Environmental Science Vocabulary

Question: Ecology

Answer: Scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment

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Question: Ecosystem

Answer: A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

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Question: Natural Resources

Answer: Materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water, and fertile land that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain

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Question: Natural Services

Answer: Processes in nature, such as purification of air and water and renewal of topsoil, which support life and human economies.

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Question: Natural Capital

Answer: Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies.

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Question: Nutrient Cycling

Answer: the circulation of chemicals necessary for life, from the environment (mostly from soil and water) through organisms and back to the environment

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Question: Renewable Resources

Answer: Resources that can be restored or replenished, these are resources that are not lost forever once used. Examples include, human skills, a tennis ball that can be hit time and time again

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Question: Non-renewable Resources

Answer: a resource that takes so long to form that it can't be replaced. Oil, which takes millions of years to form, is such a resource.

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Question: Sustainable Yield

Answer: Ecological yield that can be extracted without reducing the base of capital itself, the surplus required to maintain nature's services at the same or increasing level over time. Example, in fisheries the basic natural capital decreases with extraction, but productivity increases; so the sustainable yield is within the ranch that the natural capital together with production are able to provide satisfactory yield.

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Question: Gross Domestic Product

Answer: The total value of goods and services produced within the borders of a country during a specific time period, usually one year.

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Question: Gross National Product

Answer: The total value of goods and services, including income received from abroad, produced by the residents of a country within a specific time period, usually one year.

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Question: Ecological Footprint

Answer: The amount of biologically productive land and water needed to support a person or population.

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Question: Ecological Tipping Point

Answer: Point in the development of an environmental problem where a threshold level is reached, causing an irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system.

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Question: Environmental Ethics

Answer: A search for moral values and ethical principles in human relations with the natural world.

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Question: Affluence

Answer: (n.) wealth, riches, prosperity; great abudance, plenty

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Question: Sustainability

Answer: The ability to keep in existence or maintain. A sustainable ecosystem is one that can be maintained

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Question: Stewardship View

Answer: the careful and responsible management of population, the essence of good government.

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Question: Anthropocentric View

Answer: humans are there to preserve nature

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Question: Tragedy of the Commons

Answer: A parable that illustrates why common resources are used more than is desirable from the standpoint of society as a whole

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Question: Planetary Management

Answer: Beliefs that (1) as the planet's most important species, we are in charge of the earth; (2) we will not run out of resources because of our ability to develop and find new ones; (3) the potential for economic growth is essentially unlimited; and (4) our success depends on how well we manage the earth's life-support systems mostly for our own benefit.

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Question: Environmental Wisdom

Answer: We are part of and totally dependent on nature and nature exists for all species, not just for us, and we should encourage earth-sustaining forms of economic growth and development and discourage earth-degrading forms.

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Question: Leachate

Answer: Liquids that have percolated through a soil and that carry substances in solution or suspension.

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Question: Fly Ash

Answer: a powdery material collected in the air pollution control equipment (scrubber) after combustion in a waste combustion facility.

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Question: Dioxin

Answer: One of the most toxic human-made chemicals. Stable, long-lived, by-product of herbicide production enters environment as fallout from the incineration of municipal and medical waste and persists for many years.

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Question: Carbon Footprint

Answer: measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide

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Question: Buffering

Answer: Creating supplies of excess resources in case of unpredictable needs

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Question: Acid

Answer: A substance that increases the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution.

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Question: base

Answer: A substance that decreases the hydrogen ion concentration in a solution.

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Question: combustion

Answer: A combustion reaction is when oxygen combines with another compound to form water and carbon dioxide. These reactions are exothermic, meaning they produce heat. An example of this kind of reaction is the burning of napthalene

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Question: Sulphur dioxide

Answer: SO2- a corrosive gas that comes primarily from combustion of fuels such as coal and oil. It is a respiratory irritant and can harm plant tissues.

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Question: acid base indicator

Answer: a chemical dye whose color is affected by acidic and basic solutions

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Question: pH

Answer: Carbon dioxide + water ----> glucose + oxyge

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Question: hydrogen ions

Answer: (H+) The basis of the pH scale and can come out of water splitting

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Question: carbonic acid

Answer: H2CO3

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Question: acidosis

Answer: Acidosis is increased acidity in the blood and occurs when the blood pH falls below 7.35.

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Question: precipitation

Answer: Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth's surface.

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Question: dry deposition

Answer: Fine particulate matter and aerosols settling from the atmosphere onto lake and land surfaces during periods with no precipitation.

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Question: PPM

Answer: Parts per million

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Question: nitrate

Answer: (NO3)-

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Question: ammonium

Answer: The ammonium cation is a positively charged polyatomic ion with the chemical formula NH4⁺. It is formed by the protonation of ammonia.

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Question: organic

Answer: Carbon chemistry is referred to as ______ chemistry.

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Question: inorganic

Answer: Not formed from living things or the remains of living things

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Question: reservoir

Answer: A place where the pathogen grows and reproduces

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Question: photosynthesis

Answer: Chloroplasts

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Question: respiration

Answer: Exchange of gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide) at the lung capillaries (external respiration) and at the tissue capillaries (internal respiration).

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Question: transpiration

Answer: Evaporation of water from the leaves of a plant

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Question: nitrogen fixation

Answer: Process of converting nitrogen gas into ammonia

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Question: nitrification

Answer: Ammonia is converted to nitrate ions (NO3-).

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Question: producers

Answer: Make their own food from compounds obtained from their environment

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Question: consumers

Answer: An organism that obtains energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains.

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