radel midterm

Environmental Science Midterm Review

Unit 1: Earth’s Formation and Structure

Terms:

Accretion Disk, Asthenosphere, Continental Crust, Continental Drift, Convergent Boundary, Core, Crust, Differentiation, Divergent Boundary, Erosion, Frost Line, Gravity, Igneous Rock, Inexhaustible Resource, Magma, Mantle, Metamorphic Rock, Meteor, Meteorite, Mid-Ocean Ridges, Mineral, Mineral Resource, Mountaintop Removal, Nonrenewable Resource, Nuclear Fusion, Ocean Crust, Ocean Trench, Open-pit Mining, Ore, Overburden, Plate Interactions, Plate Tectonics, Radioactive Decay, Radiometric Dating, Renewable Resource, Reserve, Rock Cycle, Sedimentary Rock, Strip Mining, Subduction, Subsurface Mining, Surface Mining, Tectonic Plate, Transform Boundary, Volcano

Unit 2: Ecosystem Dynamics

Terms:

Abiotic, Aerobic Respiration, Anaerobic Respiration, Aquifer, Atmosphere, Autotroph, Biogeochemical Cycle, Biosphere, Biotic, Carbon Cycle, Carnivore, Climate Change, Combustion, Condensation, Consumer, Decomposer, Denitrifying Bacteria, Detritivore, Energy Pyramid, Erosion, Evaporation, Food Chain, Food Web, Geosphere, Greenhouse Effect, Groundwater, Herbivore, Heterotroph, Hydrologic Cycle, Hydrosphere, Mass Extinction, Nitrogen Cycle, Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria, Nutrient Cycle, Omnivore, Percolation, Phosphorus Cycle, Photosynthesis, Primary Consumer, Producer, Reservoir, Secondary Consumer, Sequestration, Surface Runoff, Tertiary Consumer, Transpiration, Trophic Level

Unit 3: The Environment and Sustainability

Terms:

Biodiversity, Ecology, Ecological Footprint, Ecosystem, Ecosystem Service, Environment, Environmental Degradation, Environmentalism, Environmental Science, Exponential Growth, Full-cost Pricing, Inexhaustible Resource, Natural Capital, Natural Income, Natural Resource, Nonrenewable Resource, Renewable Resource, Sustainability, Tragedy of the Commons

1.     What is the environment? The surrounding or conditions in which an ecosystem lives in

2.     What is an ecosystem? A community of living organisms, interacting with non- living organisms

3.     How old is the Earth?  4.543 billion years

What are some pieces of evidence that support this estimate?

Radiometric dating of anciet rocks and lunar samples

4.     A. What are tectonic plates and what causes their movement?

The plates can be pieces of cracked shell that the rest of the hot molten rock of the eart mantle the heart from the radioactive processes with the planets interior causes the plates to move sometime towards and sometimes away from eachother.

B. Draw and label convergent, divergent, and transverse (transform) plates.

C. Compare oceanic and continental crusts.

Oceanic = thinner, denser, and dark basalt rocks.

Continental= thicker, less dense light granitic rocks

D. Fill in the following table with examples of geographic features that can form in the descriptions provided.

5.     Define the following rock types.

Igneous: lava rocks, ignite=on fire. Rock made from dry up lava

Metamorphic: metamorphic=to change; the rock starts off as one time and rock and heta changed it

Sedimentary: sediment is small particle; sand/mud/salt is a sediment. A sedimentary rock are the sediment pushed together.

6.     Why is the phosphorous cycle such a slow cycle?

The phosphorus cycle is slow because doesn’t happen in the atmosphere. It is stored in rocks, soil and sediments.

7.     What is the greenhouse effect?  What gasses interact with solar energy to create this phenomenon?

The greenhouse effect is the trapping if heat in earth atmosphere by certain gases.

Gases like carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor and nitrous oxide interact to create this phenomenon.

8.     Define the following.  What cycle are they associated with?

Transpiration: plants release water vapor into the atmosphere through their leaves

Evaporation: water changes from liquid to water vapor due to heat

Surface runoff: the flow of excess water over the surface into lakes, rivers and oceans,

Aquifer: underground layer of water bearing rocks that store ground water.

These are all apart of the water cycle.

9.     What is a mass extinction?  What type of natural events have caused past mass extinctions?  Explain.

Mass extinction is an event where at 75% of species become extinct within a relatively short period, less than two million years.

Natural causes that led to mass extinctions is asteroid impacts, volcanic activity, climate change, ocean anoxia

10.  Define and give an example of each of the following:

Renewable resource: replenished naturally over time:

Sun, wind

Nonrenewable resource: a natural resource that can be consumed faster than they can be replenished,

Oil, coal nuclear energy

Exhaustible resource: a natural resource that is available in limited quantities and can be completely used up

Coal, fossil fuels

Inexhaustible resource: unlimited but is not likely to be exhausted by human activity.

Wind, sun, solar energy, tides,

11.  Define and give an example of each of the following:

Consumer/heterotroph

Producer/autotroph

Decomposer

12.  What is sustainability?  Why are humans living unsustainably?

13.  Draw a simple energy pyramid with four levels by filling in the triangle with an organism at each level.  Why are there fewer third-level consumers than first-level consumers?

There are fewer third level consumers than first level consumer because theirs is a significant energy loss at each tropic level

                                                                                                         Tertiary- snake

                                                                                   secondary- frog

                                                                                       primary- grasshopper

                                                                                       producers-plants

14.  Explain the tragedy of the commons using at least 2 of the examples discussed in class.

When water runs out because people take to much.

When the fish population dies out   because of too much fishermen

15.  What is the difference between ecosystem services and natural resources?  Provide an example of each.

16.  What is full-cost pricing in terms of environmental science?

A method where the final price of a product or service reflect of the cost of production going into that product of service. Like pollution, damage to natural resources, and factory process

17.  Why is environmental science considered “interdisciplinary”? because it integrates knowledge from various field of science like biology, chemistry, physics, geology, geography, economics, sociology, and political science,

18.  How do humans benefit from natural ecosystem services, and how do we disrupt those services?

Human benefit form natural ecostystems services like food, clean, and water, but we disrupt these services through deforestation, pollution, climate change, overpopulation and urbanization.

19.  How are photosynthesis and cellular respiration different?

Photosynthesis is energy from the sun into plants and cellular respiration is how plants release the energy