APES Final Review Vocabulary, All Definitions, 100% examinable. Rated A+

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APES Final Review Vocabulary, All Definitions, 100% examinable. Rated A+ Average residence time - ✔✔-time it takes for a given part of the total reservoir of a particular material to by cycle... d through the system Gaia - ✔✔-Greek goddess Mother Earth Sustainability - ✔✔-the ability to meet humanity's current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs Lag time - ✔✔-time between a stimulus and the response of a system Volatile Organic Compounds - ✔✔-a variety of organic compounds used as solvents in industrial processes Positive feedback - ✔✔-when a change in some conditions triggers a response that intensifies the changing condition negative feedback - ✔✔-when a changing in some condition triggers a response that counteracts the changed condition true cost/external costs - ✔✔-harmful environmental side effects that are not reflected in a product's cost First law of thermodynamics - ✔✔-energy is neither created nor destroyed, but may be converted from one form to another second law of thermodynamics - ✔✔-when energy is changed from one form to another, some useful energy is always degraded into lower quality energy Ionizing radiation - ✔✔-radiation with enough energy to free electrons from atoms forming ions, may cause cancer High Quality Energy - ✔✔-organized & concentrated, can perform useful work Low Quality Energy - ✔✔-disorganized, dispersed Natural radioactive decay - ✔✔-unstable radioisotopes decay releasing gamma rays, alpha & beta particles half-life - ✔✔-the time it takes for half the mass of a radioisotope to decay. A radioactive isotope must be stored for approximately 10 half-lives until it decays to a safe level nuclear fission - ✔✔-nuclei of isotopes split apart when struck by neutrons nuclear fusion - ✔✔-2 isotopes of light elements forced together at high temperatures till they fuse to form a heavier nucleus. Happens in Sun, very difficult to accomplish on Earth, prohibitively expensive 10 half lives - ✔✔-estimate of how long a radioactive isotope must be stored until it decays to a safe level ore - ✔✔-a rock that contains a large enough concentration of a mineral making it profitable to mine mineral reserve - ✔✔-identified deposits currently profitable to extract surface mining - ✔✔-cheaper, can remove more minerals, less hazardous to workers organic fertilizer - ✔✔-slow acting long lasting because the organic remains need time to decompose silviculture - ✔✔-professional growing of trees shelterwood-cutting - ✔✔-cutting dead and less desirable trees first and after cutting more mature trees seed-tree cutting - ✔✔-removes all but a few seed trees to promote regeneration selective cutting - ✔✔-individual trees are marked and cut humus - ✔✔-organic, dark material remaining after decomposition by microorganisms leaching - ✔✔-removal of dissolved materials from soil by water moving downwards through soil illuviation - ✔✔-deposit of leached material in lower soil layers (B) Conservation - ✔✔-allows use of resources in a responsible manner Preservation - ✔✔-setting aside areas & protecting them from human activities loam - ✔✔-perfect agricultural soil with equal portions of sand, silt, clay soil conservation methods - ✔✔-conservation tillage, crop rotation, contour plowing, organic fertilizers soil salinization - ✔✔-in arid regions, water evaporates leaving salts behind (ex. Fertile crescent, southwestern US) water logging - ✔✔-water completely saturates soil, starves plant roots of oxygen, rots roots Hydrologic cycle components - ✔✔-evaporation, transpiration, runoff, condensation, precipitation, and infiltration watershed - ✔✔-all of the land that drains into a body of water aquifer - ✔✔-underground layers of porous rock allow water to move slowly cone of depression - ✔✔-lowering of the water table around a pumping well salt water intrusion - ✔✔-near the coast, overpumping of groundwater causes saltwater to move into aquifer adaptive radiation - ✔✔-occurs when a species enters a new habitat that has unoccupied niches and evolves into a group of new species, each adapted to one of these niches alpha particle - ✔✔-one of the major types of nuclear radiation, consisting of two protons and two neutrons beta particle - ✔✔-one of three kinds of nuclear radiation; electrons that are emitted when one of the protons or neutrons in the nucleus of an isotope spontaneously changes gamma rays - ✔✔-one of three kinds of nuclear radiation; type of EM radiation emitted from the isotope similar to X gays but more energetic and penetrating ENSO - ✔✔-El Nino Southern Oscillation, trade winds weaken & warm, surface water moves toward South America. Diminished fisheries off S. America, drought in W. Pacific, increased precipitation in southwestern N. America, fewer Atlantic hurricanes During an El Nino Year - ✔✔-trade winds weaken & warm water sloshed back to S. America During non El Nino year - ✔✔-Easterly trade winds and ocean currents pool warm water in the western Pacific, allowing upwelling of nutrient rich water off the West coast of S. America effects of el nino - ✔✔-upwelling decreases disrupting food chains, N. US has mild winters, SW US has increased rainfall, lass Atlantic hurricanes La Nina - ✔✔-"Normal" year, easterly trade winds and ocean currents pool warm water in the W. Pacific, allowing upwelling of nutrient rich water off West coast of S. America nitrogen fixation - ✔✔-because atmospheric N cannot be used directly by plants, it must be first converted to ammonia by bacteria ammonification - ✔✔-decomposers convert organic waste into ammonia nitrification - ✔✔-ammonia is converted to nitrate ions assimilation - ✔✔-inorganic N is converted into organic molecules such as DNA/amino acids & proteins denitrification - ✔✔-bacteria convert ammonia back into N phosphorus - ✔✔-does not exist as a gas; released by weathering of phosphate rocks, it is a major limiting factor for plant growth. Phosphorus cycle is slow, and not atmospheric excess phosphorus - ✔✔-added to aquatic ecosystems by runoff of animal wastes, fertilizer, sewage discharge photosynthesis - ✔✔-plants convert CO2 into complex carbs (glucose) aerobic respiration - ✔✔-oxygen consuming producers, consumers & decomposers break down complex organic compounds and convert C back into CO2 largest reservoirs of Carbon - ✔✔-carbonate rocks first, oceans second biotic - ✔✔-the living components of an ecosystem abiotic - ✔✔-the nonliving components of an ecosystem producer/autotroph - ✔✔-organisms that make their own food--- photosynthetic life fecal coliform - ✔✔-indicator of sewage contamination chlorine - ✔✔-good= disinfection of water, bad= forms trihalomethanes obligate symbiont - ✔✔-relationship between two organisms in which neither by themselves can exist without the other rangeland - ✔✔-provides food for grazing and browsing animals w/o plowing and planting pasture - ✔✔-plowed, planted, and harvested to provide forage for animals igneous rock - ✔✔-formed from solidification of magma metamorphic rock - ✔✔-formed by heat & pressure sedimentary rock - ✔✔-formed by weathering & erosion OAEBCR - ✔✔-soil horizon layers contour plowing - ✔✔-land is plowed perpendicular to the slopes and as horizontally as possible no-till agriculture - ✔✔-involves not plowing the land, using herbicides and integrated pest management to keep down weeds, and allowing some weeds to grow eutrophication - ✔✔-a body of water develops a high concentration of nutrients, causes increase in algae, organisms below deprived of light, large die off, decompose, DO lowers oligotrophic - ✔✔-referring to bodies of water having low concentration of chemical elements required for life photodissociation - ✔✔-solar radiation brea [Show More]

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