Untitled Flashcards Set

Adaptation – Living things change over time to survive and have babies. These changes can be:

• Physical (body parts, like a giraffe’s long neck).

• Behavioral (actions, like birds migrating).

• Physiological (how their bodies work, like sweating to cool down).

Evolution and How It Happens – Evolution is how living things slowly change over generations. This happens because of:

• Natural selection (stronger traits help survival).

• Genetic drift (random changes in genes).

• Gene flow (genes mixing between groups).

• Mutations (random changes in DNA).

• New species form when groups become too different to have babies together.

Do Individuals Evolve? – No! Individual animals or people don’t evolve. Evolution happens in groups over long periods when genes change in the population.

Sustainability – Using resources wisely so future generations have what they need too. This means balancing nature, money, and people’s needs.

Fairness in the Environment –

• Social justice – Making sure all people have equal access to resources and opportunities.

• Environmental justice – Making sure no one suffers more from pollution or environmental harm.

Precautionary Principle – If something might be harmful, it’s better to be safe and take action, even if we don’t have all the scientific proof yet.

Natural Resources – Things we get from nature:

• Renewable (won’t run out if used wisely – like sunlight, wind, and forests).

• Non-renewable (can run out – like oil and coal).

• Sustainability means using them in a way that won’t deplete them.

Different Ways People View Nature –

• Human-centered (nature exists for us to use).

• Life-centered (all living things matter).

• Ecosystem-centered (the whole system, including land and water, is important).

Science in Ecology – Scientists study nature by:

• Watching and collecting information.

• Making guesses (hypotheses).

• Testing ideas with experiments.

• Analyzing results.

• Getting other scientists to check their work (peer review).

Energy and Matter in Nature –

Important Nature Cycles –

Food Chain Levels –

Roles in Nature & Biomes –