Chapter 1: Ecosystems

• Ecosystem: Community of living organisms interacting with non-living components.

  • Organisms: A living thing that can function on its own.

  • Species: Organisms that resemble each other

  • Population: Same species occupying a specific area.

  • Community: Population of different species.

• Symbiosis: Any type of close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms of the same or different species.

  • Amensalism: One species suffers, other is not affeced.

  • Commensalism: One species benefits, and the other isn’t.

  • Competition: Rivalry of species over same resources.

  • Mutualism: Both species benefit.

  • Parasitism: One species benefits and the other is harmed.

  • Predation: Predator kills and eat their prey.

  • Saprottrophism: Organism that feeds on nonliving organic matter.

• Resource Partitioning

  • Morphological partitioning: Two species shares same resources; evolved slightly different structures.

  • Spatial partitioning: Species use same resource occupying different areas.

  • Temporal partitioning: Two species eliminate direct competition; utilizing same resource at diffrent times.

• Terrestrial Biomes

  • Deserts: An area that receives no more than 25 centimeters of rainfall a year.

  • Forests: Area with large number of trees.

    • Tropical Rainforests: Occurs in tropical areas of heavy rainfalls.

    • Temperate Deciduous Forests: Occurs in association of seasonally wet and dry or monsoon climates.

    • Temperate Coniferous Forests: Occurs in low levels of precipitation.

  • Taiga: A forest of the cold, subarctic region.

    • Southern Taiga: Also known as boreal forest.

    • Northern Taiga: Approaches tree line and tundra biome.

  • Grasslands: Lands dominated by grasses.

    • Savannas: A grassy plain with scattered individual trees.

    • Temperate Grasslands: Grasses are dominant vegetation, trees and shrubs are absent.

  • Tundra: A flat, treeless, Arctic region.

    • Arctic tundra: Circles North Pole extending South to the Taiga; cold, dry, desert-like.

    • Alpine tundra: Located in mountains where trees cannot grow.

• Aquatic Biomes

  • Antarctic: Cold, remote area in the Southern Hemisphere.

  • Oceans (Marines)

    • Ocean Zones

      • Littoral Zone (Intertidal): Closest to the shore.

      • Neretic Zone (Sublittoral): Extends to the edge of continental shelf.

      • Photic Zone: Uppermost layer of water.

  • Corals: Marine invertebrates that typically live in compact colonies.

    • Fringing Reefs: Grow near the coastline.

    • Barrier Reefs: Similar to the coastline but separated by deeper lagoons.

    • Attols: Rings of coral that create protected lagoons; found in the middle of the sea.

  • Lakes: Formed where precipitation or runoffs fills depressions in Earth’s surface.

    • Lake Zones

      • Benthic Zone: Bottom of the Lake.

      • Limnetic Zone: Well lit, open surface water.

      • Littoral Zone: Close to the shore that extends to depth penetrated by sunlight.

      • Profundal Zone: No light regions.

    • Types of Lakes

      • Oligotrophic: Young Lake; deep cold; nutrient poor.

      • Mesotrophic: Middle-Aged Lake; moderate nutrient content.

      • Eutrophic: Old lake; shallow, warm, large surface area.

  • Rivers and Streams

    • River Zones

      • Source Zones: Headwater streams; often begins as springs or snowmelt

      • Transition Zone: Slower, warmer, wider, and lower-elevation moving streams

      • Floodplain Zone: Result of large amounts of sediment and nutrients

  • Riparian Areas: Lands adjacent to creeks, lakes, rivers, and streams that support vegetation

• Law of Tolerance: It states that the existence, abundance, and distribution of species depend on the tolerance level of each species to both physical and chemical factors.

  • Limiting Factor: Any abiotic factor that limits or prevents the growth of a population.

    

• Carbon Cycle: The process in which carbon atoms continually travel from the atmosphere to the Earth and then back into the atmosphere.

  

• Nitrogen Cycle: A process through which nitrogen is converted into many forms, consecutively passing from the atmosphere to the soil to organism and back into the atmosphere.

  

• Phosphorous Cycle: A cycle that describes the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.

  

• Hydrologic Cycle: It involves the continuous circulation of water in the Earth-Atmosphere.

  

• Aquifer: Contains water in quantities sufficient to support a well or spring.

