1st Period

Environmental Science Vocabulary

Level One Words Anthropogenic man-made. Per Capita per person. Heterotroph an organism that derives its energy by consuming other organisms. Herbivore an organism that derives its energy and nutrients by consuming plants. Carnivore an organism that derives its energy and nutrients by consuming animals. Omnivore an organism that derives its energy and nutrients by consuming plants and/or animals. Scavenger an organism that derives its energy by consuming dead or decaying organisms. Autotroph an organism that derives its energy by making its own. Abiotic non-living factor. Biotic living factor. Level Two Words Predation a biological interaction where a predator feeds on a prey. +/Parasitism a biological interaction where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. +/Mutualism a biological interaction where two organisms benefit from each other. +/+ Commensalism a biological interaction where one organism benefits, but the other is not affected. +/0 Detritovore an organism that derives its energy from decomposing plant and animal parts. Decomposer an organism that breaks down dead or decaying organisms. Law of Conservation of Matter matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. Law of Conservation of Energy energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed.

1st Period 1st Law of Thermodynamics Heat and work are forms of energy transfer. 2nd Law of Thermodynamics The entropy of any isolated system not in thermal equilibrium almost always increases. Anthropogenic man-made. Per Capita per person. Birth rate the rate of births in a population over a period of time. Death Rate the rate of deaths in a population over a period of time. Life Expectancy the expected (in the statistical sense) number of years of life remaining at a given age. Niche relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other. Evolution changes across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological population. Natural Selection the gradual, non-random, process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population. Latitude a geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the Earth's surface Doubling Time the amount of time it takes for a population to double in size. Level Three Words r-selected Species high fecundity, small body size, early maturity, short generation time, and the ability to disperse offspring widely and quickly. K-selected Species large body size, long life expectancy, and the production of fewer offspring, which require extensive parental care until they mature Limiting Factor a factor that controls a population's growth. Euphotic Zone bright ocean layer at the top (sunlit zone). Coastal Zone the interface between the land and water Bathyal Zone the midnight zone, above the abyssal zone. Abyssal Zone contains the very deep benthic communities near the bottom of oceans. Littoral Zone the part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. Limnetic Zone the well-lit, open surface waters in a lake, away from the shore

1st Period Benthic Zone the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean or a lake. Salinity the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. Point Source a single identifiable localized source of pollution. Nonpoint Source both water and air pollution from diffuse sources. Erosion the process by which soil and rock are removed from the Earth's surface by natural processes. Distillation a method of separating mixtures in a boiling liquid mixture. Evaporation vaporization of a liquid. Transformation from liquid to vapor. Condensation vapor condenses to a liquid. Precipitation any product of the condensation of water vapor that falls under gravity from the atmosphere. Transpiration the loss of water vapor from parts of plants. Watershed the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. O Horizon surface layer of soil with organic material. A Horizon top layer that contains humus. Also called topsoil. B Horizon subsoil, consists of mineral layers. C Horizon layer under A and B, little affected by soil forming processes. Atmosphere a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. Troposphere lowest layer of atmosphere. Contains weather. Stratosphere stratified in temperature, with warmer layers higher up and cooler layers farther down. Contains ozone. Half-Life the amount of time it takes for a substance to degrade halfway. Fission splitting of something into separate parts. Fusion joining of separate parts into one thing. Descriptive words in APES related sentences. Environmental organizations are still attempting to discuss a viable source of energy other than coal or other fossil fuels. They do this by listing and assessing the

1st Period positive and negative factors of a solution to such a problem. Instead of choosing to burn coal, people want to use an alternative, like wind power. A pro of wind power would be that less environmentally harmful wastes such as greenhouse gases are created. We must account for the cons as well. A con would be that more space and money is required to build and maintain the wind turbines. Hopefully, we will determine an ecologically and economically sound method of generating energy to save our planet in the long-term instead of helping ourselves in the short-term.