Review Terms & Questions for Environmental Biology

Included here are important terms and/or concepts that you should understand. Related terms/ideas are grouped together. Do not approach this simply as a list of terms you need to define to be able to pass the exam. It is better used as a checklist of what you are learning, and a reminder of relationships. After each group of terms are examples of questions you should be able to answer once we have covered these topics.

Introductory stuff
zero population growth
renewable, nonrenewable resources
maximum sustained yield
degradable, nondegradable pollution

How does population growth relate to resource use and pollution?

Big picture stuff
ecosystem
laws of conservation of matter, energy
second law of energy
biosphere
community
population

What happens when matter and energy are changed from one form to another?
How does a community differ from an ecosystem?
Why is heat energy less useful than other forms of energy?

Biotic ecosystem components
producers, autotrophs
consumers, heterotrophs: primary, secondary, tertiary
decomposers
herbivore, carnivore, omnivore

What terms can be used to describe a plant? A bird that eats plant-eating insects?
Where do bacteria and fungi fit into the ecosystem?

Abiotic ecosystem components
outside energy source
physical factors determining climate, weather
simple chemicals
topography
organic, inorganic chemicals
limiting factor principle

What factors are most important in determining an ecosystem's climate?
How are air movements and precipitation linked?
What is the source of organic molecules within an ecosystem?
What are rain shadows, and how do large lakes affect precipitation?
How can simple chemicals control what happens within an ecosystem?

Ecosystem structure & processes
biomes
estuary
food chain, food web
trophic levels
primary productivity
secondary productivity
gaseous, sedimentary, hydrologic cycles
carbon cycle
nitrogen cycle
phosphorus cycle
primary, secondary succession
pioneer (opportunistic) species
equilibrium species
climax community

What are the major types of biomes? Of aquatic ecosystems?
What physical factors exert most control on biome type? On aquatic ecosystem type?
How much energy is lost when energy is transferred between trophic levels?
How does primary productivity differ from secondary productivity?
What distinguishes the three major types of biogeochemical cycles?
What processes drive the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles?
Why does secondary succession occur more rapidly than primary succession?
What types of species dominate climax communities?

General human population stuff
birth, death, migration rates
fertility rate
age structure
marriage age
exponential, logistic population growth
carrying capacity
cultural evolution

How can birth and death rates be used to determine population growth?
What is a replacement fertility rate and how does it relate to the time lag to ZPG?
What age structure typifies rapidly growing poopulations? Populations with ZPG?
What is the difference between exponential and logistic population growth?
What typeof growth does the human population display at present? In the past?
What sets the carrying capacity of the earth for humans?
Can carrying capacity of the earth for humans change?

Approaches to population control
economic development
demographic transition model
family planning (centralized, decentralized)
contraceptives (for example, IUD)
abortion
increased women's rights
economic incentives, disincentives
India versus China versus United States

Why are birth rates reduced in the demographic transition model of economic development?
What are some general approaches to family planning?
How do the official goals of economic development and family planning differ?
What approaches have the United States, China, and India used to control population growth?
What population growth controls have been successful? Unsuccessful?

Soil structure and type
inorganic minerals
macronutrients
micronutrients (trace elements)
organic matter
humus
pore spaces
parent material
residual soils
transported soils
weathering
texture
loam
structure
pH (acidity, alkalinity)
lime
soil profile
soil horizons (O,A,E,B,C,R)
topsoil
subsoil
leaching layer
bedrock
soil orders
mollisols
alfisols
oxisols
laterite
ironstone

What inorganic materials are needed by plants in large quantity?
What is the importance of humus in soils?
Which has larger pore spaces: a sandy soil or a silty soil?
What forces produce transported soils?
What type of soil is best for farming?
How can soil pH be adjusted?
What soil layer provides most plant nutrients?
How do prairie and forest soils differ?
What happens to tropical rain forest soils after forests are removed?

Soil erosion
Dust Bowl
Natural Resources Conservation Service
land use
soil fertility
contour farming
strip cropping
crop rotation
low-till, no-till farming
windbreaks

What farming practices contribute to soil erosion?
What farming practices can prevent soil erosion?

Hunger and malnutrition
marasmus
kwashiorkor
food quality

What is malnutrition?
What are some different types of malnutrition?
What is the chief cause of hunger?

Farming systems
industrialized agriculture
non-industrialized agriculture
organic farming

How efficient are our current farming systems?
Can mechanized agriculture feed the world's hungry?

Producing more food
simplifying diets
overnutrition
unconventional foods
enriched foods
fabricated foods
winged bean
ye-ed
krill
aquaculture
crop yield
plant hybrids
crop pests, diseases
pesticides
DDT
biological magnification
biological controls
pheromones
sterilization
resistant crop strains

What three plants feed most of the world's people?
Are there alternatives to raising more food to feed the hungry?
How can pesticides cause ecological problems?

Water resources
water (hydrologic) cycle
groundwater
watershed
water table
aquifer
water diversion
subsidence
saltwater intrusion
desalination
cloud seeding
drip irrigation system
dual water system

How much drinking water do we have?
How can we get more?
How can we conserve water?
Do we need drinking-quality water to flush toilets?

