BIO 121 Exam 1 Chapters 1-5 | updated questions and answers

BIO 121 Exam 1 Chapters 1-5 | updated questions and answers Environmental Science - The scientific study of how the natural world works, how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment Natural Resources - the goods provided by the environment. Can be renewable or nonrenewable Ecosystem Services - natural systems provided by the environment Ecological Footprint - a quantitative measure of resource consumption based on the cumulative area of biologically productive land and water Two Big jumps in our population due to: - Agricultural Revolution and Industrial Revolution Environmentalism - a social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world from undesirable changes brought on by human actions. NOT THE SAME AS ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE What does science do? - science is a systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it Observational(Descriptive) Science - Gather basic information (typically direct observation) Hypothesis-Driven Science - based on basic information of patterns and processes and more targeted and structured Scientific Method - 1. Make an Observation 2. Ask a Question 3. Form a Hypothesis that answers the Question 4. Make a prediction based on the Hypothesis 5. Do an experiment to test the Hypothesis 6. Analyze results 7. Hypothesis is correct or incorrect 8. Report results and repeat if needed Environmental Ethics - application of ethical standards to relationships between people and nonhuman entities Anthropocentrism - human centered view Biocentrism - ascribes inherent value to certain living things Ecocentrism - judges actions in terms of their effects on whole ecological systems John Muir - Preservation Ethic: people should protect the natural environment in a pristine, unaltered state Gifford Pinchot - Conservation Ethic: people should put natural resources to use but that we have a responsibility to manage them wisely Aldo Leopold - wrote "The Land Ethic" argue people should view themselves and the land as members of the same community, therefor we must treat the land in an ethical manner Sustainability - living within our planet's means, such that the Earth can sustain all life, including us, for the future Lithosphere - rock and sediment Atmosphere - surrounding air Hydrosphere - all water (salt, fresh, brackish, liquid, ice, vapor, etc) Biosphere - encompasses Earth's biotic and the abiotic portions they interact with Negative Feedback - works to stabilize a system Positive Feedback - drive a system towards an extreme, generally destabilizing Matter - a material that has mass and occupies space as a solid, liquid, or gas Law of Conservation of Matter - Matter may be transformed from one type of substance to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed Important elements for living organisms (NUTRIENTS) - carbon, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus Increase in Carbon in ocean leads to... - acidification which decreases calcium carbonate which prevents crustaceans from shell formation Energy - an intangible phenomenon that can change position, physical composition, or temperature of a matter light energy is transformed to chemical energy through - PHOTOSYNTHESIS cellular respiration - releases chemical energy Ecosystem - involve interactions between living and nonliving entities Primary Production - conversion of sunlight to chemical energy Gross Primary Production - total amount of energy produced by autotrophs Net Primary Production - energy that remains and is used to generate biomass GPP-Cell Respiration= - NPP Source - when a reservoir releases more materials than it accepts Sink - when a reservoir accepts more materials than it releases FLUX - the rate at which materials move between reservoirs Water Cycle - - affects all other cycles -transferred by evaporation, transpiration, and precipitation Carbon Cycle - -producers pull CO2 to produce sugars -consumption of organic molecules by consumers/decomposers releases CO2 Oceans serve as the 2nd largest reservoir of what - CARBON Nitrogen Cycle - - essential in DNA, RNA, and proteins - requires nitrogen f