  • Recharge zone: The surface area above an aquifer that supplies water to the aquifer

  • Unsaturated zone: The zone immediately below the land surface.

  • Water table: The level below which the ground is saturated with water

• Pyramids

  • Biomass pyramid: It shows how much organic mass is within each trophic level.

  • Energy Pyramids: These show the proportion of energy passed from one trophic level to the next-level consumers in an ecosystem

• Photosynthesis

  

• Cellular respiration

  

• Gross primary production (GPP): The rate at which plants capture and fix a given amount of chemical energy as biomass in a given length of time.

• Net primary production (NPP): The remaining fixed energy is the rate at which all the plants in an ecosystem produce net useful chemical energy.

  

Chapter 2: Biodiversity

• Biodiversity: Variability among species, between species, and of ecosystems.

  • Genetic diversity: Range of all genetic traits.

  • Species diversity: Number of different species in a specific area.

  • Ecosystem diversity: Range of habitats in specific area.

• Species

  • Generalists: Live in different types of environments and have varied diets.

  • Specialists: Require unique resources and have limited diets.

  • Pioneer: Earlier successional plants; generalists.

  • Keystone: Their presence contributes to the diversity of life; their extinction could lead to the extinction of other life forms.

  • Indicator: Their presence, absence, or abundance reflects a specific environmental condition

• Ecosystem Services

  • Cultural Benefits: Supports recreational services.

  • Provisioning Benefits: Provides diversity of products.

  • Regulating Benefits: Provided that help moderate natural phenomena

  • Supporting Benefits: Provides more aid to the ecosystem.

• Island Biogeography: It examines the factors that affect the richness and diversity of species living in these isolated natural communities.

  • Island: A suitable habitat for a specific ecosystem that is surrounded by a large area of unsuitable habitat.

  • Theory of Island Biogeography: It proposes that the number of species found on an “island” is determined by immigration and extinction of isolated populations.

• Adaptations

  • Behavioral Adaptation: Instincts, mating behavior, vocalizations.

  • Physiological Adaptation: Methods of temperature control or how food are digested.

  • Structural Adaptation: Physical features.

  • Short Term Adaptations: Develops from environment’s temporary changes.

  • Long-term Adaptations: Develops over long period’s of time in response to natural selection.

• Ecological Succession

  • Facilitation: Species modifies the environment, meeting the needs of others.

  • Inhibition: Species modifies the environment, not suitable for the environment.

  • Tolerance: Species are not affected by the presence of others.

  • Primary Succession: Species first colonize a lifeless habitat.

  • Secondary Succession: Species recolonize a destroyed habitat.

• Earth system processes operate on a range of scales

  • Episodic Process: Occurring occasionally and at irregular intervals.

  • Periodic Process: Occurring at repeated intervals.

  • Random Process: Lacking a regular pattern.

Chapter 3: Populations

• Species

  • Generalists: Able to use a variety of environmental resources

  • Specialists: Use specific set of resources

  • K-Selected: Not endangered

  • R-Selected: Most endagered

• Carrying capacity (K): It refers to the number of individuals that can be supported sustainably in a given area.

• Survivorship Curve Table

  • Type I: Late Loss

  • Type II: Constant Loss

  • Type III: Early Loss

• Population Dispersal Patterns

  • Clumped: Some areas within a habitat are dense with organisms, while other areas contain few members.

  • Random: Occurs in habitats where environmental conditions and resources are consistent.

  • Uniform: Space is maximized between individuals to minimize competition.

  

• Curves

  • J-Curve: It occurs when an organism's population density grows exponentially or logarithmically in a new habitat, but then ceases abruptly due to environmental resistance or another issue.

  • S-Curve: It occurs when, in a new environment, the population density of an organism initially increases slowly but then stabilizes due to the finite amount of resources available.

    

• Feedback Loops

  • Positive Feedback: Change in a given direction causes additional change in the same direction.

  • Negative Feedback: Change in a given direction causes change in the opposite direction.

• Biotic potential: The maximum reproductive capacity of an organism under optimum environmental conditions.

  • Environmental Resistance: Any factor that inhibits an increase in the number of organisms in the population.

• Rule of 70: It helps to explain the time periods involved in exponential population growth occurring at a constant rate.