Water pollution
point pollution source
nonpoint pollution source
EPA
dissolved oxygen content
biochemical oxygen demand
fecal coliform bacteria count
degradeable, non-degradeable
cultural eutrophication
algae blooms
recharge areas
ocean dumping
Water Pollution Act
Clean Water Act
secondary sewage treatment

What is the major source of water pollution?
How can rivers and lakes deal with organic pollutants like sewage?
What causes the cultural eutrophication of lakes?
How can our underground aquifers be protected from future pollution?
What pollution problems do oceans face?
What has been done to clean up point source water pollutants?

Air pollution
corrosion
plant death/yield reduction
respiratory system problems
primary air pollutant
secondary air pollutant
nitrogen oxides
sulfur oxides
ozone
air quality index
thermal inversion
industrial smog
photochemical smog
acid deposition (acid rain)
sulfuric acid
nitric acid
Clean Air Acts

How are plants and animals affected by air pollution?
How are secondary air pollutants produced in the atmosphere?
How can topography and climate affect the severity and type of air pollution?
What causes acid rain and how might it be controlled?

Waste management
solid wastes
Resource Conservation & Recovery Act
sanitary landfill
methane gas
liners
leachate
recycling
incineration
dioxin
compost (biodegradeable)
hazardous waste (toxic waste)
waste exchange
detoxification
landfarming
injection wells
Superfund
Love Canal

How do we deal with most of our municipal garbage?
What makes a sanitary landfill a "high-tech town dump"?
Why aren't we burning more garbage?
How important is recycling?
How are we dealing with hazardous wastes?
Can we ever clean up our past mistakes with hazardous wastes?

General energy resources
surface mine
subsurface mine
cornucopians
neo-Malthusians

What are the major differences between surface and subsurface mines?
How can economics and technology extend resource supplies?
How does the concept of "reduce, reuse, recycle" fit in?

Oil resources
conventional oil
heavy oil
OPEC
oil embargo
oil shale
kerogen
retort furnace
tar sands
bitumen

How much oil do we have? Who has the most?
How can heavy oil be recovered?
Why don't we get more oil from OPEC nations?
Why aren't we using our oil shale reserves?
Where are we getting most of our imported oil?

Natural gas resources
methane
propane
butane
LP gas
tight sands

What is the major gas in natural gas?
What is done with the "other stuff" found in natural deposits of natural gas?
Where is it usually found?
Why are more people using it today?
Does natural gas cause polltion problems?
Where are future deposits located?

Coal resources
carbon content
energy content
anthracite
bituminous
subbituminous
lignite
slurry pipeline
fluidized-bed combustion
gypsum
coal gasification
coal liquefaction

What is our highest-energy, lowest-sulfur type of coal?
How much coal do we have?
Why does burning coal cause air pollution problems?
How is coaled mined? How does this affect cost?
What types of coal are mined in the western United States?
How do we transport coal?
How can coal be burned cleanly?
How can coal be converted to liquid and gaseous fuels?

Nuclear power
radioactivity
isotopes
conventional fission reactor
uranium-235
uranium-238
core
heat exchanger
turbine-generator
breeder fission reactor
plutonium-239
fusion reactor
tritium
deuterium
rem
core meltdown
Three Mile Island/Chernobyl
containment shell rupture
nuclear waste disposal

Why is uranium radioactive?
What is the fuel for a nuclear power plant?
How does a nuclear power plant generate electricity?
Can plutonium be used to produce electricity?
What is nuclear fusion?
Why do people fear nuclear power?
Are we dying younger because of nuclear power plants?
Where are we disposing of nuclear wastes from power plants?
Are some countries still building nuclear power plants?

Renwable energy resources
geothermal energy
The Geysers
steam
heat pump
solar energy
passive solar system
active solar system
photovoltaic cells
solar tracker/concentrator
hydroelectric power
wind power
DC (direct current)
biomass fuels
wood
methane
ethanol
methanol

Are some types of geothermal energy actually non-renewable?
What country/city depends heavily on geothermal energy?
What kinds of solar energy systems can be used for water and space heating?
What kinds of solar energy systems can be used to generate electricity?
How can water and wind produce electricity?
Can we retrofit old dams to generate electricity?
What renewable energy resource are most people in developing nations using today?
How can renewable supplies of methane and ethanol be produced?

Land resources
land management
economic
balanced multiple-use
ecological
preservationaist
National Wilderness System
parklands
deforestation
desertification

How has land use changed in the United States during the past century?
How are most public lands managed today?
What are current problems facing public lands?
Is deforestation restricted to tropical rain forests?
How do livestock contribute to desertification?

Wildlife resources
wildlife protection
economics
aesthetic/recreational
ecological
ethics
extinction
habitat disturbance/destruction
commercial hunting/poaching
predator/pest control
collecting
pollution
species introductions
species approach
laws, treaties
wildlife refuges
gene banks, zoos, botanical gardens
ecosystem approach
biosphere reserves

Why should we be concerned with wildlife extinctions?
What human activities are contributing to wildlife extinctions today?
How can we protect individual species threatened with extinction?
What is a better approach for protecting whole habitats and the species found there?

Society and environment
economics
cost-benefit analyses
redirect economic growth
politics
legislative branch
National Environmental Policy Act
environmental impact statement
executive branch
EPA
Superfund
judicial branch
environmental law
long-range planning
special interest groups
bureaucracy
religion
stewardship

How can economics affect our natural environment?
Do the costs of goods and services reflect the cost of these on the environment?
How has our political system impacted the environment? How has it protected it?
What branches of our government are responsible for different environmental problems?
Does religion have any influence on the environment?