Ecology
The main source of energy for most ecosystems on Earth
What is the sun?
The bottom of the food chain is known as what
What are primary producers?
An undesired change in air, water, or soil that affects the health or survival of organisms
What is pollution?
Building rooftops that are covered in vegetation
What are green roofs?
The historical era marked by a shift from human and animal power to fossil fuels
What is the industrial revolution?
An organism that has a big impact on the environment despite its low population size
Healthy things found in food that help things grow
What are nutrients?
An anthropogenic gas responsible for the largest share of total global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities
Carbon Dioxided (CO2)
An agricultural watering method delivers water directly to plant roots, minimizing loss from evaporation or runoff
What is drip irrigation?
The measure of how much a surface reflects sunlight
Agriculutral runoff containing nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients leads to _____ in aquatic ecosystems
What is eutrophication?
In a food chain consisting of grass --> grasshopper --> frog --> snake -->hawk, what trophic level does the frog occupy
What is the third trophic level (secondary consumer)?
The condition of low oxygen in a water body, often caused by rapid algae growth and excess nutrients
What is hypoxia?
This metric measures the total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, or product
What is a carbon footprint?
The depletion of shared resources due to individuals acting in their own self-interest.
What is the tragedy of the commons?
Represented by the variable "K", this is the maximum population size of a species that a specific environment can sustainably support
What is carrying capacity?
The process by which toxic substances become increasingly concentrated in the tissues of organisms at successively higher trophic levels
What is biomagnification?
The human-produced chemical compounds that predominantly contributed to the thinning of the stratospheric ozone layer
What are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)?
The three pillars of sustainability
What are economic, environmental, and social?
When areas experience significantly warmer temperatures than surrounding rural landscapes due to dark asphalt, concrete, and a lack of vegetation
What is the urban heat island effect?
This term describes the raw count of different species present in a specific ecological community
What is species richness?
The amount of energy moved onto the next trophic level
What is 10%?
The group of marine organisms most directly and severely threatened by the reduction of carbonate ion availability caused by ocean acidification
What are calcifying organisms (corals, mollusks, echinoderms)?
Encompasses all indirect emissions that occur up and down an organization’s value chain
What are scope 3 emissions?
Name 5 renewable energy sources
What are solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and biomass?