• Important Population Formulas

  • Birth Rate (%) = [(total births/total population)] × 100

  • Crude Birth Rate (CBR) = [(b ÷ p) × 1,000]

  • Death Rate (%) = [(total deaths/total population)]× 100

  • Crude Death Rate (CDR) = [(d ÷ p) × 1,000]

  • Doubling Time = 70/% growth rate

  • Emigration = number leaving a population

  • Global Population Growth Rate (%) = [(CBR – CDR)]/10

  • Immigration = number entering a population

  • National Population Growth Rate (%) = [(CBR + immigration) – (CDR + emigration)]/10

  • Percent Rate of Change = [(new # - old #)/old #] × 100

  • Population Density = total population size/total area

  • Population Growth Rate (%) =

    

• Age-Structure Diagrams

  • Pyramid-shaped age-structure diagram: These are determined by birth rate, generation time, death rate, and sex ratios.

  • Bell shape age-structure diagram: It indicates that the population has high birth rates and the majority of the population is in the reproductive age group

  • Urn-Shaped age-structure diagram: It indicates that the post-reproductive group is largest and the pre-reproductive group is smallest, a result of the birth rate’s falling below the death rate, and is characteristic of declining populations

• Demographic Transition

  • Stage 1: Pre-Industrial (High Stationary)

  • Stage 2: Transitional (Early Expanding)

  • Stage 3: Industrial (Late Expanding)

  • Stage 4: Post-Industrial (Low Stationary)

  • Stage 5: Sub-Replacement Fertility (Declining)

Chapter 4: Earth Systems and Resources

• Plate Tectonics

  • Plate Tectonic Theory: States that Earth’s lithosphere is divided into a small number of plates that float on and travel independently over the mantle.

  • Continental Drift Theory: States that all present-day continents originally formed one landmass called Pangaea.

  • Seafloor Spreading Theory: States that tectonic plates split apart from each other.

• Types of Boundaries

  • Convergent Boundaries: Two plates slides towards each other.

  • Divergent Boundaries: Two plates slide apart from each other.

  • Transform Boundaries: Two plates slide past each other in different directions.

• Soil Profile

  • Surface litter: Leaves and partially decomposed organic debris.

  • Topsoil: Organic matter, living organisms, and inorganic materials

  • Zone of leaching: Dissolved and suspended materials move downward.

  • Subsoil: Tends to be yellowish in color

  • Weathered parent material: Partially broken-down inorganic materials.

• Soil Erosion: Movement of weathered rock and/or soil components from one place to another caused by flowing water, wind, and human activity.

  • Landslides: These occur when masses of rock, earth, or debris move down a slope.

  • Mudslides: It is also known as debris flows or mudflows, are a common type of fast-moving landslide that tends to flow in channels.

• Rock types

  • Igneous rocks: These are formed by cooling and classified by their silica content.

    • Intrusive: Solidify deep underground, cool slowly, and have a large-grained texture.

    • Extrusive: Solidify on or near the surface, cool quickly, and have a fine-grained smooth texture.

  • Metamorphic rocks: These are formed by intense heat and pressure, high quartz content.

  • Sedimentary rocks: These are formed by the piling and cementing of various materials over time in low-lying areas.

• Soils: These are a thin layer on top of most of Earth’s land surface.

• Soil Components

  • Gravel: Coarse particles.

  • Sand: Sedimentary material coarser than silt.

  • Loam: Holds water but does not become waterlogged.

  • Silt: Sedimentary material consisting of very fine particles between the sizes of sand and clay.

  • Clay: Very fine particles.

• Components of Soil Quality

  • Aeration: Refers to how well a soil is able to absorb oxygen, water, and nutrients.

  • Degree of Soil Compaction: It is measured by dry unit weight and depends on the water content and compaction effort.

  • Nutrient-Holding Capacity: The ability of soil to absorb and retain nutrients so they will be available to the roots of plants.

  • Permeability: The measure of the capacity of the soil to allow water and oxygen to pass through it.

  • pH: It is the measure of how acidic or basic soil is.

  • Pore Size: Describes the space between soil particles.

  • Size of soil and particles: It determines the amount of moisture, nutrients, and oxygen that the soil can hold along with the capacity for water to infiltrate.

  • Water holding capacity: It is controlled primarily by the soil texture and the soil organic matter content.

• Atmosphere’s Current Composition

  • Nitrogen: Fundamental nutrient for living organisms.

