Environmental5 Flash Cards

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Title: Environmental5
Description: chapter review
Number of Cards: 76
Save Count: 0
Author: cowpox11
Created: 2002-11-25
Tags: earth earthsciences
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    • Question
    • Answer
    • Side 3
    • soil bacteria _____ and ____ convert ammonia to nitrate, then soil bacterium_______ oxidizes nitrite to nitrate. The nitrification process furnishes these becteria with energy.
    • Nitrosomonas
      Nitrococcus
      Nitrobacter
    • fossil fuels
    • coal, oil, and natural gas becasue they formed from the remains of ancient organisms, are vast deposits of carbon compounds, and end products of photosynthesis that occurred millions of years ago.
    • exosphere
    • outermost layer of atmosphere begins at 500km above earths surface
    • Gaia hypothesis
    • a series of hypotheses that Earth's organisms adjust the environment to improve conditions for life, proposed by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis. An example of this would be how temperature remains relatively constant because of living organisms compensated for increased sunlight by "fixing" CO2 into calcium carbonate shells of countless billions of marine phytoplankton
    • in ______ plant roots absorb either nitrate or ammonia that was formed by nitrogen fixation.
    • assimilation
    • combustion
    • carbon in oil, coal, and natural gas, and wood can be returned to the atmosphere by this process. organic molecules are rapidly oxidized,(combined with oxygen) and converted into carbon dioxide and water with release of light and head.
    • plate tectonics
    • movements of crustal plates
    • heterocysts
    • oxygen-excluding cells owned by filamentous cyanobactera that function as sites of nitrogen fixation
    • how do humans affect the nitrogen cycle?
    • they use fertilizers with nitrogen and amonia and nitrate ..and this can affect the euqlity of water and algae growth. as algae die it robs the water of dissolved oxygen.
    • nitrogen fixation
    • the first step...its when gaseous nitrogen is converted into ammonia. it is named this way because nitrogen is fixed into a form that organisms can use.
    • three locations that volcanoes occur
    • subduction zones, spreading centers, and above hot spots
    • carbon cycle
    • global movement of carbon between the abiotic environment including the atmosphere and organisms
    • in assimilation plants incorporate nitrogen of molecules into ___ and ___.
    • nucleic acids and plant proteins
    • What percent of atmosphere gas does carbon make up and in what form?
    • .03% as CO2
    • comprises the average weather conditions that occur in a place over a period of years
    • climate
    • what percent of earths atmosphere does nitrogen make up?
    • 78%
    • The reduction of nitrate to gaseous nitrogen is called _______.
    • dentrification
    • why is Earth a closed system?
    • matter cannot escape from Earth's boundaries, and materials used by organisms cannot be "lost" although they can end up in locations that are outside the reach of organisms, materials are reused and recycled within ecosystems
    • evaporation exceeds precipitaion in most months
    • dry
    • How is carbon present in oceans?
    • as carbonate(co32-), and bicarbonate(Hco3-)
    • conversion of ammonia to nitrate is called________?
    • Nitrification
    • What contributes to nitrogen fixation?
    • cyanobacteria(in soil and aquatic envornements), and Rhizobium(which lives inside nodules-special swellings on roots of legumes where its relationship between the host is mutualistic)
    • magma that reaches the surface
    • lava
    • nitrogenase
    • enzyme by nitrogen fixing bacteria to break up molecular nitrogen and combine it with hydrogen
    • steps of phorphorus cycle
    • water wears away surface of rocks containing phosphorus

      erosion of phosphorus rocks release phosphorus into soil which is taken up by plant roots in form of inorganic phophates

