Ecosystems & Biomes
This type of relationship benefits BOTH organisms involved.
What is mutualism?
The top layer of soil, dark and rich in organic matter and minerals.
What is the A horizon (topsoil)?
The layer of Earth's atmosphere that contains the ozone layer and where weather does NOT occur.
What is the stratosphere?
Excess nutrients entering a water body, triggering algal blooms and oxygen depletion that kills aquatic life.
What is eutrophication?
Conversion of sunlight directly into electricity using semiconductor materials in solar panels.
What is photovoltaic (solar) energy?
The maximum population size an environment can sustain long-term.
What is carrying capacity?
The loss of productive agricultural land due to overgrazing, deforestation, or poor farming, turning it to desert.
What is desertification?
The warming phenomenon in which greenhouse gases trap outgoing infrared radiation in the lower atmosphere.
What is the greenhouse effect?
Pollution that comes from a single, identifiable, specific source - like a factory pipe.
What is point source pollution?
An energy source that naturally replenishes on a human timescale, such as wind, solar, or hydropower.
What is renewable energy?
The process by which nitrogen gas is converted to ammonia by bacteria in the soil.
What is nitrogen fixation?
A farming technique that leaves crop residue on the field after harvest to reduce soil erosion and retain moisture.
What is no-till (conservation) farming?
A positive feedback loop: melting ice exposes darker ocean surface, which absorbs more heat, melting more ice.
What is the ice-albedo feedback?
The increase in concentration of a persistent toxin such as mercury at each higher trophic level.
What is biomagnification?
The point in time when global crude oil extraction reaches its maximum rate and then begins to decline.
What is peak oil?
A biome characterized by permafrost, very low precipitation, and dominated by lichens, mosses, and low shrubs.
What is the tundra?
The movement of dissolved minerals and nutrients downward through soil layers by water.
What is leaching?
The chemical compound responsible for ozone depletion, once used in refrigerants and aerosols.
What are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)?
The productive coastal zone where freshwater rivers meet saltwater, serving as a nursery for many marine species.
What is an estuary?
The ratio of energy produced by a fuel source to the energy required to obtain and process it.
What is EROEI (Energy Return on Energy Invested)?
The sequential development of a community in a previously uninhabited area, such as bare rock after a glacier retreats.
What is primary succession?
A type of farming that plants alternating strips of different crops to reduce wind and water erosion.
What is strip cropping?
Tiny airborne solid and liquid particles that can scatter sunlight, reduce visibility, and cause respiratory disease.
What is particulate matter (PM2.5 / PM10)?
An underground permeable rock or sediment layer that stores and transmits groundwater.
What is an aquifer?
A nuclear reaction that fuses light atomic nuclei, releasing enormous energy - the process that powers the sun.
What is nuclear fusion?