Spotlight on Species
Components and Processes
Genetics and Evolution
Earth: Features and Facts
The Science of Living
100

This term refers to the variety of life at all levels of biological organization, from genes to ecosystems. 

What is biodiversity?

100

This element is critical for plant growth and is cycled through ecosystems, often disrupted by human activities like farming and pollution.

What is nitrogen?

100

This theory explains why individuals with certain traits survive and reproduce. 

What is Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection?

100

These are the three layers of the Earth.

What are the crust, mantle, and core? 

100

This refers to the inherent worth of something, independent of its usefulness or external factors.

What is intrinsic value?

200

This refers to the phenomenon where a species no longer exists anywhere on Earth.

What is extinction?

200

This is the topmost layer of soil that consists primarily of organic matter, such as decomposed leaves, plants, and animal material.

What is the O Horizon?

200

This is the measure of the relative viability and fertility of an organism.

What is fitness?

200

This mountain range stretches from New England to Georgia.

What are the Appalachian Mountains?

200

This refers to the number of births per 1,000 people per year. 

What is the Crude Birth Rate?

300
This is a type of species that plays a critical role in maintaining the structure and balance of an ecosystem.
What is a keystone species?
300

This is the process by which rocks and minerals are broken down into smaller particles or altered through physical, chemical, or biological means. 

What is weathering?

300

Approximately 30,000 different kinds of these building blocks combine to form a unique individual.

What are genes?
300
This is a prolonged period of abnormally low precipitation that results in dessication, loss of agricultural land, and other ecological challenges. 

What is a drought?

300

This is a process that occurs in an area where no previous ecosystem existed, beginning in lifeless environments where there is no soil, followed by the gradual establishment of biological communities over time. 

What is primary succession?

400

This is the minimum number of species that a rainforest contains. 

What is 10 million?

400

This is a method of catching fish and other marine organisms using specially designed containers or enclosures that attract and capture aquatic species. This technique is an environmentally friendly method of capturing marine life.

What is Pots and Traps Fishing?

400

This is a type of genetic drift that causes a population to decrease drastically due to hunting and habitat loss. 

What is the bottleneck effect?

400
This modern environmental field attempts to repair or even regrow natural ecosystems. 

What is restorative ecology?

400

These are the three cycles that are considered the building blocks of life. 

What are the hydrologic cycle, the carbon cycle, and the nitrogen cycle? 

500

Researchers measure this environmental indicator in terms of the number of mammal species per 10,000 species per 100 years. 

What is Background Extinction Rate?
500

This cycle does not have an atmospheric component. 

What is the Phosphorus Cycle?

500

This is a type of relationship between two species where both take each other's resources for their own benefit.

What is reciprocal exploitation?

500

This biome is also referred to as prairies in the US and steppes in central Asia.

What is a grassland?

500

These are toxic chemicals created by humans for industrial purposes that can accumulate in both the environment and in organisms. 

That are Persistent Organic Pollutants?