Environmental Bio
Terms
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- Stages of Primary Succession
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Stage I: Lichen Pioneer Community
Stage II: Moss
Stage III: Herbaceous Plants
Stage IV: Shrubs
Stage V: Trees
Stage VI: Climax Forest - Stages of Secondary Succession
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Stage I: Annual Weeds
Stage II: Perennial Weeds
Stage III: Shrubs
Stage IV: Young Forest
Stage V: Climax Forest - Dynamic Equilibrium
- Property of constant adjustments to change, maintaining overall balance of ecosystem
- Commensalism
- Subpart of Symbiosis: 2 species, 1 benefits, the other is neutral
- Mutualism
- Subpart of Symbiosis: Both organisms benefit
- Biotic Potential
- Max growth rate a population can achieve given unlimited resources and ideal environmental conditions
- Environmental Resistance
- Limiting factors controlling population growth
- Carrying Capacity
- Population best supported over "k" = carrying capacity
- Macroconsumers
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Herbivores (Primary Consumers)
Carnivores (Secondary Consumers)
Tertiary Consumers (carnivores that eat 2ndary consumers)
Omnivores - Microconsumers
- Detritovores: feed on tissues of dead, waste, or living. Digest materials outside bodies. Reduce and recycle organic material
- Keystone Species
- Thomas Paine's idea. A species whose presence in the ecosystem increases biodiversity. Ex: starfish
- Gross Primary Productivity
- Total amount of Energy fixed by autotrophs over a given period of time
- Net Primary Productivity
- Amount of Energy available to organisms other than autotrophs
- Pyramid of Energy
- Depicts production, use, and transfer of energy from one trophic level to another.
- 10% Rule
- Only 10% of energy is transferred through food. The other 90% is usually lost as heat
- Percolation
- Movement of water through porus materia like land or soil
- Ecological Succession
- Process by which an ecosystem matures. Gradual, sequential, and somewhat predictable change
- Biosphere
- Anything that can support life
- Abiotic
- Non-living things
- Biotic
- Living organisms
- Speciation
- Separation of populations into independently evolving species which no longer interbreed because of accumulated genetic differences
- Primary Succession
- Development of a new ecosystem in an area previously devoid of organisms. Like on bare rock
- Natural Selection
- Enables individuals with traits that better adapt them to survive and outnumber others (can lead to speciation)
- Resource
- anything that serves a need
- Perpetual Resource
- Inexhaustable resource (solar energy)
- Renewable Resource
- Can be replaced (water)
- Nonrenewable Resource
- Exists in finite supply or is replaced by environment VERY slowly
- Deductive Logic
- Scientific Method: "if...then" statement
- Species
- All organisms of the same group that can interbreed
- Population
- Same group species that live, interbreed, and interact in the same geographic area
- Community
- All populations that live and interact with one another in a given area at a given time
- Ecosystem
- Self-sustaining, self-regulating community of organisms interacting with the physical environment within a defined geographical area
- Biome
- Major regional groupings of plants and animals, classified according to dominant vegetation type
- First Law of Thermodynamics
- During physical/chemical change, energy is neither created nor destroyed
- Secondary Succession
- Regrowth of an ecosystem after a disturbance, faster than primary.
- Second Law of Thermodynamics
- With each change in form, energy is degraded to a less useful form and given off to the surroundings, usually as low quality heat
- Entropy
- Energy always flows from high quality, concentrated, and organized forms to low quality, randomly-dispersed and disorganized form. Entropy up = disorder up
- Matter
- Anything that has mass and takes up space
- Elements
- Substances that cannot be changed into simpler substances by chemical means
- Atom
- Smallest unit of an element that retains the unique characteristics of element
- Molecule
- Smallest particle of a substance that has the composition and chemical properties of that substance and is capable of individual existence
- Organic
- Anything with carbon
- Biomass
- Mass of living things in a certain area (weight)
- Properties of an Organism
-
Lives at expense of environment
Has cellular structure
Exhibits movement
Grows and Reproduces
Responds to stimuli
Grows and evolves - Aspects of "good science"
-
Be objective
Repeatability
Sufficiently replicated
Organization and quality of design - Independent Variable
- The Condition under study (my example = beach location)
- Dependent Variable
- One that changed due to Independent Variable (my example = bacteria levels)
- Sources of Energy in an Ecosystem
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Solar radiation, less that 1% of energy is absorbed by plants
Earths core, gives off heat trapped from formation of the earth - Autotrophs
- Plants: with water, nutrients, and an Energy source, they produce compounds necessary for survival
- Trophic
- Means food
- Phototrophs
- PLants: use solar energy to convery water and carbon dioxide into glucose
- Chemoautotrophs
- Some bacteria: use energy from inorganic compounds to make and store carbons, this takes place without sunlight
- Heterotrophs
- Consumers: eat others or digest wastes of others, cannot make their own food
- Anthropogenic
- Human induced
- Acute Pollution
- Immediate effects, readily detected. ex-oil spill
- Chronic Pollution
- Long term, effects not noticed for years (delay=lag time)
- Bioaccumulation
- Storage of chemicals in an organism in higher concentrations than are normally found in the environment ex-DDT in phytoplankton
- Biomagnification
- Accumulation of chemicals in organisms in increasingly higher concentrations at successive trophic levels ex-fish eats phytoplankton with DDT
- Applied Ecology
- Scientific discipline that measures and attempts to predict the ecological consequences of human activities and to recommend ways to limit damahge to and restore ecosystems
- Disturbance Ecology
- Study of the impact of particular stresses on particular organisms, populations, and ecosystems. Ex-try to determine effects of climate change on fish population
- Restoration Ecology
- Concerned with repairing damage to ecosystems caused by us. Restore as close to natural state as possible
- Landscape Ecology
- Holistic study of a geographic area: distribution of ecosystems, movement of plants, animals, nutrients, and energy. How ecosystems function, interact, and change.
