed resources should be used to enhance nation’s natural capital

Preservationists

Believed humans should protect nature, not use it; wilderness should be left untouched

System

Set of factors that interact in a prediactable way and can be segregated for the purposes of study and observation (eg carbon cycle)

Environmental threshold

Tipping point that when crossed has irreconcilable consequences; Delay prevents negative feedback loop which prevents irreconcilable problem; high threshold causes delay in and negative feedback loop proceeds

Synergy

when processes interact to produce a combined effect greater than the effects of their separate sums

Quality of matter

How useful a particular form of matter is

Material efficiency

Total amount of matter required to produce a unit of goods

Conduction

Direction transfer of heat through direct collision of molecules

Convection

Transfer of heat through movement (air movement, movement of warm waters)

Heat

Total amount of kinetic energy in a substance

Temperature

Average speed of molecules at any moment

Nuclear change

Nuclei of isotopes change; eg natural radioactive decay, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion

Degradable pollutant

Non persistent; broken down my metabolic mechanisms

Radioactive decay

Unstable isotopes emit fast moving particles/high energy radiation at a fixed rate until stable

Half life

The amount of time it takes for half the nuclei to decay and emit radiation into another form

Alpha rays

Rays cannot penetrate paper

Beta rays

Rays penetrate skin but not wood; affects internal organs with high exposure

Gamma rays

Most dangerous rays; produced by solar flares, supernova explosions, pulsars, neutron stars, lighnting, nuclear exposure, radioactive decay

Nuclear fission

The splitting of nuclei; When isotopes of large mass are struck by high speed neutrons, they're split into lighter nuclei releasing more neutrons and energy in a positive feedback loop

Nuclear fusion

Combining of nuclei; generates more heat than nuclear fission; happens on the sun combining hydrogen atoms; not yet a feasible source of energy

First law of thermodynamic

Law of conservation of energy; all physical/chemical changes cannot create or destroy, energy is only converted from one form to another

Second law of thermodynamics

When energy changes form, some of the energy is degraded to lower quality energy; every energy transfer increases entropy

Sinks

Matter and energy resources end up in sinks like soil, air, water, organisms and accumulate to harmful levels

Open system

Interacts freely with environment, exchange matter and energy

Closed system

Exchange energy with environment but not matter

Isolated

Exchanges neither matter nor energy with its environment

Species

Living things that are very similar in genetic makeup, biochemistry, appearance, behavior, and can mate and produce fertile offspring

Population

Entire grouping of a species that occupies a given area

Genetic diversity

A result of chance genetic mutation and sexual reproduction

Habitat

Specific physical area a species or populations occupies

Vernal pool

Temporary puddle of water that supports a diverse range of life for a short period of time

Ecosystem services

Nutrient cycling, purification of water, natural biological control of pest, medicine and food, biodiversity and gene pool support, buffer and flood control, erosion prevention, air filtration

Troposphere

Inner thin layer of atmosphere that organisms live in; 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen

Stratosphere

Second inner layer of atmosphere; ozone abundant

Lithosphere

Land/rock layer of earth, upper mantle and earth’s crust

Biosphere

Living organisms exist and interact; has some parts of other “spheres”

Biogeochemical cycles

Cycling of vital elements; move important chemicals living things depend on through biotic and abiotic parts of the environment

Gravity

Allows planet to hold onto atmosphere, accounts for earthward movement of chemicals in biogeochemical cycles

Ecotone

Mixture of species from annexed biomes; transitional areas between two different biomes/regions

Estuary

Where fresh water meets ocean

Scavengers

Feed on decomposing organisms/waste

Anaerobic respiration

Fermentation and glycolysis; alcoholic fermentation and lactic acid fermentation

Range of tolerance

Optimum range for a population to survive

Limiting factor

One factor that takes precedence over all other factors in affecting population of organisms; abiotic factor that it alone controls population number; too much or little of an abiotic factor can be a limiting factor

Shelford’s law of tolerance

Certain factors control the abundance/distribution of an organism where levels exceed the minimum or maximum limits of tolerance for that species

Food chain

Order of trophic levels

Biomass

Weight of all organic matter

Ecological efficiency

Percentage of usable biomass transferred from one level to the next

GPP

rate of solar conversion into photosynthesis by the producers'

High GPP

Shallow waters, along coral reefs, near upwellings, forests

NPP

rate at which energy used is stored and available for use then measured as available energy at any given time; determines carrying capacity

Hydrologic cycle

Cycling of water; naturally purifies water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, sublimation, transpiration

Residence time

Amount of time water stays in one place

Nitrogen fixation

Atmospheric N2 converted to ammonia

Nitrification

Conversion of ammonia to nitrate ions

Assimiliation

absorb ammonia, ammonium ions and nitrate ions into plant roots from the water and soil

Ammonification

Ammonia/ammonium converted from nitrogen into rich organic compounds

Denitrification

Convert ammonia ions into nitrates and iterate ions then back into atmospheric N2

Evolution

A change in genetic makeup of a population; only occur in successive generations of sexual reproduction; only population evolve, not individuals

Microevolution

Small genetic changes a population experiences over generations that develop genetic variability/ changes in each generation that allows evolution to exist

Gene pool

Possible combinations of genetic material that currently exists

Allele

Different molecular forms of the same gene

Genetic variability

Shuffling of alleles during sexual reproduction that results in different combinations of alleles for each individual

Mutations

Source for new alleles

Natural selection

Combined effects of differential reproduction and adaptation result in a certain helpful gene becoming more common in successive generations; favors some genes in gene pool

Deleterious mutation

Offspring isn’t able to survive or fails to develop or rarely survive with phenotype that makes them unable to reproduce or unlikely to reproduce

Advantageous mutation

Results in new genetic combination that ensures survival of individual and thus their offspring; becomes a part of gene pool

Directional natural selection

Favors different; individuals with trait in one extreme range become more common (eg lighter colored moth as most fit until environmental conditions shifted to favor darker moths)

Stabilizing natural selection

In a stable environment, individuals that have abnormal genes, or one end of the spectrum, have no advantage and are eliminated (eg birth weight; too big or too small is not good)

Disruptive natural selection

Diversifying; environmental condition favors either extreme of spectrum and midrange organisms are eliminated

Gene flow

combine two genetic pools and reduce genetic variation between two populations; anoter way variation can be introduced to a population; flow of genes from one population to another; primarily due to mobility thus common in mobile land animals

Gene drift

Changes in the allele frequency of a population's gene pool

Adaptatino

Inherited traits that allow organism to survive and reproduce within their environment

Macroevolution

Long term evolutionary changes in entire group or species; long time scale; ex one species divides into two

Gradualism

Accumulation of small genetic change over millions of years lead to creation of new species

Punctuated equilibrium

Long periods of relatively little change punctuated by brief periods of rapid change

Genetic divergence

accumulated changes cause a population that was homogeneous to become two separate populations; result of genetic drift and reproduction isolation; primary cause of speciation

Speciation

Evolution of one species into two due to environemntal conditionsl reproductive isolation and natural selection

Allopatric speciation

Geographic isolation; a part of population is physically separated; all isolation

Peripatric speciation

Small part of physically separated population becomes a new species; peripheral isolation

Sympatric speciation

Individuals of a population start acting different and non-randomly mating with other individuals with the same unique behavior; similar speciation, shift within population

Parapatric speciation

Species spread over large area but only reproduces with local species resulting in the development of new species; part of species changes