BESC 201: EXAM 1

CourseStructure object (71611) - Texas A&M University

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Environment	All living and nonliving things around us.
EnvironmentalScience	Study of how the natural world works, how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment.
Natural Resources	Substances and energy sources that we take from our environment and that we need in order to survive.
Renewable natural resources	Natural resources that are replenished over periods.
Nonrenewable natural resources	Finite in supply and are formed much more slowly than we use them. Ex: minerals and crude oil.
Ecosystem services	Arise from the normal functioning of natural systems and are not meant for our benefit, yet we could not survive without them. EX: air and water purification, nutrient cycle, regulate climate, pollinate plants, and receive and recycle our waste.
Agricultural Revolution	Transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural way of life. Began around 10,000 years ago.
Industrial Revolution	Began in mid-1700s. Shift from rural life, animal-powered agriculture, and handcrafted goods toward an urban society provisioned by the mass production of factory-made goods and powered by fossil fuels.
Fossil Fuels	Nonrenewable energy resources including oil, coal, and natural gas.
Ecological Footprint	The cumulative area of biologically productive land and water required to provide the resources a person or population consumes and to dispose of or recycle the waste the person or population produces.
Overshoot	Depleting renewable resources by using them 50% faster than they are being replenished.
Interdisciplinary Field	Borrow techniques from multiple disciplines and brings their research results together into a broad synthesis.
Natural Sciences	Disciplines that examine the natural world
Social Sciences	Address human interactions and institutions
EnvironmentalStudies	Programs that emphasize social studies
Environmentalism	Social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world, and by extension people, from undesirable changes brought about by human actions.
Science	Systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it.
Observational/descriptive science	Scientists gather basic information about organisms, materials, systems, or processes that are not yet well known
Hypothesis-driven science`	research that proceeds in a more targeted and structured manner, using experiments to test hypotheses within a framework traditionally known as the scientific method.
Scientific Method	Technique for testing ideas with observations.
Manipulative Experiment	Provides the strongest type of evidence a scientist can obtain, because it can reveal causal relationships, showing that changes in an independent variable cause changes in a dependent variable.
Natural Experiments	Compare how dependent variables are expressed in naturally different contexts.
Theory	Widely accepted, well-tested explanation of one or more cause-and-effect relationships that has been extensively validated by a great amount of research.
Wicked Problem	Wicked Problem
Paradigm	Dominant view Sustainability
Sustainability	Leaving our children and grandchildren a world as rich and full as the world we live in now. Requires maintaining ecological systems, because we cannot sustain human civilization without sustaining the natural systems that nourish it.
Natural Capital	The Earth's accumulated wealth of resources.
Campus Sustainability	Proponents seek ways to help colleges and universities reduce their ecological footprints.
Matter	All material in the universe that has mass and occupies space.
Law of Conservation of Matter	Matter may be transformed from one type of substance into others but it cannot be created or destroyed.
Element	Fundamental type of matter, a chemical substance with a given set of properties that cannot be broken down into substances with other properties.
Protons	Positively charged particles
Neutrons	Particles lacking electric charge.
Half-Life	Isotopes amount of time it takes for one-half the atoms to give off radiation and decay.
Ions	When atoms may also gain or lose electrons. Electrically charged atoms or combinations of atoms.
Molecules	Combinations of two or more atoms.
Compound	Molecule composed of atoms of two or more different elements.
Covalent Bond	When electrons are shared between atoms.
Polymer	Combined organic compounds.
Macromolecules	Large polymers
Proteins	Consist of long chains of organic molecules called amino acids.
Lipids	Fats and oil, for energy storage.
Energy	The capacity to change the position, physical composition, or temperature of matter. (A force that can accomplish work).
Potential Energy	Energy of position
Kinetic Energy	Energy of motion
First law of thermodynamics	Energy can change from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed, total energy in the universe remains constant and thus is "conserved."
Second law of thermodynamics	The nature of energy will change from a more ordered state to a less ordered state as long as no force counteracts this tendency.
Energy Conversion Efficiency	Ratio of the useful output of energy to the amount we need to input.
