systems and models
These are the three basic parts of any system.
What are inputs, processes, and outputs?
This term describes a large-scale community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, such as a Tundra or Tropical Rainforest.
What is a biome?
This method is used to estimate the total population size of mobile organisms by catching, marking, and releasing them.
What is the Lincoln Index?
This is the study of the size, density, and distribution of human populations.
What is demography?
This gas is the primary contributor to the enhanced greenhouse effect caused by burning fossil fuels.
What is Carbon Dioxide (CO2)?
This type of system exchanges both energy and matter with its surroundings.
What is an open system?
This is the primary source of energy for nearly all biological flows of matter and energy.
What is solar radiation (the Sun)?
This index is used to measure the diversity of a community, taking into account both richness and evenness.
What is the Simpson Index?
This term describes any substance or form of energy that is added to the environment at a rate faster than it can be rendered harmless.
What is pollution?
This is the practice of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.
What is sustainability?
This law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed.
What is the First Law of Thermodynamics?
This measure looks at the number of different species present in a specific area.
What is species richness?
This term refers to the total mass of living organisms in a given area at a given time.
What is biomass?
This concept describes the maximum number of individuals an environment can sustainably support.
What is carrying capacity?
This layer of the atmosphere contains the majority of the world's weather and the air we breathe.
What is the troposphere?
This occurs when a change in a system leads to an exponential deviation away from the equilibrium.
What is positive feedback loop?
This is the name for the position an organism occupies in a food chain.
What is a trophic level?
This specific piece of equipment is a square frame used to sample stationary organisms like plants.
What is a quadrat?
This strategy involves protecting species in their natural habitats rather than in zoos or labs.
What is in-situ conservation?
This is the term for the wearing away of topsoil by water, wind, or human activity.
What is soil erosion?
This model uses a simplified version of reality to help understand or predict complex environmental interactions.
What is a system model?
These are the non-living parts of an ecosystem, such as sunlight, temperature, and soil pH.
What are abiotic factors?
This type of productivity represents the total amount of solar energy captured by producers minus the energy they use for respiration.
What is Net Primary Productivity (NPP)?
This is a measure of the amount of biologically productive land and water an individual or population requires to produce the resources they consume.
What is an Ecological Footprint?
This term refers to the ability of a nation to have access to sufficient, affordable, and reliable energy sources.
What is energy security?