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Unit 1 - Introduction to Env. Science
Essential Questions and Answers
1. What is the difference between environmental science and ecology?
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary study of how humans affect the environment and ways to address problems. Ecology, on the other hand, is the scientific study of the natural world.
2. Describe the relationship between renewable and nonrenewable resources.
Renewable resources are naturally replenished over short periods of time, while nonrenewable resources take a very long time to replenish.
3. What is an ecological footprint, and what two things does it include?
An ecological footprint is a measure of the demands a person or group places on natural resources. It includes both the resources consumed and the waste produced.
4. Describe the "Tragedy of the Commons." Give one example.
The "Tragedy of the Commons" occurs when a shared resource is unregulated, and individuals consume it at a selfish rate leading to depletion. One example is overfishing in unregulated waters.
5. What is the first step in the scientific method?
The first step in the scientific method is to state the problem or question based on observations.
6. What is the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning?
Inductive reasoning looks for patterns or rules in the natural world, while deductive reasoning compares new things to the existing rules of the natural world.
7. Explain the purpose of a control group in a scientific experiment.
A control group in a scientific experiment is a group that does not receive the experimental treatment. This allows scientists to compare results with the experimental group to determine if the variable had an effect.
8. What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative data?
Qualitative data is descriptive, using words, while quantitative data uses numbers and measurements.
9. Describe the purpose of the peer review process in scientific research.
The peer-review process is when scientists at the same level review experimental results before publication, guarding against faulty science.
10. Describe how an anthropocentric worldview differs from a biocentric worldview?
An anthropocentric worldview places the most value on human populations and welfare, while a biocentric worldview places value on each organism, including humans.
Key Terms
Anthropocentrism: An ethical worldview that places the highest value on human populations and human welfare.
Biocentrism: An ethical worldview that places value on every organism, including humans.
Cap-and-Trade: A type of environmental policy that combines regulations (limiting total pollutants) with incentives (allowing companies to trade permits).
Control Group: A group in a scientific experiment that does not receive the experimental treatment, providing a baseline for comparison.
Controlled Experiment: An experiment that changes only one variable at a time to isolate its effect on the outcome.
Cost-Benefit Analysis: A process that weighs the costs of a particular action against the benefits it provides.
Cultural Services: Non-material benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems, such as recreation and aesthetic value.
Data: The information collected during an experiment, can be qualitative or quantitative.
Deductive Reasoning: A logical approach that compares new things to the rules of the natural world.
Demand: The number of people that are willing to purchase or use a particular resource.
Dependent Variable: The variable being measured in an experiment; its value changes in response to changes in the independent variable.
Ecocentrism: An ethical worldview that places value on the ecosystem or community as a whole, rather than individual organisms.
Ecological Footprint: A measure of the demands that a person or group places on natural resources, including both consumption and waste.
Ecology: The scientific study of the interactions between organisms and their environment.
Ecosystem Services: The benefits that humans and the environment derive from natural resources. Can be placed into 4 groups: provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting.
Environment: All living things and nonliving things with which they interact.
Environmental Activism: A social movement in which people or organizations advocate for protection of the natural environment.
Environmental Policy: Rules and regulations designed to regulate human activities’ effects on the environment.
Environmental Science: The study of ecology and how humans affect the environment, as well as ways to address environmental problems.
Hypothesis: A testable explanation or prediction based on observations and previous knowledge, often formed using inductive or deductive reasoning.
Incentives: Environmental policies that encourage environmentally friendly activities through subsidies or tax breaks.
Independent Variable: The variable that is intentionally changed in an experiment.
Inductive Reasoning: A logical approach that looks for patterns or rules in the natural world, from specific observations to a general rule.
Nonrenewable Resource: A natural resource that takes a long time to replenish.
Peer Review: When scientific research is evaluated by other scientists at the same level of expertise before publication to ensure accuracy.
Provisioning Services: Goods that humans use directly from ecosystems, such as food and water.
Qualitative Data: Descriptive data using words to describe observations.
Quantitative Data: Data in the form of numbers and measurements.
Regulations: Environmental policies that use the threat of punishment for not following the rules.
Regulating Services: The ability of an ecosystem to regulate environmental conditions, such as water quality and flood control.
Renewable Resource: A natural resource that is naturally replenished over short periods of time.
Scientific Method: A logical way of thinking about the world that scientists use to gather information, often used to test a hypothesis.
Scientific Theory: A broad explanation of a phenomenon that is supported by many different fields of evidence and applies to many situations.
Supporting Services: The services necessary to allow an ecosystem to function, such as nutrient cycles.