Autotrophs/Primary Producers	Organisms that use the sun's radiation directly to produce their own food. EX: green plants, algae.
Photosynthesis	Process autotrophs use to turn sunlight into energy
Cellular Respiration	catabolic pathway that breaks down organic molecules
Heterotrophs	Organisms that gain their energy by feeding on other organisms.
Hypothermal vents	Jets of geothermal heated water on the ocean floor.
chemosynthesis	The synthesis of organic compounds by bacteria or other living organisms using energy derived from reactions involving inorganic chemicals, typically in the absence of sunlight.
Geology	Study of Earth's physical features, processes, and history.
Core	Earth's center, consisting mostly of iron, solid in the inner core and molten in the outer core.
Mantle	Area surrounding the core, thick layer of less dense, elastic rock.
Asthenosphere	Portion of the upper mantle contains especially soft rock, melted in some areas.
Lithosphere	The harder rock above the aesthnosphere
Crust	In the lithosphere, thin, brittle, low-density layer of rock that covers the Earth's surface.
Plate Tectonics	Movement of lithospheric plates.
Divergent Plate Boundaries	Where tectonic plates push apart from one another as magma rises upward to the surface, creating new lithosphere as it cools.
Transform plate boundary	Where two plates slide by each other.
Convergent plate boundaries	where 2 plates push together; one goes beneath the other - violent seismic activity occurs - oceanic crust gets destroyed
Subduction	Process whereby one plate of oceanic lithosphere is carried underneath another plate in a convergent margin
Continental Collision	When 2 plates of continental lithosphere meet, the continental crust on both sides resists subduction and instead crushes together, bending, buckling, and deforming layers of rock from both plates.
Rock Cycle	Rocks and minerals that compromise plates are heated, melted, cooled, broken down, and reassembled in a very slow process.
Rock	Any solid aggregation of minerals.
Mineral	Any naturally occurring solid element or inorganic compound with a crystal structure, a specific chemical composition, and distinct physical properties.
Igneous Rock	Rock that forms when magma or lava cools.
Sediments	Particles of rock blown by wind or washed away by water come to rest downhill, downstream, or downwind from their sources.
Sedimentary Rock	Formed as sediments are physically pressed together (compaction) and as dissolved minerals seep through sediments and act as a kind of glue, binding sediment particles together (cementation).
Metamorphic Rock	When any type of rock is subject to great heat or pressure, it may alter its form and form this.
Landslide	Occurs when large amounts of rock or soil collapse and flow downhill.
Mass Wasting	Downslope of movement of soil and rock due to gravity.
Species	A particular type of organism or a population or group of populations whose members share characteristics and can freely breed with one another and produce fertile offspring.
Population	A group of individuals of a particular species that live in a particular area.
Evolution	Biological evolution consists of change in populations of organisms across generations.
Natural Selection	Process by which inherited characteristics that enhance survival and reproduction are passed on more frequently to future generations than those that do not, thus altering the genetic makeup of populations through time.
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace	Each independently proposed the concept of natural selection as a mechanism for evolution as a way to explain the great variety of living things.
Mutations	Accidental changes in DNA, give rise to genetic variation among individuals.
Convergent Evolution	When very unrelated species may acquire similar traits as they adapt to selective pressures from similar environments.
Artificial Selection	Process of selection under human direction
Biological Diversity (Biodiversity)	Variety of life across all levels of biological organization, including the diversity of species, genes, populations, and communities.
Speciation	Process by which new species are generated.
Phylogenic Trees	Scientific representation of divergent history using branching, tree like diagrams.
Fossil	Imprint in stone of the dead organism.
Fossil Record	Cumulative body of fossils worldwide
Endemic	Only occur in one specific region.
Mass Extinction Events	5 events, killed off massive numbers of species at once.
Ecology	Scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms, and the relationships between organisms and their environments.
Biosphere	Cumulative total of living things on Earth and the areas they inhabit.
Population Ecology	Examines the dynamics of population change and the factors that affect the distribution and abundance of members of a population.
Community	An assemblage of populations interacting species that live in the same area.
Community Ecology	Focuses on patterns of species diversity and on interactions among species, ranging from one-to-one interactions to complex interrelationships involving the entire community.