- Agroecology
- Study of purely ecological phenomena with in crop fields or agroecosystems
- Ecotoxicology
- Study of toxins on population dynamics, community structure, and ecosystems
- Conservation biology
- dedicated to protecting, maintaining, and restoring the Earth biological diversity
- Staples
- The foods we NEED to live: carbs, protein, fats
- Desertification
- land degredation in arid, dry, and sub-humid regions resulting mainly from adverse human impacts
- Extinction Vortext
- Small population, inbreeding, loss of genetic variability, smaller population
- Genetic Diversity
- Diversity within a population
- Species Diversity
- Diversity within an ecosystem
- Community/Ecosystem Diversity
- Diversity across an entire region
- Endemic Species
- Plant/animal confined to/exclusive to a specific area
- Gene
- Hereditary information in cellular form
- Genotype
- Unique to each, their genetic makeup
- Genepool
- All genes present in a population
- Community Level Disturbance
- Disturbance in a community, examples: resource competition, vegetation structure
- Ecosystem Level Disturbance
- Major changes to the ecosystem. examples: hydrology, soil chemistry, suceptability to fire
- Kinetic Energy
- energy due to motion or movement
- Potential Energy
- Energy in storage
- Energy Efficiency
- measure of the percentage of the total energy input that does useful work and is not converted to degrasde energy
- Fossil Fuels
- Fossilized remains of organic matter, when burned the chemical bonds break and energy is released. Examples: Coal, petroleum, natural gas
- Anthracite
- Hard coal, has the highest carbon content, most efficient, releases most heat when burned
- Bituminous
- Soft coal, most common. High levels of sulfer
- Most abundant natural gas
- methane
- Associated Gas
- Natural gas that is found in sites with petroleum
- Nonassociated Gas
- Found alone, it seeps through rock until it is trapped against impervious rock
- Fission
- The splitting of the bonds in an atom. This happens when an atom is bombarded with a free neuron. Spurrs a chain reaction with the release of all the new free neurons
- Isotope
- Different form of an element. Same number of protons, different number of neutrons. Example: U-235 (uranium used in nuclear energy)
- Passive Solar System
- Relies only on natural forces of conduction and radiation to disribute heat. Absorbs during the day and redistributes at night. Like a greenhouse
- Active Solar System
- Uses fans or pumps driven by electricity to enhance collection and distribution of suns heat
- Postconsumer Waste
- Waste that has already been consumed and used...recyling that has been bought
- Preconsumer Waste
- Waste from production that goes through the process again, has not been bought and used by a consumer
- Critical Mass
- Amount of fissionable material needed top sustain the reaction
- Consumptive
- An activity that depletes the resource in the process (logging, mining)
- Nonconsumptive
- An activity that does not deplete the resource. Example: tourism, photography
- Even-aged harvesting
- timber harvesting that replaces the forest with a stand in which all the trees are about the same age
- Uneven-aged harvesting
- timber harvesting technique. involves three or more cuts spaced over the average ligetime of trees in a particular area
- Mutagenic
- Causes genetic defects
- Carcinogenic
- Causes cancer
- Teratogenic
- Effects the unborn fetus = birth defects
- Endocrine Disrupters
- Messes with hormones, problems with growth development and reproduction
- Minamata Disease
- In Japan, happened with mercury. Effected the fish, people, and cats
- Electrolysis
- Break down toxic matter through electric currents
- Neutralization
- If acidic, add a base
- Precipitaion
- Transforms chemicals in liquid form to solids
- Bioremediation
- Natural process to keep organic wastes aerated and moist so they break down faster. Need to set up ideal conditions
- Olgiatrophic Lake
- Young Lake, usually much colder which slows progression. Typically very deep with rocky bottoms. Not very productive with fish or nutrients
- Eutrophic Lake
- "Old" Lake. Much warmer that olgiatrophic lakes, and much more productive
- Limnetic Zone
- In freshwater, the zone where light penetrates, and plants live
- Profundal Zone
- Freshwater: zone where no light penetrates, no plants
- Thermocline
- The area that separates the warmer top temperature water from the cold bottom water
- Traditional Economy
- People grow and make their own goods, families and communities self sufficient. Decisions on individual and community
- Pure Command Economy
- Government makes all decisions
- Pure Market Economy
- Economic decisions made by the buyers/sellers. based on supply/demand