Earth Systems
The most abundant gas in the atmosphere.
What is Nitrogen?
All the different kinds of life you'll find in one area—the variety of animals, plants, fungi, and even microorganisms like bacteria.
What is biodiversity?
A situation in which individuals with access to a public resource act in their own interest.
What is the Tragedy of the Commons?
Chemicals that deplete the stratospheric ozone layer.
What are Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)?
An international treaty adopted in 1997 under the UNFCCC designed to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
What is the Kyoto Protocol?
The layer of soil that contains the most organic matter.
What is the O horizon?
Followed closely by the A horizon, also known as topsoil & humus.
The ecological process of life colonizing new, barren land devoid of soil.
What is primary succession?
Industrial agricultural facilities that confine large numbers of livestock for at least 45 days a year without pasture.
What are Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)?
A natural process where atmospheric gases, such as CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor, trap heat near the Earth's surface.
What is the greenhouse effect?
A landmark international treaty that successfully phased out over 98% of ozone-depleting substances (ODS), such as CFCs, to protect the Earth's stratospheric ozone layer.
What is the Montreal Protocol?
The three types of plate tectonic boundaries.
What are transform faults, divergent plates, and convergent plates?
The maximum population size of a species that a specific environment can sustainably support over an extended period without degrading the habitat.
What is carrying capacity?
Uncontrolled expansion of urban areas into surrounding rural land.
What is Urban Sprawl?
Non-native plants, animals, or microorganisms that cause ecological, economic, or human health harm in their new environment often spread through human activities such as shipping and travel.
What are invasive species?
Enacted in 1977, this law is the primary regulation for the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States.
What is the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA)?
The stages of the water cycle, in order, starting with precipitation.
What is precipitation, accumulation, evaporation & transpiration, and condensation?
A symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits by living on or inside a host, causing it harm, often without killing it immediately.
What is parasitism?
Excessive growth of algae due to nutrient pollution leading to oxygen depletion in water bodies.
What is Eutrophication
A significant cause of habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
What is humans humaning?
A comprehensive U.S. federal law, primarily from 1970 to 1990, was designed to protect public health and the environment from hazardous air pollution. It mandates the EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for pollutants, regulating emissions from industrial facilities (stationary sources) and vehicles (mobile sources) to reduce smog and toxic emissions.
What is The Clean Air Act?
The layers of the atmosphere from the surface up.
What are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere?
An age structure diagram with a wide base indicates a high percentage of young people and high fertility rates.
What is rapid growth?
An approach to pest control that combines multiple strategies to minimize pesticide use while reducing risks to wildlife, water supplies, human health, and the environment.
What is Integrated Pest Management (IPM)?
3 of 4 nondepletable renewable energy sources.
What are solar, wind, hydroelectric, and/or geothermal?
Federal law protecting US public water quality by authorizing the EPA to set national health-based standards for tap water. It regulates over 90 contaminants, requiring monitoring, treatment techniques, and public notification of violations, covering both surface and underground water sources.
What is The Safe Drinking Water Act?