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| the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism |
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biotic components are the living things that shape an ecosystem
Exp: Animals, Plants.. |
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abiotic components are non-living chemical and physical factors in the environment which affect ecosystems.
Exp: Slope, Weather, Sunlight |
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| an individual animal, plant, or single-celled life form. |
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| a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals, capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding |
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| an interacting group of various species in a common location |
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| any organism that consumes or feeds on plants or decaying matter |
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| any organism that largely feeds on primary consumers |
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| an autotrophic organism capable of doing photosynthesis (using light energy) or through chemosynthesis (using chemical energy) |
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| an organism whose ecological function involves the recycling of nutrients by performing the natural process of decomposition as it feeds on dead or decaying organisms |
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| a feeding hierarchy in which organisms in an ecosystem are grouped into trophic (nutritional) levels and are shown in a succession to represent the flow of food energy and the feeding relationships between them |
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| interconnecting food chains in an ecological community |
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| hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy. |
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| the series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment |
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| the series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms |
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| the cycling of phosphorus between the biotic and abiotic components of the environment |
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the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water
6 CO2 + 6 H2O → C6H12O6 + 6 O2
Carbon dioxide + Water + Light energy → Glucose + Oxygen |
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the series of metabolic processes by which living cells produce energy through the oxidation of organic substances.
C6H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy (as ATP) |
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| a community of animals, plants, or humans among whose members interbreeding occurs |
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| the regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth occupied by living organisms |
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| a change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment |
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| the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation |
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| population growth in which the growth rate decreases with increasing number of individuals until it becomes zero when the population reaches a maximum (S curve) |
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| the pattern of distribution of individuals within a habitat |
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| interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association |
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| A form of symbiosis in which one organism (parasites) benefits at the expense of another organism usually of different species (called host). The association may also lead to the injury of the host. |
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| the size of the population within a particular unit of space |
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| growth whose rate becomes ever more rapid in proportion to the growing total number or size (J curve) |
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| interaction between organisms, populations, or species, in which birth, growth and death depend on gaining a share of a limited environmental resource |
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| the relative capacity of a species to reproduce itself under optimum conditions |
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| the hunting of one animal on others |
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| the ratio of deaths to the population of a particular area during a particular period of time |
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| the number of live births per thousand of population per year |
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| how quickly the members of a group increase in number over a set period of time |
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| number of individuals that reach the next year of life |
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| both species benefit by each other's presence |
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| two organisms in which one benefits and the other is not affected |
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water that collects on the surface of the ground
Exp: ponds, rivers... |
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| a land area into which water can infiltrate into an Aquifer relatively easily. The infiltration refills the aquifer. |
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| quality of a material or membrane that causes it to allow liquids or gases to pass through it |
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| supply water to (land or crops) to help growth, typically by means of channels |
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| a channel made to divert the flow of water from one course to another or to direct the flow of water draining from a piece of ground |
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| wastewater is any water that has been adversely affected in quality by human influence |
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| a point source of pollution is a single identifiable localized source of air, water, thermal, noise or light pollution |
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| an area or region drained by a river, river system, or other body of water |
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| a body of permeable rock that can contain or transmit groundwater |
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| to cause (liquid, for example) to pass through a porous substance or small holes; filter |
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| a barrier constructed to hold back water and raise its level, the resulting reservoir being used in the generation of electricity or as a water supply |
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| a process in which salt gets removed from water |
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| thick, soft, wet mud or a similar viscous mixture of liquid and solid components, esp. the product of an industrial or refining process |
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| Non-point source pollution |
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| a source of pollution that issues from widely distributed or pervasive environmental elements |
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| the cycle of processes by which water circulates between the earth's oceans, atmosphere, and land |
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| the draining away of water (or substances carried in it) from the surface of an area of land |
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| the level below which the ground is saturated with water |
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| safe to drink; drinkable liquid |
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| reducing the usage of water and recycling of waste water for different purposes such as cleaning, manufacturing, and agricultural irrigation |
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| degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature |
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| a network of rills gullies streams and rivers in an area. |
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| water held underground in the soil or in pores and crevices in rock |
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| having spaces or holes through which liquid or air may pass |
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| a bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease |
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| a large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply |
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| is the increase in concentration of a substance that occurs in a food chain as a consequence of |
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| a primary pollutant is an air pollutant emitted directly from a source |
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| a secondary pollutant is not directly emitted as such, but forms when other pollutants (primary pollutants) react in the atmosphere |
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| exhaust gas is emitted as a result of the combustion of fuels such as natural gas, gasoline/petrol, diesel fuel, fuel oil or coal |
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generic term for the mono-nitrogen oxides NO and NO2
They are produced from the reaction of nitrogen and oxygen gases in the air during combustion, especially at high temperatures |
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Sulfur Dioxide
a poisonous gas that is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes |
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| tiny subdivisions of solid matter suspended in a gas or liquid |
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| a colorless unstable toxic gas with a pungent odor and powerful oxidizing properties, formed from oxygen by electrical discharges or ultraviolet light |
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| haze in the atmosphere accompanied by high levels of ozone and nitrogen oxides, caused by the action of sunlight on pollutants |
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| organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary, room-temperature conditions |
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| Is a pollutant if it affects health and quality of human life |
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| not a direct hazard to humans but can negatively affect our environment |
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| polluted air which is trapped near the earth’s surface because cold air is above it and it cannot rise |
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a heat-resistant mineral that can be woven into fabrics, and is used in fire-resistant and insulating materials such as brake linings
banned in most countries because it can cause cancer |
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| a figure expressing the acidity or alkalinity of a solution |
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| The pH scale measures how acidic or basic a substance is. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is neutral. A pH less than 7 is acidic. A pH greater than 7 is basic. |
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| when acidic snow melts and huge amounts of acidic water floods lakes and rivers causes a rapid change in pH that shocks the organisms and kills many |
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| the chemical element of atomic number 86, a rare radioactive gas |
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| a heavy odorless gas formed during respiration and by the combustion or decomposition of organic substances |
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• fossil fuel combustion releases oxides
• oxides mix with H2o and form mild acids and fall as rain
• acid rain flows flows and into the soil and gets into lakes and rivers
• it can affect the pH of the water and kill fish and other aquatic organisms |
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| a unit used to measure the intensity of a sound or the power level of an electrical signal |
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| make (an acidic or alkaline substance) chemically neutral through adding a chemical with the exact opposite pH |
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Bases
- having the properties of an alkali, or containing alkali; having a pH greater than 7 |
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