Supply: The amount of a particular resource available.
Sustainable Rate: The rate at which a resource is used, where consumption is equal to the rate of replacement.
Tragedy of the Commons: A situation where a shared, unregulated resource is consumed at a selfish rate, leading to its depletion.
Unit 2 - Ecology
Essential Questions and Answers
1. Describe the relationship between the hydrosphere and the cryosphere.
The hydrosphere encompasses all water on Earth, while the cryosphere is the frozen portion of the hydrosphere, including glaciers and sea ice. Therefore, the cryosphere is a subset of the hydrosphere.
2. How do biotic and abiotic factors differ? Provide an example of each.
Biotic factors are living organisms within an environment, such as a frog, while abiotic factors are non-living components, such as water or soil.
3. Explain the difference between a habitat and a niche, and give a specific example of each using the same animal.
A habitat is the physical place where an organism lives, like a tree for a squirrel. A niche is the specific role an organism plays in its environment, such as a squirrel's role in seed dispersal.
4. What is the difference between autotrophs and heterotrophs?
Autotrophs, like plants, produce their own food from sunlight or chemicals, while heterotrophs, like animals, rely on consuming other organisms for energy.
5. What do the arrows represent in a food chain?
In a food chain, arrows indicate the direction of energy flow, pointing from the organism being consumed to the organism doing the consuming.
6. Explain the concept of the 10% rule in energy pyramids.
The 10% rule states that only about 10% of energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next; the remaining 90% is lost through heat or undigested matter.
7. Describe the difference between mutualism and commensalism, providing an example of each.
Mutualism is a symbiotic relationship where both organisms benefit, such as a clownfish and anemone; commensalism is where one benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped, such as a tree frog using a plant for protection.
8. How do indicator species help scientists measure environmental conditions?
Indicator species are highly sensitive to changes in their environment and can signal environmental problems like pollution or habitat degradation, such as a lack of wood storks in the everglades.
9. What is the difference between primary and secondary succession?
Primary succession begins in barren areas with no soil, such as a new volcanic island, while secondary succession occurs in areas with existing soil, such as after a flood or fire.
10. How do weather and climate differ?
Weather is the daily fluctuation of temperature and precipitation in a given location, while climate is the long-term average of weather patterns in a region.
Key Terms
Abiotic Factors: Non-living components of an environment, such as air, water, temperature, and soil.
Albedo: The ability of a surface to reflect sunlight back into the atmosphere.
Atmosphere: The layer of gases surrounding the Earth.
Autotrophs: Organisms that produce their own food, typically through photosynthesis; also known as producers.
Biome: A large geographic area characterized by specific climate conditions, plants, and animals.
Biosphere: The portion of the Earth where life exists, including the atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere.
Biotic Factors: Living organisms within an environment, such as plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria.
Climatogram: A graph showing the average temperature and precipitation in a specific location over time, used to help identify biomes.
Climate: The long-term average of weather patterns in a region.
Climax Community: The final, stable stage of ecological succession.
Commensalism: A symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits, and the other is neither harmed nor helped.
Community: Interacting populations of different species living in the same area.
Cryosphere: The frozen portion of the hydrosphere, including glaciers, sea ice, and permafrost.
Decomposers: Organisms that break down dead and decaying matter, recycling nutrients back into the environment.
Ecology: The scientific study of interactions between organisms and their environments.
Ecosystem: A community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
Food Chain: A linear sequence showing the transfer of energy from one organism to another.
Food Web: An interconnected network of food chains, showing more complex feeding relationships in an ecosystem.
Fundamental Niche: The full range of environmental conditions and resources an organism can use without competition.
Generalists: Organisms with broad tolerance ranges that can adapt easily to changes in their environment.
Geosphere (Lithosphere): The solid, rocky part of the Earth, including the crust, mantle, and core.
Habitat: The specific place where an organism lives, providing food, shelter, and resources.
Heterotrophs: Organisms that cannot produce their own food and must consume other organisms for energy; also known as consumers.
Hydrosphere: All the water on Earth's surface, underground, and in the atmosphere.
Indicator Species: Species that are highly sensitive to environmental changes and can provide insight into the health of an ecosystem.
Keystone Species: A species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment, affecting many other species.
Mutualism: A symbiotic relationship in which both organisms benefit.
Niche: The unique role a species plays in its environment, including its interactions with other organisms and its use of resources.
Organism: An individual living thing.
Parasitism: A symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits at the expense of the other.
Pioneer Species: The first species to colonize a barren or disturbed environment.