  • Oxygen: Most abundant element by mass in Earth’s crust, making up almost half of the crust’s mass as silicates.

  • Water Vapor: Largest amounts are found near the equator, over oceans, and in tropical regions.

  • Carbon Dioxide: Produced during cellular respiration, the combustion of fossil fuels, and the decay of organic matter.

• Atmosphere Structure

  • Troposphere: The lowest portion of Earth’s atmosphere, 0–6 miles (0–10 km) above Earth’s surface.

  • Ozone Layer: Absorbs high-energy ultraviolet radiation from the sun and is broken down into atomic oxygen (O) and diatomic oxygen.

  • Stratosphere: It is located 6–30 miles (10–50 km) above Earth’s surface.

• Weather: It is caused by the movement or transfer of heat energy, which results from the unequal heating of Earth’s surface by the sun.

• Climate: The average weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.

• Breezes

  • Land Breeze: It occurs during relatively calm, clear nights when the land cools down faster than the sea, resulting in the air above the land becoming denser than the air over the sea.

    

  • Sea Breeze: It occurs during relatively calm, sunny days, the land warms up faster than the sea, causing the air above it to become less dense.

    

• Coriolis Effect: A phenomenon wherein earth’s rotation on its axis causes winds to not travel straight, which causes prevailing winds in the Northern Hemisphere to spiral clockwise out from high-pressure areas and spiral counterclockwise toward low-pressure areas.

  

• Circulation Cells

  • Hadley Air Circulation: Low latitude overturning circulations that have air rising at the equator and air sinking at roughly 30° latitude.

  • Ferrel Air Circulation Cells: Air flows poleward and eastward near the surface and equatorward and westward at higher levels.

  • Polar Air Circulation Cells: Smallest and weakest cells which extend from between 60 and 70 degrees north and south, to the poles.

    

• Polar Vortex: A low-pressure zone embedded in a large mass of very cold air that lies atop both poles.

• Storms

  • Hurricanes: Term used in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific.

  • Cyclones: Term used in South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

  • Typhoons: Term used in Northwest Pacific.

  • Storm Surge: A rise in sea level that occurs during tropical cyclones, typhoons, or hurricanes.

• Tornadoes: These are swirling masses of air with wind speeds close to 300 miles per hour (485 kph).

• Monsoons: These are strong, often violent winds that change direction with the season.

• Watershed: A land area that drains rainfall and snowmelt into a lake, ocean, or aquifer.

• Mountain ranges: These are barriers to the smooth movement of air currents across continents.

  • Rain Shadow Effect: The drier situation which is directly responsible for the plants that grow there, which in turn affects the animals that live there.

• El Niño: Above-average sea-surface temperatures that periodically develop across the east-central equatorial Pacific.

• La Niña: Periodic cooling of sea-surface temperatures across the east-central equatorial Pacific.

Chapter 5: Land and Water Use

• Clear-cutting: It occurs is when all of the trees in an area are cut at the same time.

• Edge Effect: It refers to how the local environment changes along some type of boundary or edge.

  • Forest edges: Created when trees are harvested, particularly when they are clear-cut.

  • Tree canopies: Provide the ground below with shade and maintain a cooler and moister environment below.

• Deforestation: It is the conversion of forested areas to non-forested areas

• Agricultural Practices

  • Desertification: It is the conversion of marginal rangeland or cropland to a more desert-like land type.

  • Overgrazing: Excessive grazing of grasslands.

  • Fertilizers: It provide plants with the nutrients needed to grow healthy and strong.

    • Inorganic Fertilizers: Mined from mineral deposits or manufactured from synthetic compounds.

    • Organic Fertilizers: Originates from an organic source, such as bone meal, compost, fish extracts, manure, or seaweed.

  • Slash-and-Burn Agriculture: Method of growing food or clearing land in which wild or forested land is clear-cut and any remaining vegetation is burned.

  • Genetically modified foods: Foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA.

  • Soil degradation: Decline in soil condition caused by its improper use or poor management.

  • Tillage: Surface is plowed and broken up to expose the soil

• Irrigation Methods

  • Ditch: Dug and seedlings are planted in rows.

  • Drip: Water is delivered at the root zone of a plant through small tubes that drip water at a measured rate.

  • Flood: Water is pumped or brought to the fields and is allowed to flow along the ground among the crops.

  • Furrow: Small parallel channels are dug along the field length in the direction of the predominant slope.

