Topic 1:
Foundations
Foundations
The concept that recognizes different worldviews and value systems influence environmental decision-making.
What are perspectives?
The role an organism plays within an ecosystem.
What is an ecological niche?
The variety of life in an area, including species, genes, and ecosystems.
What is biodiversity?
The continuous movement of H2O through evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
What is the hydrological or water cycle?
A group of interacting components with inputs, outputs, and feedback loops.
What is a system?
Organisms that produce their own food using sunlight or chemical energy.
What are producers?
A species that has a disproportionately large impact on its ecosystem relative to its population size.
What is a keystone species?
The term for excess nutrients entering water systems, often causing algal blooms.
What is eutrophication?
The type of feedback loop exemplified by: A warmer atmosphere will melt ice and this changes the albedo which further warms the atmosphere.
What is positive feedback?
The change in an abiotic factor across a given area or habitat.
What is a gradient?
In an ecosystem or habitat, an introduced organism that typically has no significant predators and outcompetes other organisms for resources.
what are invasive species?
The ocean zone where the majority of primary productivity and organisms are found.
What is the photic zone?
Development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
What is sustainability?
The percentage of energy transferred from one trophic level to the next, typically around this value.
What is ~10%?
These two measurements are used to determine the overall diversity of an ecosystem.
What are richness and evenness?
The maximum biomass of organisms that can be harvested from aquatic ecosystems that will allow populations to fully replenish.
What is maximum sustainable yield?
A point at which a small change can cause a large, often irreversible shift in a system.
What is a tipping point?
This occurs when toxins stored in fatty tissue become concentrated as they move up the food chain.
What is biomagnification?
A quantitative measure used to calculate biodiversity that accounts for both richness and evenness.
What is the Simpson’s Diversity Index?
The increase in the formation of carbonic acid in the ocean due to increased amounts of atmospheric CO2.
What is ocean acidification?