Population: A group of organisms of the same species living in the same place at the same time.
Predation: A symbiotic relationship where one organism (the predator) kills and consumes another organism (the prey).
Primary Succession: Ecological succession that begins in an area where no soil exists.
Realized Niche: The actual portion of its fundamental niche that an organism occupies due to competition.
Scavengers: Organisms that consume dead animals.
Secondary Succession: Ecological succession that occurs in an area where soil is present, after a disturbance.
Specialists: Organisms with narrow tolerance ranges that can only withstand small changes in their environments.
Symbiotic Relationship: A close interaction between two different species.
Tolerance: The ability of an organism to survive under different environmental conditions.
Trophic Level: An organism's position in a food chain or web based on its feeding relationships.
Weather: The daily fluctuation of temperature and precipitation.
Unit 3 - Species and Biodiversity
Essential Questions and Answers
1. What is the definition of a species, and how many species are estimated to exist on Earth?
A species is a population of organisms that can interbreed and reproduce under natural conditions. There are an estimated 5 to 30 million species on earth.
2. Explain the difference between an endangered species and a threatened species.
An endangered species is in immediate danger of extinction throughout a large part of its range, while a threatened species is at a lower risk but likely to become endangered in the future.
3. List three causes of extinction.
Three causes of extinction include habitat loss and degradation, introduction of non-native species, and over-exploitation.
4. What is speciation, and how is it related to a gene pool?
Speciation is the process by which new species evolve when the gene pool of two populations is separated and can no longer be shared through reproduction. Each species has a common gene pool.
5. Describe two forms of isolation that can lead to speciation.
Two forms of isolation that can lead to speciation are behavioral isolation (differences in courtship/reproductive behaviors) and geographic isolation (physical separation of populations).
6. What is interspecific competition, and how does the principle of competitive exclusion relate to it?
Interspecific competition is competition between different species. The principle of competitive exclusion states that two species competing for the same limited resource cannot both have thriving populations.
7. What are the three main types of biodiversity?
The three main types of biodiversity are species biodiversity, genetic biodiversity, and ecological biodiversity.
8. How is a biodiversity index calculated, and what does a higher index indicate?
A biodiversity index is calculated by dividing the number of species in an area by the total number of individuals in that area. A higher index indicates a greater number of species in the area.
9. Explain how a line transect is used to measure biodiversity.
A line transect measures the number of species touching a specific physical line in a location. Multiple transects can be used to provide a fuller picture of biodiversity.
10. How do invasive species affect biodiversity in an ecosystem, and why can they spread so rapidly?
Invasive species can dramatically reduce biodiversity because they often lack limiting factors and can reproduce quickly, outcompeting native species that cannot adapt to the new competition as rapidly.
Key Terms
Species: A population of organisms that can interbreed and reproduce under natural conditions.
Endangered Species: A species that is in immediate jeopardy of extinction throughout a large portion of its range.
Threatened Species: A species at a lower risk than endangered but likely to become endangered in the future.
Extinction: The complete disappearance of a species from Earth.
Habitat Loss & Degradation: The destruction or deterioration of the natural environment where a species lives.
Non-Native Species: A species that has been introduced to an area where it does not naturally occur.
Over-Exploitation: The excessive harvesting of a species, leading to its decline.
Speciation: The process by which new species evolve from existing ones, often due to isolation of gene pools.
Gene Pool: The combined genetic information for a particular population of organisms.
Behavioral Isolation: When two populations are incapable of interbreeding due to differences in courtship or reproductive behaviors.
Mechanical Isolation: When the reproductive organs of two groups become so different that they can no longer mate.
Temporal Isolation: When populations mate at different times or seasons, preventing interbreeding.
Geographic Isolation: When populations are separated by physical barriers, preventing interbreeding.
Interspecific Competition: Competition between different species for the same resources.
Principle of Competitive Exclusion: The principle that two species competing for the same limited resource cannot both have thriving populations.
Biodiversity: The variety of life, encompassing the variety of species, genetic diversity, and ecological interactions.
Species Biodiversity: The variety of species within a habitat or region.
Genetic Biodiversity: The variation of DNA and genes within a species or population.
Ecological Biodiversity: The variation in the network of species present in a location and the way they interact.
Biodiversity Index: A numerical value that quantifies the number of species in a certain environment, calculated by dividing the number of species by the total number of individuals.
Line Transect: A method for sampling the number of species in an area by measuring species along a specific physical line.
Invasive Species: A species that comes from a different region of the world and spreads quickly and widely in its new ecosystem, causing ecological harm.
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