Ecosystem Dynamics
This biome is defined by low precipitation, low year-round temperature, and towering conifers
What is: Taiga?
Two processes which create the inorganic and organic components of soil, respectively.
What are: erosion and decomposition?
A condition caused by an excess of nutrients (particularly phosphates) in a waterway.
What is: eutrophication?
This action is the primary source of anthropogenic carbon emissions.
What is: burning fossil fuels?
This soil type contains 50% sand, 40% clay, and 10% silt.
What is: Sandy clay?
Mutualism, Commensalism, and Parasitism are all examples of this category of species interaction.
What is: Symbiosis?
The layer of the atmosphere most responsible for protecting the Earth from UV radiation.
What is: the stratosphere?
This air pollutant can be removed from industrial emissions using electrostatic precipitators.
What is: particulate matter?
The name for the combined impact on natural resources of creating a product or living a lifestyle.
What is: environmental footprint
An ecosystem has a gross primary productivity of 482gC/m2/yr, and a respiration rate of 124gC/m2/yr. This is the net primary productivity.
What is:
482 - 124 = 358 gC/m2/yr ?
Soil bacteria are a critical organic component of this nutrient cycle.
What is: the Nitrogen Cycle?
The defining characteristic of a watershed.
What is: All water flows to the same place?
These two atmospheric pollutants are primarily responsible for the formation of photochemical smog.
What are: NOx and VOCs?
This method of irrigation greatly reduces water loss from evaporation.
What is: drip irrigation?
This is the approximate time it would take for a population with a growth rate of 1.47% to double in size.
What is:
70 / 1.47 = 47.619 years?
The range of conditions, such as temperature, salinity, flow rate, and sunlight which an organism can endure before injury or death.
What is: Ecological Tolerance?
The type of plate boundary which formed the Appalachian Mountains
What is: Convergent?
The phenomenon where organisms higher up the trophic pyramid experience greater effects of pollution than others.
What is: biomagnification?
A maxim which describes the direction to build cities to reduce their impact on ecosystems around them.
What is: “up not out”?
A 120 kg sample of a radioactive isotope has a mass of 30 kg after 20 years. This is the half life of the isotope.
What is: 10 years?
The reason primary succession begins with mosses and lichens, rather than grasses.
What is: lack of soil?
The environmental condition primarily responsible for ENSO.
What is: Changing Pacific ocean surface temperatures?
The kind of pollution which makes water hold less oxygen.
What is: Thermal Pollution?
A method of power which is not related (neither directly nor indirectly) to energy from solar radiation.
What is: geothermal power?
An electric hot water heater requires about 0.195 kWh to boil 1 gallon of water. The average shower requires 17.2 gallons of water, and the price of electricity in Tacoma is $0.05/kWh. It costs this much to heat water for a shower.
What is:
(17.2 gal/shower)*(0.195 kWh/1 gal)*($0.05/1 kWh)
=$0.17/shower?