Enviro Flashcards
A system where energy and matter are transferred between living organisms and non-living parts of the environment.
What is the nutrient cycle?
Nitrogen gas is transformed into usable nutrients by nitrogen fixing bacteria NO -> NH4 (ammonium).
What is nitrogen fixation?
Ammonium is oxidized by nitrifying bacteria NH4 -> NO2 (nitrite).
What is nitrification?
The process that converts nitrate to nitrogen gas, thus removing bioavailable nitrogen and returning it to the atmosphere.
What is denitrification?
The biogeochemical cycle that describes the transformation and translocation of phosphorus in soil, water, and living and dead organic material.
What is the phosphorus cycle?
The process that moves carbon between plants, animals, and microbes; minerals in the earth; and the atmosphere.
What is the carbon cycle?
The process of extracting a substance from a solid material that is dissolved in a liquid.
What is leaching?
1st trophic level.
What is a producer?
2nd trophic level.
What is a primary consumer?
3rd trophic level.
What is a secondary consumer?
4th trophic level.
What is a tertiary consumer?
1st trophic level from the top.
What is a quaternary consumer?
Changing of stored chemical energy in food molecules to a form usable by organisms.
What is cellular respiration?
This process can cause loss of aquatic habitats, degradation of water quality, and increased flooding potential.
What is sedimentation?
The transfer of substances from the environment to plants, animals, and humans.
What is uptake?
An increase in the concentration of a chemical in a biological organism over time, compared to the chemical’s concentration in the environment.
What is bioaccumulation?
An increase in concentration of a substance in an organism.
What is biomagnification?
Part of Earth where all living things are.
What is the biosphere?
Layer of the Earth that contains the crust and upper part of the mantle.
What is the lithosphere?
Water that is on the surface of the planet, underground, and in the air.
What is the hydrosphere?
Main components of fertilizer.
What is nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus?
What is the more potent greenhouse gas: methane or carbon dioxide?
(Or the question could be “The more potent greenhouse gase of methane and CO2”)
What is methane?
Absorb the wavelengths of radiation that a planet emits.
What are greenhouse gases?
