Earth's Spheres & Water Chemistry
Making up approximately 78% of the atmosphere, this element is the most abundant gas in the thin layer surrounding Earth.
What is Nitrogen?
Unlike the hydrologic, carbon, and nitrogen cycles, the phosphorus cycle uniquely lacks this physical phase.
What is an Atmospheric (or Gaseous) Phase?
Atmospheric nitrogen gas (N2) cannot be used directly by plants and animals because the nitrogen atoms are bound together by this strong bond type.
What is a Triple Bond (or Triple Chemical Bond)?
Water temperature readings (e.g., 18.5 C, 19.2 C) are examples of this data type because they fall along a continuous numerical scale.
What is Continuous Data?
This type of graph is best suited for showing parts of a whole or percentage distributions, such as atmospheric gas composition.
What is a Pie Chart?
Because ice expands and becomes less dense than liquid water, it floats, providing this key ecological benefit to underlying aquatic life during freezing winters.
What is insulating aquatic ecosystems/insulating the water underneath?
Plants and algae take in atmospheric carbon dioxide during this biological process, which moves carbon DOWN into living biomass.
What is Photosynthesis?
Soil bacteria in legume root nodules, such as Rhizobium, perform this initial step converting unreactive N2 gas into ammonia or ammonium.
What is Nitrogen Fixation?
Fish counts in a stream (e.g., 12, 15, 10) represent this specific type of data composed of counted whole values.
What is Discrete Data?
This graph type is ideal for illustrating continuous change over time, such as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over 100 years.
What is a Line Graph?
Tree roots growing into solid rock in the lithosphere to break it down physically and release organic acids are an interaction between the lithosphere and this sphere.
What is the Biosphere?
The phosphorus cycle has the slowest turnover speed because it relies on tectonic uplift, physical erosion, and this geological process taking thousands to millions of years.
What is Weathering (Geological Weathering)?
Nitrifying soil bacteria convert ammonia into nitrites and then into this form of nitrogen that plant roots can directly absorb.
What are Nitrates (NO3)?
In a data set, this statistic is calculated by taking the difference between the highest and lowest values to show data spread.
What is the Range?
To compare distinct, discrete categorical groups - like total fish counts across 5 separate streams - this type of graph should be used.
What is a Bar Graph?
Water moderates global coastal temperatures and protects aquatic life from rapid thermal fluctuations due to this property.
What is High Specific Heat Capacity?
Excessive atmospheric carbon dioxide traps heat in the troposphere, leading to this vivid everyday object analogy.
What is "Earth's Blanket?"
During the nitrogen cycle, this final process relies on anaerobic bacteria to convert soil nitrates back into N2 gas.
What is Denitrification?
Calculated by dividing the sum of all data values by the total number of items, this measure represents central tendency.
What is the Mean (or Average)?
In a standard "If, Then, Because" hypothesis structure, the "Then" statement predicts the result or outcome of this variable.
What is the Dependent Variable?
While cohesion refers to water sticking to water, this property describes water sticking to other surfaces, allowing capillary action to move water up plant xylem.
What is Adhesion?
A reservoir like an old-growth forest or deep marine sediment that absorbs significantly more carbon than it releases is known by this term.
What is a Carbon Sink?
Agricultural runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus triggers rapid algal blooms; when algae die and decompose, oxygen depletion creates these hypoxic regions.
What are Dead Zones (or Hypoxic Dead Zones)?
When arranging a set of data points in ascending numerical order, this metric represents the exact midpoint value.
What is the Median?
In a scientific hypothesis, this specific section of the "If, Then, Because" format provides the scientific rationale supporting the prediction.
What is the "Because" statement (or Scientific Reasoning)?