  • Spray: Uses overhead sprinklers, sprays or guns to spray water onto crops.

• Types of Pesticides

  • Biological Pesticides: Living organisms used to control pests.

  • Carbamates: Also known as urethanes

  • Fumigants: Used to sterilize soil and prevent pest infestation of stored grain.

    • Inorganic pesticides: broad-based pesticides; highly toxic.

    • Organic pesticides: natural poisons derived from plants

    • Organophosphates: extremely toxic but remain in the environment for only a brief time.

• POPs: Organic compounds can pass through and accumulate in living organisms' fatty tissues because they don't break down chemically or biologically.

• IPM: Ecological pest-control strategy that uses a combination of biological, chemical, and physical methods together; requires an understanding of the ecology and life cycle of pests.

• CAFO: Intensive animal feeding operation in which large numbers of animals are confined in feeding pens.

• Mining: Removing mineral resource from the ground.

  • Surface Mining

    • Contour mining: Removing overburden from the seam

    • Dredging: Mining below the water table

    • In situ: Small holes are drilled into the Earth

    • Mountaintop removal: Removal of mountaintops to expose coal seams

    • Open pit: Extracting rock or minerals from the Earth by their removal.

    • Strip mining: Exposes coal by removing the soil above each coal seam.

  • Underground Mining

    • Blast: Uses explosives to break up the seam.

    • Longwall: Uses a rotating drum with “teeth.”

    • Room and pillar: Approximately half of the coal is left in place as pillars to support the roof of the active mining area.

• Urbanization: Movement of people from rural areas to cities and the changes that accompany it.

  • Urban Sprawl: Expansion of human populations away from central urban areas into low-density and usually car-dependent communities.

  • Urban development: Designing and shaping the physical features of cities and towns with the goal of making urban areas more attractive, functional, and sustainable.

  • Urban runoff: It is surface runoff of rainwater created by urbanization.

• Ecological Footprint: A measure of human demand on Earth’s ecosystems and is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet’s ecological capacity to regenerate.

• Sustainability: It refers to the capacity for the biosphere and human civilization to coexist through the balance of resources within their environment.

• Soil Conversion Techniques

  • Contour plowing: Plowing along the contours of the land in order to minimize soil erosion

  • No-till agriculture: Soil is left undisturbed by tillage and the residue is left on the soil surface

  • Planting perennial crops: Perennials live for several years

  • Strip cropping: Cultivation in which different crops are sown in alternate strips

  • Terracing: Make or form into a number of level flat areas resembling a series of steps

  • Windbreaks: Rows of trees that provide shelter or protection from the wind

Chapter 6: Energy Resources and Consumption

• Energy: Fundamental entity of nature.

• Forms of Energy

  • Chemical energy: Stored in bonds between atoms in a molecule.

  • Electrical energy: Results from the motion of electrons.

  • Electromagnetic energy: Energy travels by waves.

  • Mechanical energy: Potential and kinetic energies.

    • Potential Energy: Stored energy in any object.

    • Kinetic energy: Energy in motion.

  • Nuclear energy: Stored in the nuclei of atoms, and it is released by either splitting or joining atoms.

  • Thermal Energy: Energy an object has because of the movement of its molecules.

• Units of Energy/Power

  • British thermal unit (Btu): Amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1°F.

  • Horsepower (HP): Unit used in automobile industries.

  • Kilowatt hour (kWh): A unit of power; a measure of energy used at a given moment.

• Law of Thermodynamics

  • First Law of Thermodynamics: The law of conservation of energy; energy can't be created nor destroyed.

  • Second Law of Thermodynamics: The total system work is always less than the heat supplied into the system.

  • Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics: If two bodies are each in thermal equilibrium with some third body, then they are also in equilibrium with each other.

• Energy Resources

  • Renewable Energy: Energy collected from resources that are naturally replenished on a human time scale.

  • Nonrenewable Energy: ot sustainable because their formation takes billions of years

• Fuel Types

  • Fossil Fuels: Fuels formed from past geological remains of living organisms.

  • Burning wood fuel: It creates the following by-products: carbon dioxide, heat, steam, water vapor, and wood ash.

  • Peat: It is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter

  • Coal: A sedimentary deposit composed predominantly of carbon that is readily combustible.

