Misc.
Individuals with traits that increase their survivability are more likely to produce offspring and pass on these traits.
Natural Selection
Interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the environment
Environmental Science
The amount of energy that gets passed on to the next trophic level:
10%
How many mass extinctions have there been?
5
Explains how life on Earth changes over time due to changes in the genes of populations
Theory of Evolution
Difference between primary and secondary succession.
Species composition of an ecosystem or community can change in response to changing environmental conditions
primary - start from scratch
secondary - rebuild ecosystem with vegetation left
What is an ecosystem service?
Free natural services provided by healthy ecosystems; support human life/economies
Name 3 different types of nutrient cycle.
Nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, hydrologic
Nonnative species vs. Invasive
Nonnative species is not supposed to be there
Invasive is not supposed to be there and it causes harm to the environment
What is a keystone species?
affect the type and abundance of other species in an ecosystem.
Ecosystem would be dramatically different if keystone species disappeared
Explain biomagnification.
The process whereby a chemical pollutant becomes more concentrated as it moves up each trophic level in a food chain or web
What is an Ecological footprint?
The amount of land and water needed to supply an individual or a population with renewable resources and to absorb/recycle wastes and pollution such resource use produces
By clear-cutting forests faster than they re-grow
By adding large amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
What is climate change?
Humans increasing greenhouse gases (ex. CO2) in the atmosphere causing the climate to alter and change
Describes the variety of species present in an ecosystem and their abundance within that ecosystem.
Species diversity
what are the first two ecological levels (think about organism from small to large groups)
individual & population
What is the difference between an observation and an inference?
Observation - based on senses what you can see
Inference - educated guess based on your observations
What are the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere?
Geosphere - rocks (mantle and crust)
Atmosphere - air (envelopes earth in gases)
hydrosphere - water (all water on earth - solid, liquid, and gas)
biosphere - where life is on earth
Point source vs. Nonpoint source pollution
Point source - easily tracked back to source
Nonpoint source - cannot be tracked back to source
Explain: mutualism, parasitism, commensalism
mutualism - both benefit
parasitism - one benefits at the harm of another
commensalism - one benefits and then other is unaffected
Name all 5 of the ecological levels from smallest to biggest
individual, population, community, ecosystem, biome
What are the 6 steps of the scientific method?
Make an observation, Form a hypothesis, Test the hypothesis (experiment), Collect, Organize and Analyze the Data, Draw Conclusions, Communicate the results
Draw the food pyramid and label the 4 trophic levels
3rd level consumer
Secondary consumer
primary consumer
producer
The maximum population of a given species that a habitat can sustain indefinitely
Carrying capacity
Intraspecific competition vs. Interspecific competition
Intra - competition between the same species
Inter - competition between different species