Environmental Science Basics
This term measures how much land and water area a population needs to produce resources and absorb waste.
What is an ecological footprint?
Water is called this because it dissolves many substances.
What is the universal solvent?
Soil is made of mineral particles, organic matter, water, air, and these.
What are living organisms?
A naturally occurring inorganic solid with a specific chemical composition.
What is a mineral?
The variety of life at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.
What is biodiversity?
More people means more demand for land, water, and resources, making this a major driver of environmental change.
What is human population growth?
Name two major reservoirs in the hydrologic cycle.
What are oceans, atmosphere, groundwater, or ice caps?
The five soil‑forming factors.
What are parent material, climate, organisms, topography, and time?
These waste materials remain after ore processing.
What are tailings?
Species with a disproportionately large ecological role.
What are keystone species?
Resources like air, water, and fisheries that are shared and easily overused.
What are common‑pool resources?
Heavy rainfall, snowmelt, saturated soils, and land development can lead to this natural disaster.
What are floods?
A major soil problem caused by irrigation in dry areas that brings salts to the surface.
What is salinization?
Low‑grade ores cause more environmental damage because they require more of this.
What is mining and processing?
The major driver of modern extinctions.
What is habitat destruction?
A testable prediction in the scientific method.
What is a hypothesis?
The largest global use of water.
What is agriculture?
Sand, silt, and clay describe this soil property.
What is texture?
Industrialized nations consume the most minerals because of these two sectors.
What are infrastructure and manufacturing?
Most U.S. land is owned by this entity.
What is the federal government?
A well‑supported explanation that unifies many confirmed hypotheses.
What is a scientific theory?
One major disadvantage of dams that affects ecosystems.
What is habitat disruption, sediment trapping, or altered flow?
A technique like cover crops, crop rotation, or conservation tillage is used for this purpose.
What is soil management?
Rehabilitating mined land through soil replacement and replanting.
What is restoration?
Forests provide these ecosystem services (name two).
What are carbon storage, water regulation, soil protection, or habitat?