Ecosystems and Energy
This rule states that only about 10% of energy is transferred to the next trophic level.
What is the 10% rule?
If a population grows 10% per year, this rule estimates doubling time.
What is the Rule of 70?
The maximum population size an environment can sustain.
What is carrying capacity?
This 1970 law regulates pollution of the air and sets limits on vehicular and factory emissions.
What is Clean Air Act?
This type of pollution occurs when excess nutrients cause algal blooms in water.
What is eutrophication?
Organisms that make their own food using sunlight are called this.
What are producers (autotrophs)?
Parts per million is abbreviated as this.
What is ppm?
This condition occurs when dissolved oxygen levels in water become too low to support most aquatic life, often as a result of nutrient pollution.
What is hypoxia?
This law protects endangered plants and animals from extinction.
What is the Endangered Species Act?
This pollutant is the main greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels.
What is carbon dioxide (CO₂)?
The rate at which producers convert solar energy into chemical energy is called this.
What is primary productivity?
If a value increases from 50 to 75, this is the percent increase.
What is 50%?
This concept describes a situation in which individuals acting in their own self-interest deplete a shared resource, even though it harms the entire group in the long run.
What is the tragedy of the commons?
This 1974 U.S. Law protects public drinking water by setting standards and regulations for contaminants.
What is the Safe Drinking Water Act?
This occurs when toxins become more concentrated as they move up the food chain.
What is biomagnification?
This type of ecological pyramid shows the amount of energy available at each trophic level.
What is an energy pyramid?
If a population decreases from 200 to 150, this is the percent change.
What is -25% (or a 25% decrease)?
This term refers specifically to the variety of genes within a single species, allowing populations to adapt to environmental changes over time.
What is genetic diversity?
An international agreement aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change.
What is the Kyoto Protocol?
Ground-level ozone is a major component of this type of air pollution.
What is smog?
When nutrients are recycled in an ecosystem, but energy is not, energy instead does this.
What is lost as heat?
What is 25 years? (70/2.8 = 25)
The gradual increase in toxin concentration at higher trophic levels.
What is biomagnification?
This international agreement aimed to reduce the use of substances that damage the ozone layer.
This type of waste remains dangerous for thousands of years and comes from nuclear power.
What is radioactive waste?