ESS KEY TERMS

Question 1

Sustainability

Answer 1

Use and management of resources that allows full natural replacements of the resources exploited and full recovery of the ecosystem affected by their extraction

Question 2

Negative Feedback

Answer 2

• Stabilizes steady-state equilibrium
• Tends to dampen down, neutralize or counteract any deviation from an equilibrium
• Stabilizes systems or results in steady-state

Question 3

Negative Feedback Loops

Answer 3

• Occurs when the output of a process inhibits or reverses the operation of the same process in such a way to reduce change- IT COUNTERACTS DEVIATION
• Mechanisms can be either positive (change a system to a new state, destabilizing as they increase change) or negative (return to its original state, stabilizing as they reduce change

Question 4

Energy in a system

Answer 4

• First and Second law of thermodynamics
• Entropy is a measure of disorder in a system and it refers to the spreading out or dispersal of energy
• More Entropy = Less Order
• Over time, all differences in energy in the universe will be even out until nothing can change
• Energy conversions are never 100% effective
• When energy is used to work, some change is also distributed as waste heat

Question 5

Entropy

Answer 5

A measure of disorder in a system and it refers to the spreading out or dispersal of energy. More of it causes less order

Question 6

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Answer 6

States that entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time

Question 7

Environmental Value System

Answer 7

World view of paradigm which shapes the way an individual or group perceive and evaluate environmental issues

Question 8

Categories of EVS

Answer 8

Ecocentric = Deep Ecologists and Self Reliant Soft Ecologists
Anthropocentric
Technocentric = Environmental Managers and Cornucopias

Question 9

System

Answer 9

A set of inter-related parts which work together to form a complex whole

Question 10

Open System

Answer 10

Exchanges matter and energy with its surroundings

Question 11

Transfers and Transformations

Answer 11

Both matter and energy move or flow through ecosystems as transfers or transformations

Question 12

Forms of pollution

Answer 12

• Organic (contain carbon) and inorganic compounds
• light, sound and thermal energy
• biological aspects and invasive species

Question 13

Chronic pollution

Answer 13

Long-term exposure to smaller amounts of a pollutant

Question 14

Acute Pollution

Answer 14

When large amounts of a pollutant are released causing a lot of harm

Question 15

Biodegradable pollutants

Answer 15

Do not persist in the environment and break down quickly

Question 16

Persistent organic pollutants

Answer 16

Resistant to breaking down and remain active in the environment for a long time, because of this they are bioaccumulate in animal and human tissue

Question 17

Ecological footprint

Answer 17

Impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources

Question 18

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Answer 18

• Report prepared before a development project to change the use of land
• Weighs up the relative advantages and disadvantages of the development
• necessary to establish abiotic environment and biotic community
• both negative and positive impacts are considered

Question 19

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA)

Answer 19

• Focuses on how ecosystem have changed over the last decades
• Predicts changes that will happen
• Report says that natural resources are used in ways which degrade them

Question 20

Environmental Indicators

Answer 20

• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
• Sustainable Development Goals
• Environmental Assessment Indicators
• Ecological Footprint

Question 21

Sustainable Development

Answer 21

Development that meets the need of the present without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own need

Question 22

Ecology

Answer 22

The study of the relationship between organisms and their physical and biotic environment

Question 23

Limitating Factors

Answer 23

The factors which slow down growth of a population as it reaches its carrying capacity

Question 24

Bioaccumulation

Answer 24

the build up of persistent r non-biodegradable pollutants within a organism or tropic level because they cannot be broken down

Question 25

Biomagnification

Answer 25

the increase in concentration of persistent or non-biodegradable pollutants along a food chain

Question 26

Maximum Sustainable Yield

Answer 26

(MSY) is the largest crop or catch that can be taken from the stock of a species (eg a forest, a shoal of fish) without depleting the stock. Taken away is the increase in production of the stock while leaving the stock to reproduce again. It is often used in managing fisheries. The MSY is equivalent to the net primary or net secondary productivity of a system.

Question 27

Zonation

Answer 27

Is the change in community along an environment gradient due to factors such as changes in altitude, latitude, tidal level or distance from shore/coverage by water

Question 28

Succession

Answer 28

Is the process of change over time in an ecosystem involving pioneer, intermediate and climax communities

Question 29

Biodiversity Hotspot

Answer 29

Is a region with a high level of biodiversity that is under threat from human activity

Question 30

Speciation

Answer 30

Is the gradual change of a species over a long time. When populations of the same species become separated, they cannot interbreed and if the environments they inhabit change they may start to diverge and a new species forms. Humans can speed up speciation by artificial selection of animals and plants by genetic engineering but the natural process of speciation is a slow one. Separation may have geographical or reproductive causes

Question 31

Natural Selection

Answer 31

Process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment are able to survive and produce fertile offspring.

Question 32

indicator species

Answer 32

are plants and animals that show something about the environment by their oresence, absence, abundance or scarcity

Question 33

anthropogenic pollutants

Answer 33

created by human activities

Question 34

water budget

Answer 34

is a quantitative estimate of the amounts of water in storage and flows of the water cycle

Question 35

photochemical smog

Answer 35

haze in the atmosphere accompanied by high levels of ozone and nitrogen oxides, caused by the action of sunlight on pollutants.

Question 36

acid deposition

Answer 36

broad term that includes any form of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that fall to the ground from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms

Question 37

thermal inversion

Answer 37

happens when temperature increases with altitude, instead of the normal decreasing temperature that occurs as altitude increases.

Question 38

Carrying capacity

Answer 38

The maximum number of a species or "load" that can be sustainably supported by a given environment