    • Lignite: fuel for electric power generation

    • Bituminous: fuel in steam-electric power generation

    • Anthracite: residential and commercial space heating

  • Natural Gas: Layers of buried plants and gases are exposed to intense heat and pressure

  • Oil: Decomposition of deeply buried organic material (plants) under high temperatures and pressure

• Law of Supply: All other factors being equal, as the price of a good or service increases, the quantity of goods or services that suppliers offer will increase

• Law of Demand: All other factors being equal, the quantity of the item purchased is inversely related to the price of the item.

• Combustion

  

• Nuclear Fuels

  • U-235: Less than 1% of all-natural uranium on Earth.

  • U-238: The most common isotope of uranium and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.

  • Pu-239: It has a half-life of 24,000 years and is produced in breeder reactors from U-238.

• Nuclear Components

  • Core: Contains up to 50,000 fuel rods.

  • Fuel: Enriched (concentrated) U-235 is usually the fuel.

  • Control Rods: Move in and out of the core to absorb neutrons and slow down the reaction.

  • Moderator: It reduces the speed of fast neutrons, thereby allowing a sustainable chain reaction.

  • Coolant: Removes heat and produces steam to generate electricity.

• Biomass: Biological material derived from living organisms that can be burned in large incinerators to create steam that is used for generating electricity.

  • Biofuel: A liquid fuel produced from living organisms.

• Solar energy: It consists of collecting and harnessing radiant energy from the sun to provide heat and/or electricity.

  • Passive solar heating: absorb heat and then release it slowly to maintain the temperature throughout the building.

  • Active solar heating: absorb heat and then release it slowly to maintain the temperature throughout the building.

    

• Geothermal Energy

  

• Hydrogen Fuel Cells

  

Chapter 7: Atmospheric Pollution

• Air Pollution: It occurs when harmful or excessive quantities of substances are introduced into Earth’s atmosphere.

  • Primary Pollutants: Emitted directly into the air.

  • Secondary pollutants: Result from primary air pollutants’ reacting together and forming new pollutants.

  • Point sources: Contaminant comes from an obvious source.

  • Non-point sources: Contaminant comes from a source that is not easily identifiable

• Atmospheric CO2 and Particulates

  • Carbon Monoxide: Produced from the partial oxidation of carbon-containing compounds.

  • Lead: Used in building construction, lead-acid batteries for vehicles, bullets.

  • Nitrogen Oxides: Generic term for nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide.

  • Ozone: Inorganic molecule with the chemical formula O3.

  • Peroxyacyl Nitrates: A component of photochemical smog, produced in the atmosphere when oxidized volatile organic compounds combine with nitrogen dioxide.

  • Sulfur Dioxides: Colorless gas with a penetrating, choking odor that readily dissolves in water to form an acidic solution.

  • Suspended Particulate Matter: Microscopic solid or liquid matter suspended in Earth’s atmosphere.

  • Volcanic Organic Compounds: Have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature.

• Photochemical smog: Catalyzed by UV radiation, tends to be nitrogen-based.

• Thermal inversions: Occur when air temperature rises with height instead of falling.

• Catalytic converter: Exhaust emission control device that converts toxic chemicals in the exhaust of an internal-combustion engine into less harmful substances.

  • Catalyst: Stimulates a chemical reaction in which by-products of combustion are converted to less toxic substances by way of catalyzed chemical reactions.

• Three Way Converters converting the three main Pollutants

  • Oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide:

    

  • Oxidation of unburned hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide and water:

    

  • Reduction of nitrogen oxides to nitrogen and oxygen:

    

• Acid Deposition: Occurs when atmospheric chemical processes transform sulfur and nitrogen compounds and other substances into wet or dry deposits on Earth.

• Noise pollution: It is an unwanted human-created sound that disrupts the environment.

Chapter 8: Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution

• Water pollution: It is the contamination of water bodies.

  • Point source pollution: Release pollutants from known locations

  • Non-point source pollution: Combination of pollutants from a large area rather than from specific identifiable sources

  • Thermal pollution: Degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature.

• Great Pacific Garbage Patch: A large system of rotating ocean currents of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean

• Water quality: Measure of the condition of the water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and/or to any human need or purpose.

• Drinking Water Treatment Methods

  • Absorption: When one substance enters completely into another.

  • Adsorption: When one substance just hangs onto the outside of another.

