Ecosystem Ecology
This biome has the highest net primary productivity per unit area.
What is the tropical rainforest?
The age structure diagram shape associated with rapid population growth.
What is a pyramid shape?
This layer of the atmosphere is where weather occurs.
What is the troposphere?
Coal with the highest carbon content and energy density and the cleanest coal.
What is anthracite?
This irrigation method minimizes evaporation by delivering water directly to plant roots.
What is drip irrigation?
This pollutant is formed when sunlight reacts with nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.
What is tropospheric ozone?
This pollutant is the major component of smog produced by vehicles.
What are nitrogen oxides?
This greenhouse gas has the greatest overall contribution from human activities.
What is carbon dioxide?
The area of open ocean receiving sunlight is called this zone.
What is the photic zone?
These are benefits humans receive directly from ecosystems such as food, timber, and freshwater.
What are provisioning services?
This climate pattern is characterized by unusually warm surface waters in the Pacific Ocean and often brings wetter conditions to the southern United States.
What is El Nino?
Which international agreement phased out chlorofluorocarbons to protect the ozone layer?
What is the Montreal Protocol?
The process of breakdown of rocks, minerals, and manmade materials at or near the Earth's surface.
What is weathering?
Competition, disease, and predation are examples of these limiting factors.
What are density-dependent factors?
The process in which wind or water transports weathered material.
What is erosion?
This energy source generates electricity using heated groundwater and steam.
What is geothermal energy?
The repeated planting of a single crop over large areas is known as this.
What is monocropping?
The process by which toxins increase in concentration at higher trophic levels.
What is biomagnification?
The burning of coal releases this heavy metal into the atmosphere.
What is mercury?
The reflectivity of Earth’s surface is called this.
What is albedo?
This biome stores large amounts of carbon and protects coastlines from erosion.
What are mangrove forests?
Wetlands reducing flooding and filtering pollutants are examples of these ecosystem services.
What are regulating services?
This climate pattern is characterized by unusually cold surface waters in the Pacific Ocean and can increase hurricane activity in the Atlantic.
What is the La Nina?
Name the biome characterized by permafrost and low biodiversity.
What is the tundra?
Species richness and species evenness are both components of this ecological measurement.
What is biodiversity?
This factor limits population growth regardless of population size due to natural disasters.
What is a density-independent factor?
This soil texture holds the greatest amount of water.
What is clay?
This renewable energy source uses moving air to generate electricity.
What is wind energy?
This process is known to help prevent forest fires.
What are prescribed burns?
This type of pollution source cannot be traced to one specific location.
What is a nonpoint source?
This air pollutant can penetrate deep into lungs and bloodstream.
What is particulate matter?
Methane is released by these two sources
What is anaerobic breakdown of organic material and burps from cows produced during a cow's digestive process, known as enteric fermentation
Organisms that supply oxygen in the ocean
What is phytoplankton?
Nutrient cycling and soil formation are classified as this type of ecosystem service.
What are supporting services?
A species introduced outside its native range that causes ecological harm is called this.
What is an invasive species?
Name the process by which bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia.
What is nitrogen fixation?
A survivorship curve with high mortality early in life is classified as this type.
What is a Type III survivorship curve?
A population recovering slowly because of low reproductive rates demonstrates this survivorship type. This equation measures population growth using births, deaths, immigration, and emigration.
What is Type I survivorship?
The movement of groundwater from recharge zones to discharge zones occurs in this underground layer.
What is an aquifer?
This law explains why no energy conversion is ever completely efficient.
What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
Nitrogen-rich runoff entering waterways commonly creates this oxygen-deficient region.
What is a dead zone?
Mercury contamination in aquatic food chains most strongly affects organisms at this trophic level.
What is the tertiary consumer/apex predator level?
The buildup of toxic substances in one organism over time is called this.
What is bioaccumulation?
This atmospheric layer contains the ozone layer.
What is the stratosphere?
This ocean process brings nutrient-rich water from deep layers to the surface.
What is upwelling?
National parks providing recreation, spiritual value, and tourism are examples of this ecosystem service category.
What are cultural services?
This ecological service provided by wetlands reduces flooding and improves water quality.
What is water filtration/flood mitigation?
This concept states that increasing which gas will change the pH of the ocean forming carbonic acid.
What is CO2, lowers the pH, ocean acidification
This ecological principle explains why only about 10% of energy transfers between trophic levels.
What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
A population exceeding its carrying capacity and collapsing due to resource depletion demonstrates this phenomenon.
What is overshoot and dieback?
The collision of two plate boundaries is an example of this tectonic boundary type.
What is a convergent plate boundary?
This radioactive isotope is commonly used as fuel in nuclear reactors.
What is uranium-235?
Animals raised in concentrated feeding operations are commonly found in these facilities.
What are CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations)?
This U.S. legislation established National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
What is the Clean Air Act?
The use of natural predators instead of chemicals to reduce pests is called this.
What is biological pest control?
The 7 greenhouse gases are and which are anthropogenic and which occur naturally
What is carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, nitrous oxide, CFCs, HFCs, tropospheric ozone
Coral bleaching most directly results from this environmental stressor.
What is increased ocean temperatures?
Pollination by bees contributes billions of dollars to agriculture and is classified primarily as this type of ecosystem service.
What are regulating services?
The maximum sustainable harvest rate that avoids population collapse is known as this.
What is maximum sustainable yield?
This process occurs when nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers runoff into water and can cause hypoxia
Eutrophication