      used in variety of biological molecules and nucleic acids

      is released by decomposers and can be used by plants
    • biogeochemical cycles
    • matter (material of which organisms are composed) moves in numerous cycles from one part of an ecosystem to another, from one organisms to another and from living organisms to the abiotic environment back again.
    • molten rock that is formed when rock reaches melting point
    • magma
    • nitrogen cycle
    • nitrogen cycles between abiotic environment and organisms through nitrogen fixation, nitrification, assimilation, ammonification, and dentrification
    • the order of the nitrogen cycle is ....
    • nitrogen fixation nitrification assimilation ammonification and dentrification
    • polar easterlies
    • blow from the northeast near the North pole or from the southeast near the south pole
    • The conversion of biological nitrogen compounds into ammonia is _________.
    • ammonification
    • currents
    • persistent pervailing winds that blow over the ocean to produce mass movements of surface ocean waters
    • phosphorus cycle in aquatic communities
    • dissolved phosphorus enters through absorbtion by algae and plants which are then consumed by plankton and larger organisms and these in turn are eaten by fish. decomposers that break down waste release phosphorus into water where it is available to be used by aquatic producers again
    • distinct winter and summer seasons, winters are mild, mean temperature in coldest month is above -3c
    • mild
    • phosophorus cycle
    • phosphorus does not exist in a gaseous state and does not enter the atmosphere cycles from the land to sediments in the ocean and back to the land. as water runs over the rocks containing phosphorus it gradually wears away the surface and caries offf inorganic phosphate
    • continental climate zone
    • distinct winter and summer seasons, winters are cold and mean temperature in coldest month is below -3c
    • how can phosphorus be lost in biological cycles?
    • it can be carried from land by streams and rivers to the ocean where it can be deposited on the sea floor
    • seismic waves
    • energy that builds up because of the push and stretch of rocks and result in vibrations that spread through the rocks rapidly in all directions
    • suns energy is a product of ______ and is emitted inot space in the form of ___ especially ___ which are not visible to the human eye
    • nuclear fision, electromagnetic radiation, infrared and ultraviolet radiation
    • climate changes as elevation increases and from one side of the mountain to the other, characteristic of high plateaus and mountains
    • high elevation climate zone
    • volume of water entering the atmosphere each year is estimated to be_______
    • 389500 cubic kilometers, 95000cubic miles
    • pervailing winds that generate circular ocean currents ___
    • gyres, ex. north atlantic
    • movement of water from land to ocean
    • runoff
    • upwelling
    • deep water from coming to the surface off the west coast of South America... upwelling is pervented by high temperatures and ocean circulation patters
    • what amount of the total energy released by the sun strikes our atmosphere and a small part operates the ecosphere
    • 1/billion
    • distinct winter and summer seasons, winters are long and exteremely cold, mean temperature in the warmest month is below 10c
    • polar climate zone
    • transpiration
    • the loss of water vapor from land plants adds water to the atmposhpere and roughly 97 percent of water absorbed from the soil by a plant is trasnported to the leaves where it is lost by transpiration
    • tropical winds that blow from the northeast in the northern hemisphere or the southeast in the southern Hemisphere
    • trade winds
    • water percolates, seeps, downward through the soil and rock to become____and may reside in the ground for hunderds or thousands of years but eventually supplies water to the soil to vegetation to streams and rivers and to the ocean.
    • groundwater
    • El Nino- southern oscilation
    • interaction between ocean and atmosphere when periodic warming of surface waters of the tropical East Pacific that alters both ocean and atmopsheric circulation pattern and results in aunusual weather in areas far from the tropical Pacific.
    • where freshwater meets the ocean
    • estuaries
    • mesosphere
    • 45-80 km temperatures drop lowest
    • hydrologic cycle
    • a balance between water in the ocean on the land and in the atmosphere,
    • Earth rotates from __ to __ which causes moving air to be deflected from its path and swerve to the right of the direction which it is traveling in the ___ hemisphere and to the left if it is traveling in the ___ hemisphere...this is known as the _____ effect
    • west fo east
      north to south
      Corniolis effect
    • what contributes to the earths variation of exposure of surface to energy delivered by sunlight?
    • roughly spherical shape and tilt of axis
    • two factors that determine an area's climate are__
    • temperacture ,and percipitation, others include winde, humidity, fog, and cloud, and lightning
    • the sun powers the ___ cycle and the ___ cycles and it is the primary determinant of ___
    • hydrologic, biogeochemical, climate
    • every month is warm, mean temperature is over 18c
    • tropical
    • how do humans affect the phosphorus cycle?
    • they accelerate its loss from the land by growing corn which roots absorb phosphate and is used to feed beef and ends up in waste and then is used to feed humans and ends up in sweres. also clearcutting timber by erocion of agricultural and residential lands
    • winds that blow in mid-latitudes from southwest in the Northern Hemisphere or from the northwest in the southern hemisphere
    • westerlies
    • during _____ the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the sun, and during the other half_____ it tilts away from the sun.
    • march21-sep22, sep22-march21
    • hot spot
    • a rising plume of magma that flowed from an opening in the crust
    • Seasons are primarily determined by ______ and is always the same___degrees
    • the Earths inclination on the axis, 23
    • trophosphere
    • layer of atmosphere closest to earths surface extending about 10hm, and temperature decreases with increasing of altitude, Weather occurs here and storms and clouds
    • area of land being drained by runoff is called a ____
    • watershed
    • winds
    • horizontal movemnts in the atmosphere with gusts eddies and lulls, a result from atmopsherica pressure and from rotation of Earth
    • without the sun what temperature would the earth be?
    • 0k, -273*c
    • what important ecological functions does the atmosphere perform
    • it protects the Earth's surface from most of the sun's ultraviolet radiation and xrays and from lethal amounts of cosmic rays from space, it protects the earth from high energy radiation and allows visible light and some infared radiation to penetrate and they warm the surface and low atmosphere.
    • the atmopshere which is invisible layer of gases is
      ____percent oxygen
      ____ percent nitrogen
      ____ percent argon carbon dioxide, neon and helium
    • 21, 78, 1
    • rain shadow
    • the dry land on the side of mountains away from prevailing winds where it is a desert
    • prevailing winds
    • three major surface winds that blow more or less continually
    • whater are the 5 layers of the atmopshere
    • troposphere, stratosphere mesosphere, thermosphere and ecosphere
    • stratosphere
    • steady wind but no turbulence 10-45 km and comercial jets fly here and contains ozone layer , temperature increases with increasing latitude because ozone layer ultraviolet radiation which heats the air
    • thermosphere
    • 80-500km steadily rising temperatures , gases absorb xrays and short wave ultraviolet radiation and molecules raise temperature to 1000degrees c and aurora occurs which is a colorful display of lights in dark polar skies because of charged particles from the sun hiting oxygen or nitrogen molecules in the thermosphere, radio waves occur here too
    • ___ refers to conditions in the atmopshere at a given place and time, including temperature, atmpospherica pressure, precipitation, cloudiness , humidity, and wind
    • weather