Ecosystems	Encompass communities and the abiotic (nonliving) material and forces with which community members interact.
Ecosystem Ecology	Reveals patterns, such as the flow of energy and nutrients, by studying living and nonliving components of systems in conjunction.
Habitat	The specific environment in which an organism lives.
Habitat Use	Each organism thrives in certian habitats and not in others, leading to non random patters of habitat use
Niche	Reflects a species use of resources and its functional role in a community.
Specialists	Species with narrow breadth and thus very specific requirements.
Generalists	Species with broad tolerances, able to use a wide array of resources.
Population Size	Number of individual organisms present at a given time
Population Density	Number of individuals in a population per unit area.
Population Distribution	The spatial arrangement of organisms in an area.
Sex Ratio	Its proportion of males to females. Can influence whether the population will increase or decrease in size over time.
Age Distribution (Age Structure)	Relative numbers of organisms of each age within a population.
Survivorship Curves	Type I- Large percentage of survivors last throughout the individual's lifetime (Humans) Type II- Relatively constant decline in survivorship throughout life (Squirrel) Type III- High mortality early in life, followed by fairly high survivorship for remainder of life (In…
Demographers	Scientists who study human populations.
Immigration	Arrival from an outside population
Emigration	Departure from a population
Rate of Natural Increase	Percent Change in population due to (births-death) deaths subtracted from births over total pop
Population Growth Rate	Total rate of change in a population's size per unit time, must also take into account the effects of migration.
Exponential Growth	When a population increases by a fixed percentage each year.
Limiting Factors	Physical, chemical, and biological attributes of the environment that restrain population growth.
Carrying Capacity	Maximum population size of a species that a given environment can sustain.
Logistic Growth Curve	Rises sharply at first but then begins to level off as the effects of limiting factors become stronger.
Density-Dependent Limiting Factors	Limiting factors the act in proportion to how dense the population has become
Density-Independent Factors	Limiting factors whose influence is not affected by population density.
K-Selected	Populations that tend to stabilize over time near carrying capacity.
R selected	Reproduce quickly and in large numbers High biotic potential Little parental care
Intraspecific Competition	Between members of same species.
Interspecific Competition	Between members of a different species.
Competitive Exclusion	If one species is a very effective competitor it will exclude another species from resource use entirely.
Species Coexistence	If neither competitor fully excludes the other, the species may continue to live side by side.
Fundamental Niche	Full niche of a species.
Realized Niche	The portion of a species fundamental niche that is actually fulfilled.
Resource Partitioning	When species compete they may specialize in a slightly different resource or way of attaining a shared source.
Character Displacement	Competing species come to diverge in their physical characteristics because of the evolution of traits best suited to the range of resources they use.
Predation	Process by which predators hunt, capture, kill, and consume prey.
Parasitism	Relationship where the parasite depends on the host for nourishment or some other benefit while doing the host harm.
Parasitoids	Insects that parasitize other insects and kill them in the process.
Pathogens	Parasites that cause disease in their hosts.
Coevolution	Long-term reciprocal process in which two or more types of organisms repeatedly respond by natural selection to the other's adaptations.
Herbivory	Animals feed on tissues of plants.
Mutualism	Relationship in which two or more species benefit from interacting with one another.
Symbiosis	Physically close association.
Pollination	An interaction vital to agriculture and food supply. Involves free-living organisms that may encounter each other only once.
Trophic Level	Rank in the feeding hierarchy.
Rank in the feeding hierarchy.	"Self-feeders." First trophic level.
Primary Consumers	Organisms that consume producers, second trophic level. Herbivorous grazing animals.
Secondary Consumers	3rd trophic level. Eat primary consumers. Carnivores, omnivores, predators.
Tertiary Consumers	Carnivores, eat secondary consumers.
Detritivores	Scavenge the waste products or dead bodies of other community members.
Decomposers	Break down leaf litter and other nonliving matter into simpler constituents that can be taken up an fused by plants.
Biomass	The collective mass of living matter in a given place and time.
Food Web	A visual map of energy flow that uses arrows to show the many paths along which the energy passes as organisms consume one another.
