Human Ecology and Climate Change Flashcards

Flashcards covering the definitions and concepts of Human Ecology, Ecosystem components, Carrying Capacity, Sustainability, and Climate Change as presented in the lecture notes.

Public Health

The science and art of preventing disease, promoting health, and prolonging life through the organized effort of society, encompassing preventive medicine, social medicine, and community health.

Ecology

The study of interactions of organisms with their environments or the science of the mutual relationship between living organisms and their environments.

Oikos

The Greek word meaning "a house," from which the term ecology is derived.

Human Ecology

An interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their biological, physical, cultural, economic, political, natural, social, and built environments.

Ellen Swallow Richards

The individual who first introduced the term "oekology" in 1892 and subsequently developed the term "human ecology."

Ecosystem

Everything in a specified area, consisting of abiotic components like air and water, and biotic components including all living organisms.

Abiotic

The non-living parts of an ecosystem, such as air, soil, water, and physical structures, including everything built by humans.

Biotic

The living parts of an ecosystem, including microorganisms, plants, and animals (including humans), which make up its biological community.

Producers

Organisms such as green plants and certain bacteria that are capable of producing their own food through photosynthesis.

Consumers

Organisms, such as animals, that obtain their food from plants, other animals, or both; they can be primary or higher-order secondary types.

Decomposers

Also known as Recyclers, these are organisms like fungi and bacteria that decompose dead plants and animals for their food.

Social System

Everything about people, including their population, psychology, and social organization that shapes their behavior.

Ecological Balance

The perfect balance or equilibrium existing between various organisms in the natural environment within the biosphere.

Population

The number of organisms of the same species in a particular geographical area that have the capacity for interbreeding.

Exponential Growth

The increase in number or size at a constantly growing rate, often the result of a reinforcing feedback loop like a snowball effect.

Carrying Capacity (K)

The maximum population size of a species that an environment can sustain indefinitely given the food, habitat, water, and other available necessities.

Regulating Factor

Any factor that keeps population size at equilibrium, such as limited food supply or space, which causes populations to decrease when they exceed carrying capacity.

Overpopulation

A condition occurring when a population exceeds the carrying capacity of an area or environment, caused by growth in numbers or reduction in capacity.

Ecological Footprint

An analytical tool used to calculate the resource consumption and waste assimilation requirements of a human population in terms of corresponding fertile land area.

Environmental Sustainability

The maintenance of factors and practices that contribute to the quality of the environment on a long-term basis, meeting present needs without compromising future generations.

Sustainable Yield

The principle that the rate of harvest for renewable resources should not exceed the rate of their regeneration.

Sustainable Waste Disposal

The principle that the rates of waste generation from projects should not exceed the assimilative capacity of the environment.

Renewable Resource

A natural resource that can replenish over time through biological reproduction or naturally recurring processes, such as biomass, water, wind, and solar energy.

Non-renewable Resource

A natural resource that cannot be reproduced or grown on a scale that sustains its consumption rate, such as fossil fuels, nuclear power, and metal ores.

Time Lags

Delays in a population's response to environmental conditions that cause population size to oscillate around the carrying capacity (K).

Weather

Whatever is happening outdoors in a given place at a given time, measured by wind, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and precipitation.

Climate

The aggregated pattern of weather, including averages, extremes, timing, and spatial distribution of variables like temperature and snowfall over long periods.

Climate Variability

Changes in climate from one year to another, often caused by remote ocean conditions such as El Niño.

El Niño

An irregularly occurring series of climatic changes characterized by unusually warm, nutrient-poor water off northern Peru and Ecuador, affecting global wind and rain patterns.

Global Warming

The average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere near the Earth's surface and in the troposphere, primarily driven by greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Change

Any significant or distinct change in measures of climate, such as temperature, rainfall, or wind patterns, lasting for decades or longer.

Greenhouse Gas

A gas in the atmosphere, such as $CO_2$ or $CH_4$, that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range, trapping heat in the lower atmosphere.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

Organic compounds once used in refrigeration that release chlorine when broken down by UV radiation, leading to the destruction of the ozone layer.

IPCC

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, created by the WMO and UNEP in 1988 to bring scientists together to report on climate change.

Kyoto Protocol

An international treaty born from the UNFCCC in 1997 aimed at curbing activities that lead to climate change.

Paris Agreement

The current international document guiding global action on climate change, which came into force in 2016 as a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol.

Carbon Trading

A global strategy to combat climate change involving the buying and selling of credits that allow a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon Sinking

A strategy to combat climate change by creating or maintaining reservoirs that accumulate and store carbon-containing chemical compounds for an indefinite period.