  • Disinfection: Using chemicals and/or cleansing techniques that destroy or prevent the growth of organisms that are capable of infection.

  • Filtration: Removes clays, natural organic matter, precipitants, and silts from the treatment process.

  • Flocculation sedimentation: Combines small particles into larger particles that then settle out of the water as sediment

  • Ion exchange: Removes inorganic constituents.

• Endocrine System: A network of glands that make the hormones that help cells communicate with each other and is responsible for almost every cell, organ, and function in both humans and animals.

• Endocrine Disruptors

  • Bisphenol A (BPA): Used in plastic manufacturing and epoxy.

  • Dioxins: By-product of herbicide production and paper bleaching

  • Phthalates: Used to make plastics more flexible.

  • Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): Used to make electrical equipment, heat transfer fluids and lubricants.

• Wetland: Place where the land is covered by water, which can be freshwater, saltwater, or brackish water.

  • Mangrove: Shrub or small tree that grows in slightly salty water formed by seawater mixing with freshwater in estuaries.

• Bioaccumulation: It is the increase in the concentration of a pollutant within an organism.

• Biomagnification: It is the increasing concentration of a substance in the tissues of organisms at successively higher trophic levels within a food chain.

• Types of Wastes

  • Municipal solid waste (MSW): Trash/garbage.

  • Hazardous Wastes: Paints, chemicals, pesticides, etc.

  • Organic Wastes: Kitchen wastes, vegetables, flowers, leaves, or fruits.

  • Radioactive Wastes: Spent fuel rods and smoke detectors.

  • Recyclable Wastes: Glass, metals, paper, and some plastics.

  • Soiled Wastes: Hospital wastes.

• Incineration: Waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials and the conversion of the waste into ash, flue gas, and heat.

• Hazardous Wastes

  • Radioactive wastes: Usually a by-product of nuclear power generation

    • Low-level radioactive wastes: Contain low levels of radiation and remain dangerous for a relatively short time.

    • High-level radioactive wastes: Contain high levels of radiation and remain dangerous for a very long time

  • Reactive wastes: Wastes that are unstable under normal conditions.

  • Source-specific wastes: Wastes from specific industries.

  • Teratogens: Substances found in the environment that can cause birth defects.

  • Toxic wastes: Wastes that are harmful or fatal when ingested or absorbed.

• Handling Hazardous Wastes

  • Landfill capping: forms a barrier between the contaminated media and the surface

  • Hazardous waste landfills: excavated or engineered sites for the final disposal of non-liquid hazardous waste are selected

  • Permanent storage: isolates hazardous waste from the environment by condensing or concentrating it.

• Methods Used to Isolate and Store Hazardous Wastes

  • Surface impoundments: used for temporary storage and/or for the treatment of liquid hazardous waste.

  • Injection wells: stores fluid deep underground in geologically stable, porous rock formations

  • Waste piles: non-containerized piles of solid, non-liquid hazardous waste that are used for temporary storage or treatment.

  • Reduction and cleanup of hazardous wastes: occur by producing less waste, converting the hazardous material to less hazardous

  • Brownfield: land that was previously used for industrial or commercial purposes

Chapter 9: Global Change

• Three Forms of UV Radiation

  • UVA: It is closest to blue light in the visible spectrum and is the form of ultraviolet radiation that usually causes skin tanning.

  • UVB: It causes blistering sunburns and is associated with skin cancer.

  • UVC: It is found only in the stratosphere and is largely responsible for the formation of ozone.

• Chemicals that affect Ozone

  • Chlorofluorocarbons: Nonflammable chemicals that contain atoms of carbon, chlorine, and fluorine.

  • Halocarbons: Organic chemical molecules that are composed of at least one carbon atom with one or more halogen atoms

• Ocean acidification: It occurs when atmospheric carbon dioxide reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid,

• Biodiversity and Species

  • Endangered Species: Species considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

  • Invasive Species: Animals and plants that are transported to any area where they do not naturally live.

• Important Protocols for Global Climate Change

  • Kyoto Protocol (2005): A plan created by the United Nations to reduce the effects of climate change, which results in a reduction in the pH of ocean water over an extended period of time.

  • Montreal Protocol (1987): An international treaty designed to phase out the production of substances that are responsible for ozone depletion.

  • Paris Agreement (2016): It deals with greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation.