BIOL 1060: Exam 1
78 Cards in this Set
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Environment
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the living and nonliving surroundings in which an organism exists
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Environmental
science
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field of research used to understand the natural world and our relationship to it - extremely interdisciplinary
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Applied science
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research whose findings are used to help solve practical problems
-ex. designing a solar panal for increased efficiency
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Triple Bottom Line
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Combination of environmental, social, and economic impacts of our choices
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Carrying Capacity
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Population size that a particular environment can support indefinitely
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Sustainable development
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Development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same
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Ecological Footprint
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Land needed to provide the resources and assimilate the waste of a person or population
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Anthropogenic
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Caused by or related to human action
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Biodiversity
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Variety of species of earth
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Nonrenewable
resources
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Resources who's supply is finite or not replenished in a timely fashion
-ex. reliance on fossil fuels; coal, natural gas, petroleum to power our society
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Social Traps
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decisions by individual or groups that sound good at the time and products short term benefit, but hurt society in long run
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Tragedy of Commons
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Abuse commonly held resources in or to maximize his/her own personal interest
-Ex. Water/Public land
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Time delay social trap
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Efficiency causes overexploitation
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Sliding Reinforcer
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Building immunity , super germ
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World views
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-Anthropocentric
-Biocentric
-Ecocentric
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Anthropocentric
World view
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Human centered view that assigns inartistic value only to humans
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Biocentric World view
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Life centered approach that views all life as having inartistic value, regardless of usefulness to humans
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Ecocentric Worldview
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A system centered view, values intact ecosystems not just individual parts
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Observations
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Info detected with the senses
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Inferences
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Conclusions we draw based on observations
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Atmosphere
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Blanket of gases that surrounds the earth and other plants
-Ozone is key element
-Differ in temperature, density, and gas
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Troposphere
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Lowest level, starts ground level and extends upward 7 miles
-Air we breathe and where weather comes from
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Stratosphere
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Atmospheric blanket, starts at top of troposphere and extends up 31 miles
- Contains ozone layer
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Ozone
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3 oxygen atoms, absorbs UV radiation in stratosphere
-Ex. Ozone protects earths surface from UV-B radiation
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Empirical Evidence
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Information gathered via observation of physical phenomena, natural tools,eyes, ears, other senses
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Scientific method
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Empirical produce test a hypothesis
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Falsifiable
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Idea or prediction that can be proved wrong by evidence
-Ex. of NOT falsifiable: People should not litter because is it wrong to do so .
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Control group
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Group that the test groups results are compared to; ideally this bro will differ from test group in only one way
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Adaptive Movement
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Allows room for altering strategies as new info comes in or situation itself changes
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Crude Death Rate
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Number of deaths per 1,000 individuals per year
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Population Density
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Number of deaths per unit area
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Population Momentums
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Tendency of a young population to continue to grow even after birth rates drop to "replacement rates"- 2 children per couple
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Proratalist pressures
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Cultural and economic forces that encourage women to have more children
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Total Fertility Rate (TFR)
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Number of children the average women has in her lifetime
-Hovered between 5 and 6
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Demographic Factors
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Population characteristics such as birth rate/ life expectancy that influence how a population changes in size and composition
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Demographic Transition
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Theoretical model that describes the expected drop in once-high population growth rates as economic conditions improve the quality of life in a population
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Zero Population Growth
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The absence of population growth; occurs when birth rates equal death rates
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Zero Population Growth
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The absence of population growth; occurs when birth rates equal death rates
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Replacement fertility rate
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Rate at which children must be born to replace those dying in the population
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Age Structure
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Part of population pyramid that shows what percentage of the population is distributed into various age groups of males and females
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Sex ratio
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Number of males to females in a population; dividing number of males by number of females
-Number of males for every 1,000 females
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Gendercide
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The systematic killing of a specific gender
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Economics
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The social science that deals with how we allocate scarce resources
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Ecosystem services
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Essential ecological processes that make life on earth possible
-Ex. Water purification, pollination, climate regulation, nutrient cycling
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Natural Capital
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Wealth of resources on earth. Resources we consume like oxygen, trees, fish, and natural systems- forests, wetlands, oceans
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Natural interests
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Readily produced resources that we could use and still leave enough natural capital behind to replace what we took.
-Produced from this capital; more trees and oxygen
-EX. the interest you earn with a bank account
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Intergenerational tyranny
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Taking resources away from the future
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IPAT Model
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Equation (I=P x A x T) That identifies 3 factors that increase humans impact (I) directly, population size ( P), affluence (A), and technology (T)
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Internal Cost
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Those costs such as manufacturing, costs, labor, taxes, utilities, insurance and rent that accounted for when a product or service is evaluated doe pricing
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External Cost
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Costs that are not taken in account when a price is assigned to a product or service
-Ex. health cost associated with the waste produced
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True Cost
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Including both internal and external costs when setting a price for a good or service.
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Closed- Loop System
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System where the product is folded back into the resource stream when consumers are finished with it, or is disposed of in such a way that nature can decompose it
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Cradle- to- Cradle
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Management of a resource that considers the impact of its use at every stage of the process
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Discount Future Value
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To give more weight to short- term benefits and costs than long term ones
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Environmental/ Ecological economics
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Theories that consider the long-term, impact of our choices on people and environment
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Green Business
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Doing business in a way that is good for people and the environment
-Also profitable
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Service Economy
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Focus is on selling a service rather than a product. Focus on leasing and caring for a product in the customers possession rather than selling the product itself
-Selling the service the product provides
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Ecolabeling
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Providing information about how a product is made and where it comes from. Allows consumers to make more sustainable choices and support sustainable products and the business that produce them
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Biosphere
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The sum of all of earth and ecosystems. Total area where living things are found
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Habitat
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Physical environment in which individuals of a particular species can be found
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Species
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Group of plants and animals that have a high degree of a similarity and can generally only interbreed among themselves
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Niche
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Role of a species plays in its community, including how it gets its energy and nutrients, what habitat requirements it has and what other species and parts of the ecosystem it interacts with
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Energy Flow
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One-way passage of energy through an ecosystem
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Nutrient Cycles
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-(AKA biogeochemical cycles )
-Movement of lives essential chemicals or nutrients through ecosystem
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Biomass
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Sum of organic material-plant and animal matter that make-up an ecosystem
-Plant biomass produced with energy from sun
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Biome
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Distinctive types of ecosystems determined by climate and identified by the predominant vegetation and organism that have adapted there
-3 broad categories: Marine, freshwater, territorial
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Limiting Factors
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Critical resource whose supply determines the population size of a given biome
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Range of Tolerance
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Range within upper and lower limits of a limiting factor that allows species to survive and reproduce
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Biotic
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The living (organic) components of an ecosystem, such as plants and animals and their waste (dead leaves, feces)
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Abiotic
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The nonliving components of and ecosystem, such as rainfall and mineral composition of the soil
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Reservoirs (Or Sinks)
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Abiotic or biotic components of the environment that serves as a storage place for cycling nutrients
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Producer
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An organism that converts solar energy to chemical energy via photosynthesis
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Consumer
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An organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on another organism
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Cellular Respiration
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The process in which all organisms break down sugar to release its energy, using oxygen and giving CO2 as a waste product
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Carbon cycle
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Movement of carbon through biotic and abiotic parts of an ecosystem. Carbon cycles via photosynthesis and cellular respiration as well as in and out of other reservoirs such as the oceans and soil. It is also released by human actions such as fossil fuel burning
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Nitrogen cycle
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Continuous series of natural processes by which nitrogen passes from the air to the soil, to organisms and then returns back to the air or soil through decomposition or de itrification
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Nitrogen Fixation
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Conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into a biologically usable form, carried out by bacteria found in soil via lightning
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Phosphorus cycle
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Series of natural processes by which the nutrient phosphorus moves from rock to soil or water, to living organisms and to the soil
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