Energy Resources & Consumption
The cleanest-burning fossil fuel mostly composed of methane
What is natural gas?
The international agreement signed in 1987 that successfully phased out the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to protect the stratospheric ozone layer.
What is the Montreal Protocol?
The atmospheric layer where weather occurs and the greenhouse effect takes place.
What is the Troposphere?
The percentage of energy typically transferred from one trophic level to the next highest level.
What is the 10% rule?
The point source process where nutrient runoff causes massive algal blooms, leading to hypoxia and dead zones.
What is eutrophication?
A major environmental drawback of large-scale hydroelectric dams, which blocks the natural upriver migration of species like salmon.
What is habitat fragmentation?
The primary greenhouse gas released by human activities, largely from the combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation.
What is carbon dioxide
This weather phenomenon occurs when trade winds weaken, causing warm water to pile up along the South American coast and suppressing ocean upwelling.
What is El Niño
The only major biogeochemical cycle that does not feature a significant atmospheric gas phase.
What is the Phosphorus Cycle?
This term describes the concentration of toxins increasing as you move up a food chain to higher trophic levels.
What is biomagnification?
This type of energy is generated by utilizing the radioactive decay of Uranium-235 to heat water into steam, spinning a turbine without releasing greenhouse gases.
What is nuclear energy?
This global phenomenon occurs when excess atmospheric CO2 dissolves into ocean water, forming carbonic acid and lowering the water's pH.
What is ocean acidification?
The boundary type where tectonic plates slide past one another, frequently causing severe earthquakes.
What is a transform boundary?
Ecosystem services that provide tangible physical products we harvest, such as timber, wild game, or clean water.
What are provisioning services?
The measurement used in toxicology representing the specific dose of a substance required to kill half of a tested population.
What is the LD50?
This highly controversial extraction method involves injecting high-pressure fluids into shale rock formations to release trapped natural gas and oil.
What is hydraulic fracturing
United States federal legislation that requires the EPA to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health from harmful atmospheric pollutants.
What is the Clean Air Act?
The soil horizon characterized by accumulated organic matter and dark humus, found just below the O horizon.
What is the A horizon (or topsoil)?
Ecological succession that begins in an area completely devoid of soil, such as a cooled lava flow.
What is primary succession?
This environmental issue occurs when rainwater infiltrates mining tailings and reacts with iron sulfide, generating highly acidic runoff.
What is acid mine drainage?
This specific type of solar power uses mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central receiver, heating a fluid to generate steam and spin an electrical turbine.
What is Concentrating Solar Power
This specific law regulates and enforces the cleanups of the nation's most heavily contaminated hazardous waste sites, creating a "Superfund."
What is CERCLA
The global air circulation cells found between 0 and 30 degrees latitude that drive tropical rain patterns.
What are Hadley cells?
According to island biogeography theory, this specific combination of island traits yields the highest species richness.
What is large size and close proximity to the mainland?
This specific type of air pollution forms when sunlight reacts with nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
What is photochemical smog?