Keystone Species	A species that has strong or wide-reaching impact far out of proportion to its abundance.
Trophic Cascade	Predators at high trophic levels can indirectly promote populations of organisms at low tropic levels by keeping species at intermediate trophic levels in check.
Disturbance	An even that affects environmental conditions rapidly and drastically, resulting in changes to the community and ecosystem.
Resistance	A community that resists changes and remains stable despite disturbance.
Resilience	A community changes in response to disturbance but later returns to its original state.
Succession	The gradual, sequenced replacement of populations in an area
Primary Succession	Follows a disturbance so severe that no vegetation or soil life remains from the community that had occupied the site. A biotic community is built essentially from scratch.
Secondary Succession	Begins when a disturbance drastically alters an existing community but does not destroy all living things or all organic matter in the soil.
Pioneer Species	Species that drive first and colonize the new substrate.
Climax Community	Remins in place until some disturbance restarts succession.
Phase/Regime Shift	The character of the community fundamentally changes.
Novel/No-Analog Communities	Composed of novel mixtures of plants and animals and have no precedent.
Introduced Species	Species introduced by people.
Invasive Species	Species that spread widely and coming to dominate communities.
Restoration Ecology	Restoring damaged systems to bring back species and reestablish ecological processes.
Restoring damaged systems to bring back species and reestablish ecological processes.	The actual, on-the-ground efforts to carry out the restoration ecology visions and restore communities.
Biome	Major regional complex of similar communities, a large-scale ecological unit recognized primarily by its dominant plant type and vegetation structure.
Climate diagrams or climatographs	Depict climate patterns and averages of temp and precipitation.
Temperate Deciduous Forest	Dominates the landscaper around the central and southern Great Lakes. Broadleafed trees that lose their leaves each fall and remain dormant during winter.
Temperate Grasslands	Large, rolling areas of grasses, flowers, andherbs that are found in areas where precipitation is enough to support grassesbut may not be enough to support trees. Great Plains west of the Mississippi.
Temperate rainforest	Temperate biome that receives heavy rainfall and consists mainly of evergreen trees.
Tropical Rainforest	Found in Central America, South America, Southeast Asia, west Africa, and other tropics regions. Characterized by year-round rain and uniformly warm temperatures.
Tropical Dry Forest	India, Africa, South America, and Northern Australia. Wet and dry seasons each about half a year.
Savanna	Tropical grassland interspersed with clusters of acacias or other trees.
Desert	Rainfall is very sparse.
Tundra	Nearly as dry as a desert.
Permafrost	Underground soil remains more or less permanently frozen, in tundra.
Boreal Forest (Taiga)	Extends across much of Canada, Alaska, Russia, and Scandinavia. Develop in cooler, drier regions than temperate forests, experience long, cold winters and short cool summers.
Chaparral	Limited to small patches widely found around the globe. Densely thickened, highly seasonal with mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers. "Mediterranean."
Rainshadow	Moist air comes in from ocean, as moves up mountain rains/snows, then descends and picks up water, causing that side to be cooler and drier.
Watershed	The land area that funnels water to the bay through rivers.
System	Network of relationships among parts, elements, or components that interact with and influence one another through the exchange of energy, matter, or information.
Feedback Loop	A system's output can serve as input to that same system, a circular process.
Negative Feedback Loop	Output that results from a system moving in one direction acts as input that moves the system in the other direction.
Positive Feedback Loop	Rather than stabilizing the system, they drive it further toward an extreme. Increased output leads to increased input, leading to further increased output.
Dynamic Equilibrium	A system stabilized by negative feedback, when processes move in opposing directions at equivalent rates so their effects balance out.
Homeostasis	Tendency of a system to maintain constant or stable internal conditions.
Emergent Properties	Characteristics not evident in the components alone.
Runoff	Precipitation that flows over land and enters waterways.
Eutrophication	Process of nutrient over enrichment, blooms of algae, increased production of organic matter, and subsequent ecosystem degradation.
Lithosphere	The rock and sediment beneath our feet, the planet's uppermost mantle and crust.
Atmosphere	Composed of the air surrounding our planet.
