Topic 1.1/1.2
A Worldview that shapes the way an individual or group of people perceive and evaluate environmental issues. This will be influenced by cultural, religious, economic, and socio-political context
What is an Environmental Value System?
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed
What is the 1st law of Thermodynamics?
A group of organisms that share common characteristics and that are able to reproduce and produce fertile offspring.
What is a Species?
Autotrophs, typically plants or algae and produce their own food using photosynthesis.
What are Producers?
non-living, physical factors in the ecosystem that may influence an organism or a system
Examples: Temperature, salinity, pH, light,
What is Abiotic?
Value System that believe humans must sustainably manage the global system.
What is Anthropocentric?
Measure of the amount of disorder in a system
Species that are crucial to the maintenance of their ecoystem
What is a Keystone Species
A linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another
What is a Food Chain?
A relationship between two species in which one species lives in or on another, Gaining food from it. Example: Deer Tick Ixodes scapularis
What is Parasitism?
Value System that puts ecology and nature as central to humanity. Deep ecologists
What is Ecocentrism?
Energy is transformed through energy transfers. The entropy of a system increases over time
What is the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics?
A portion of the planet in which all life exists
What is a Biosphere
What is Bioaccumulation?
the increase in concentration of persistent or non-biodegradable pollutants along a food chain
What is Biomagnification?
Occurs when energy or matter flows and changes location but does not change its state
What is transfers?
When the output of a process inhibits or reverses the operation of the same process in such a way as to reduce change- counteracts deviation
The entire range in which a species could live
What is Fundamental Niche?
Carbon Dioxide + Water ---> Glucose + Oxygen
What is Photosynthesis?
Glucose + Oxygen ----> Carbon dioxide + Water
What is respiration?
DDT
Will tend to amplify changes towards a tipping point where a new equilibrium is adopted.
Individuals of different species compete for the same resource.
What is Interspecific Competition?
What are Density Dependent Factors?
This Ecological Pyramid has the strengths of being a simple overview of a community and non-destructive model. Weaknesses: all organisms included regardless of size and some animals feed at multiple levels (omnivores)
What is a Pyramid of Numbers?