Chapter 1` Flashcards
(15 cards)
What is Environmental Science
Studies all aspects of the environment - field that involves both the physical sciences and social sciences
What is Sustainability?
Idea that the environment can meet the needs of the current generation without sacrificing the needs of the future generation.
Human Well-Being is…
Food, Health, Social Stability, Freedom
What is Ecology?
The branch of environmental science that focuses on the abundance and distribution of organisms in relation to their environment.
What is Environment?
All of the physical, chemical and biological factors and processes that determine the growth and survival of an organism or a community of organisms.
What is Ecosystem?
Includes all of the organisms and their physical and chemical environment within a specific area.
What is Ecosystem Functions?
The flow of matter and energy and the processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms
What is Ecosystem services?
The multitude of resources and processes that ecosystems supply to humans. Provisioning Regulating Cultural Supporting Services
What is Regulating services?
the ways that ecosystems control important conditions and processes such as climate, the flow of water, and the absorption of pollutants.
The organization and function of ecosystems depends on four fundamental principles.
- Matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed
- Ecosystems are always open to gains and losses of matter and energy
- Ecosystem processes are self-regulated by interactions among their living and nonliving components
- Ecosystem change is inevitable and essential
In environmental science, the law of energy and mass conservation is a powerful reminder of two fundamental truths.
- Something cannot be created from nothing
- Everything goes somewhere
What is Dynamic homeostasis?
The process by which systems adjust to changes in ways that minimize how much features or processes vary from their normal values. (Body Temp)
What is Feedback?
The ability of a system to adjust based on changes in the system itself.
What is Negative feedback?
When directional change in a process alters the system in a manner that reverses the direction of that change
Sustainable use of resources requires two things:
An understanding of their rate of renewal and the ability to manage the rate of their use