Hydrosphere	Encompasses all water--salt or fresh, liquid, ice, or vapor--in surface bodies, underground, or in the atmosphere.
Biosphere	All the planet's organisms and the abiotic portions of the environment with which they interact.
Ecosystem	Consists of all organisms and nonliving entities that occur and interact in a particular area at the same time.
Estuary	A water body where rivers flow into the ocean, mixing fresh water with saltwater.
Primary Production	In an ecosystem, the amont of light energy converted to chemical energy at a given time.
Gross Primary Production	Total amount of chemical energy produced by autotrophs.
Net Primary Production	The energy that remains after respiration and that is used to generate biomass.
Secondary Production	The energy that is incorporated into biomass (growth) created by heterotrophs.
Productivity	The rate at which autotrophs convert energy to biomass.
Net Primary Productivity	Ecosystems whose plants convert solar energy to biomass rapidly.
Nutrients	Elements and compounds that organisms consume and require for survival.
Macronutrients	Elements and compounds require in relatively large amounts.
Micronutrients	Nutrients needed in small amounts.
Ecotones	Transitional zones where ecosystems meet and where the elements of each ecosystem mix.
Landscape Ecology	Scientists study how landscape structure affects the abundance, distribution, and interactions of organisms.
Patches	Spatial arrays that make up a landscape.
Mosaic	Metaphor of how natural systems often are arrayed across landscapes in complex patterns, like an intricate work of art.
Metapopulation	A network of subpopulations, most of whose members stay within their respective patches but some of whom move among patches or mate with members of other patches.
Conversation Biologists	Scientists who study the loss, protection, and restoration of biodiversity.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)	Consists of computer software that take multiple types of data and combines them on a common set of geographic coordinates.
Model	Simplified representation of a complex natural process, designed to help us understand how the process occurs and to make predictions.
Ecological Modeling	Practice of constructing and testing models that aim to explain and predict how ecological systems function.
Nutrient Cycles (Biogeochemical cycles)	Chemicals elements or molecules travel through the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere, and from one organism to another, in dynamic equilibrium.
Pool/Reservoir	Stages in the nutrient cycle.
Residence Time	Amount of time nutrients spend in a pool or reservoir.
Flux	Rate at which nutrients move between reservoirs.
Source	When a reservoir releases more materials than it accepts.
Sink	When a reservoir accepts more materials than it releases.
Water/Hydrologic Cycle	How water (in liquid, solid, or gas form) flows through our environment.
Evaporation	Conversion of a liquid to a gas form.
Transpiration	Release of water vapor by plants through their leaves, or by evaporation from the surfaces of organisms i.e. humans sweating.
Groundwater	Water that soaks down through the soil and rock. Recharges aquifers.
Water that soaks down through the soil and rock. Recharges aquifers.	Spongelike regions of rock and soil that are underground reservoirs of water.
Water Table	Upper limit of groundwater held in an aquifer.
Carbon Cycle	Routes carbon atoms take through the environment.
Nitrogen Fixation	Accomplished two ways: -Intense energy of lightning strikes -When air in the top layer of soil comes in contact with particular types of nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria	Bacteria that live in a mutualistic relationship with many types of plants, providing them nutrients by converting nitrogen to a usable form.
Nitrification	Ammonium ions are first converted into nitrite ions then into nitrate ions, which also become available after atmospheric deposition on soils or in water or after application of nitrate based fertilizer.
Denitrifying Bacteria	Converts nitrates in soil or water to gas nitrogen via a multistep process.
Bottleneck	Limited the flux of nitrogen out of the atmosphere. Changed with the research of German chemists in early 20th cent. Fritz Haber found a way to combine nitrogen and hydrogen gases to synthesize ammonia. Carl Bosch devised methods to produce ammonia on an industrial scale.
Haber-Bosch Process	Enabled people to overcome the limits on productivity long imposed by nitrogen scarcity in nature.
Phosphorus Cycle	No appreciable atmospheric component besides the transport of tiny amount in windblown dust and sea spray.
Culture	Ensemble of knowledge, beliefs, values, and learned ways of life shared by a group of people.
Worldview	Reflects beliefs about the meaning, operation, and essence of the world.
