Scientific Method
A testable idea that attempts to explain a phenomenon or answer a scientific question
What is a hypothesis
The study of how resources are converted into good and services and how these goods and services are distributed and used
What is economics
Includes all of the living and once-living things on Earth
What is the biosphere
A group of individuals that interbreed and produce fertile offspring
What is a species
A region with specific features, conditions, and flora and fauna
What is a biome
The variable that scientists manipulate in an experiment
What is an independent variable
The amount of product available
What is supply?
Includes all of the water on Earth's surface, underground, and in the atmosphere
What is the hydrosphere
Parts of an ecosystem that have never been living
What is an abiotic factor
All living things and their physical environments within a particular area
What is an ecosystem
The process by which the scientific community examines a paper before its publication
What is peer review
Labels that tell consumers which brands are made with processes that do not harm the environment
What are "eco labels"
Includes all of the rock at and below Earth's surface
What is the geosphere
Anything an organism needs such as nutrition, shelter, breeding sites, and mates
What is a resource
The coldest biome which surrounds the North Pole, it has very little plant diversity and very low temperatures
What is the tundra
Broad explanations that apply to a wider range of situations and observations
What is a theory
General plans and principles that address the interactions between humans and the environemtn
What is environmental policy
A system in which the input drives the process forwards (in a positive direction) driving the system to an extreme i.e. erosion or a forest fire
What is a positive feedback loop
The process by which traits that improve an organism's chance for survival and reproduction are passed more frequently to future generations than those that do not
What is natural selection
The biome with lots of flora and fauna, high temperatures, and rainfall all year round i.e. Australia and Brazil
What is a tropical forest
The set of moral principles or values held by the field of science, the idea of right and wrong
What are ethics
Due to the Biden administration, the US has rejoined this climate agreement
What is the Paris Agreement
The output of the system moving in one direction acts as an input that causes the system to move in the opposite direction i.e. a thermostat
What is a negative feedback loop
How reproductively successful an organism is in its environment
What is fitness
An aquatic ecosystem where a river meets an ocean or an inland sea
What is an estuary