Environmental Science Quiz

A system is comprised of inputs, actions, and outputs.

Up to ~1/6 of tree species in the lower 48 states are threatened with extinction.

Up to 1/5 of reptiles are threatened with extinction.

Approximately 1 million species may go extinct in the next decade.

Environmental scientists investigate whether the Earth’s natural systems are being damaged by activities. They examine ecosystem services and environmental indicators.

Provisioning Services: Food production, water, wood and fiber, fuel. Supporting Services: Nutrient cycling, soil formation, primary production, habitat provision. Regulating Services: Climate regulation, flood regulation, water purification. Cultural Services: Spiritual, aesthetic, educational, recreational

Threats on biological diversity can cause extinction rates to increase. Threats on food production can cause uncertainties about feeding everyone in the future. Threats on the average global surface temperatures can cause temperatures to increase. Threats on human population can cause slower growth rates.

The natural or “background” extinction rate is the actual estimates extinction rate.

Long-term agricultural production has outpaced population growth, though inequalities remain. Grain supply is impacted by human conflict, rising temperatures, and drought.

Rapidly increasing populations place demands on our limited resources. Around 1 million additional people are added to the Earth every five days.

As human population grows, resources necessary for survival become increasingly depleted. Some natural resources are finite in quantity and cannot be replenished.

Observing and questioning is the first step of the scientific process. Forming a hypothesis is the second step. A hypothesis is a proposed answer to a research question, or an explanation for a relationship, based upon previous knowledge and current observations. Collecting data is the third step. It is done using observations from your five senses or from equipment. Data collection requires replication (taking repeated measurements) and sample size (the number of times the measurement is repeated). Scientists try to make sure sample size is large enough that it minimizes ability to effect results. Data collections considers accuracy (how close a measured value is to the actual or true value) and precision (how close the repeated measurements are to one another).

Large systems are often comprised of smaller, interrelated and interconnected systems. Flow of matter and energy between systems is integral to environmental science. “Boundaries” between each system can be defined by points of view of different researchers.

Systems analysis is the investigation of how inputs, actions, and outputs of a systems are impacted under different conditions.

Steady state is when inputs equal outputs. The system doesn’t change over time.

Atoms are tiny particles that are the building blacks of everything around us.

Elements represent all of the different types of atoms we know exist. An element is a group of the same kind of atoms.

Molecule describes two of more atoms held together.

Compounds are created when two of more atoms of different elements are held together.

Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen atoms attract each other, giving water a set of unique properties.

An ecosystem is a particular location on Earth distinguished by interacting living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components. Energy is lost as it moves through an ecosystem.

Producers or autotrophs capture energy from the sun and converts it to food (sugar) via photosynthesis.

The conversion of solar energy into chemical energy unlocked energy stored in sugar and oxygen.

Consumers, or heterotrophs cannot photosynthesize and must consume other organisms to obtain their energy. These can be herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores.

Food chains are simple, linear paths that shows who eats whom in a given ecosystem. Any ecosystem may have dozens of individual, interconnected chains.

Primary consumers consumer producers, they’re generally known as herbivores.

Secondary consumers consume primary consumers, they’re generally carnivores.

Tertiary consumers consume secondary consumers.

The trophic level is the different level at which organisms feed or capture energy. Most energy is lost as heat, with only a small percentage being passed on to the next level.

Food webs account for multiple food chains and complex relationships between organisms; linkage of all chains together that show the many connections of species that interact in an area.

Productivity is the amount of energy available in an ecosystem determines the amount of producers and consumers that it can support.

Net Primary Producer (NPP) energy captured minus energy respired by producers, as well as accounting for death of plant tissues.

Biomass is the total mass of all living matter in a specific area. NPP determines the rate at which biomass accumulates.

Ecological efficiency is the proportion of consumed energy that can be passed from one trophic level to another.