Hazards & Humans
Earthquakes, floods, and wildfires fall under this category of hazard.
What are physical hazards?
The buildup of chemicals in living tissue over time.
What is bioaccumulation?
This lower atmospheric layer is where smog, acid rain, and heavy metals wreak the greatest havoc on people.
What is the troposphere?
An organism’s role in its habitat is known as this.
What is an ecological niche?
These foundational organisms turn sunlight into biomass.
What are primary producers?
Microscopic troublemakers, such as those that spread cholera and cause dehydration, are this type of hazard.
What are biological hazards?
This controversial plastic additive prompted bans in infant formula packaging due to endocrine concerns.
What is BPA?
This kind of smog forms when pollutants react with sunlight.
What is photochemical smog?
The complete range of areas in which an organism could exist.
What is fundamental niche?
A classification system for organisms based on what they eat and what eats them.
What are trophic levels?
Air pollution and water pollution related to pesticides, heavy metals, or other toxic substances are this type of hazard.
What are chemical hazards?
This principle states that chemicals should be proven safe before entering the market.
What is the precautionary principle?
When warm air traps cooler polluted air near the ground, this phenomenon occurs.
What is a temperature inversion?
Range in which an organism actually exists due to competition.
What is realized niche?
Term used to describe food that can be consumed by a higher trophic level organism.
What is biomass energy?
An organism that carries disease but is not harmed by it.
What is a vector?
These stubborn pollutants resist breakdown, remaining in ecosystems for years.
What are persistent organic pollutants (POPs)?
This major pollutant was dramatically reduced when the U.S. regulated gasoline.
What is lead?
Term used to describe the division of resources so that potential competitors may coexist, like warblers in an evergreen tree.
What is niche differentiation?
This trophic level consumes primary consumers (like the early bird that eats the worm).
What are secondary consumers?
Concept that recognizes the interconnected health of people, animals, and ecosystems.
What is "one health"?
Carbon monoxide and cyanide belong to this class of toxins because they cause suffocation.
What are asphyxiants?
This index from the EPA scores pollutants and current conditions to communicate air safety.
What is the Air Quality Index (AQI)?
When two species that directly compete for resources cannot coexist.
What is the competitive exclusion principle?
The more complexity there is in this system, the greater stability of the ecological community.
What is a food web (food chain)?