Biodiversity and Energy Flow
The proportion that each species makes up of the total number of individuals in a community.
Relative Abundance
The maximum population size an environment can sustainably support.
Roots
Greenhouse gases most strongly absorb this type of radiation, which Earth's warm surface gives off.
Infrared
Plastic bath toys spilled from a cargo ship washed ashore on distant beaches, helping scientists map these large flows of seawater.
Ocean Currents
A hawk eats a snake that eats a mouse that eats grass. The hawk is at this trophic level.
Tertiary consumer
Limiting factors such as disease and competition become stronger as a population gets more crowded; these are called this.
Density Dependent Factors
Cells break down glucose using oxygen and release CO₂, water, and energy in this process.
Cellular Respiration
Phoenix cools about 25 °F overnight, but humid Houston cools only about 12 °F, because desert air has little of this greenhouse gas.
Seawater that becomes colder and saltier gains this property, which makes it sink.
Higher density or more dense
A species whose effect on its ecosystem is far larger than its abundance would suggest, such as sea otters protecting kelp forests.
Keystone species
A student tests how fertilizer affects algae growth. The amount of fertilizer added is this type of variable.
Independent Variable
Legumes are nitrogen fixing plants that form a symbiosis with this other species to fix the nitrogen.
Bacteria
In this famous experiment, electric sparks passed through a mixture of gases modeling early Earth produced amino acids.
Miller-Urey Experiment
A large region defined by its climate and dominant vegetation, such as desert or tundra.
Biome
After wolves are removed from a forest, deer multiply and young trees disappear. This chain reaction through the food web is called this.
Trophic cascade
Thousands of offspring, little parental care, and most die young: this survivorship curve type.
Type III
Two carbon reservoirs that take in more carbon than they release.
Carbon Sinks (Plants and Oceans)
Dissolved iron in early oceans reacted with oxygen from early photosynthetic life to form rust-colored bands. This chemical process is called this.
Oxidation
Two sea-level cities: one stays warm all year, the other has cold winters. The warm, steady city is probably closer to this imaginary line.
Grass in a wetland captures 20,000 kcal. Insects eat the grass, fish eat the insects, and herons eat the fish. Using the 10% rule, about how much energy reaches the herons?
20 kcal
An endangered crane population grew from 60 to 150 birds in 6 years. At the same yearly increase, how many more years until it reaches 330 birds?
12 Years
Volcanoes release about 0.3 billion tons of CO₂ a year; burning fossil fuels releases about 37 billion. Human emissions are about how many times larger?
About 120 times (over 100×)
Venus has an atmosphere with Carbon Dioxide around 995,000 ppm compared to Earth that has 440 ppm. Why is Venus warmer than Earth?
The Greenhouse Effect
A "sustainable" plant-based plastic is grown on cleared rainforest by workers paid below a living wage. Name the two sustainability pillars it undermines.
Environmental and social