Ethics	Branch of philosophy that involves the study of good and bad, of right and wrong. Can also refer to the set of moral principles or values held by a person or a society.
Relativists	Believing that ethics do and should vary with social context.
Ethical Standards	Criteria that help differentiate right from wrong.
Utilitarian Value	People who value something for the pragmatic benefits it brings us if we it to use.
Intrinsic Value	Value something for its intrinsic worth, to feel that something has a right to exist and is valuable for its own sake.
EnvironmentalEthics	Application of ethical standards and nonhuman entities.
Anthropocentrism	People who have a human-centered view of our relationship with the environment display.
Biocentrism	Ascribes intrinsic value to certain living things or to the biotic realm in general.
Ecocentrism	Judges actions in terms of their effects on whole ecological systems, which consists of living and nonliving elements and their interrelationships.
Transcendentalism	Philosophical movement during the 1840s in the US. View nature as a direct manifestation of the divine, emphasizing the soul's oneness with nature and God.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Walt Whitman	New England philosophers that came up with Transcendentalism.
John Muir	Scottish immigrant to the US. Became politically active and won fame as a tireless advocate for the preservation of wilderness.
Preservation Ethic	Holds that we should protect the natural environment in a pristine, unaltered state.
Gifford Pinchot	First professionally trained American forester. Founded what became the US Forest Service and served as its chief in President Roosevelt's administration.
Conservation Ethic	Holds that people should put natural resources to use but we have a responsibility to manage them wisely. Employs a utilitarian standard, stating that we should allocate resources so as to provide the greatest good to the greatest number of people for the longest time.
Aldo Leopold	Young forester and wildlife manager. Articulated a new relationship between people and the environment.
EnvironmentalJustice	The fair and equitable treatment of all people with respect to environmental policy and practice, regardless of their income, race, or ethnicity.
Subsistence Economy	Oldest type of economy. People meet their daily needs by subsisting on what they can gather from nature or produce on their own.
Adam Smith	Scottish philosopher argued that self-interested economic behavior could benefit society, as long as the behavior was constrained by the role of law and private property rights and operate within a competitive marketplace.
Neoclassical Economics	Examines the psychological factors underlying consumer choices, explaining market prices in terms of consumer preferences for units of particular commodities. Standard models assume that people behave rationally and have access to full information.
Cornucopians	Belief that human ingenuity and improvements in technology will allow us to overcome all our environmental limitations and continue economic growth indefinitely.
Cassandras	Don't believe that human ingenuity and tech improvements will allow us to overcome environmental limitations and continue economic growth.
EnvironmentalEconomics	Economic growth may be unsustainable if we do not reduce our demand for resources and make resource use far more efficient.
Ecological Economics	Applies principles of ecology and systems science to the analysis of economic systems.
Steady-state Economies	Intended to mirror natural ecological systems.
Herman Daly	Believed that we will need to rethink our assumptions and fundamentally change the way we conduct economic transactions.
Contingent Valuation	Uses surveys to determine how much people are willing to pay to protect or restore a resource.
GPI (genuine progress indicator)	GDP ± economic value of enhancements or degradations to the environment Mesures social, economic, and environmental health.
Full Cost Accounting	Monetize and account for all costs and benefits.
Ecolabeling	Serves to inform consumers which brands use environmentally benign processes. Manufacturers are designating their labels how their products were grown, harvested, and manufactured.
Socially Responsible Investing	Entails investing in companies that have met criteria for environmental or social sustainability.
Greenwashing	When corporate greening efforts are more rhetoric than reality. Mislead consumers into thinking a company is acting more sustainably than it actually is.
Sustainable Development	Economic advancement that uses resources in a manner that satisfies our current needs but does not compromise the future availability of resources. Economic pursuit, but also an ethical pursuit because it asks today's generations to mange our resource us so future generations can enjoy si…
Development	Economists use to describe the use of nature resources for economic advancement.
Triple Bottom Line	Trio of goals including economic advancement, environmental protection, and social equity.
Millennium Development Goals	Each broad goal for sustainable development has several specific underlying targets that may be met by implementing concrete strategies.


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BESC 201: EXAM 1

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