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37 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Environment |
The sum of all the conditions surrounding us that influence life. |
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Environmental Science |
The field that looks at interactions among human systems and those found in nature |
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System |
Any set of interacting components that influence one another by exchanging energy or materials |
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Ecosystem |
A particular location on Earth whose interacting components include biotic and abiotic factors |
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Biotic |
Living |
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Abiotic |
Non-living |
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Environmentalist |
A person who participates in environmentalism |
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Environmental Studies |
A broad field which includes environmental policy, economics, literature, and ethics |
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Ecosystem services |
The processes by which life supporting resources are produced. |
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Environmental indicators |
Describe the current state of an environmental system |
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Sustainability |
Which is living on Earth in a way that allows us to use its resources without depriving future generations of those resources. |
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Biodiversity |
The diversity of life forms in an environment. |
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Species |
A group of organisms that is is distinct from other groups in its morphology (body form and structure), behavior, or biochemical properties. |
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Speciation |
The evolution of new species |
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Background extinction rate |
The average rate in which species go extinct every year |
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Greenhouse gases |
Heat-trapping gases (i.e. carbon dioxide) |
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Anthropogenic |
Derived from human activities |
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Development |
Improvement in human well-being through economic advancement. |
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Sustainable development |
Development that balances current human well-being and economic advancement with resource management for the benefit of future generations. |
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Biophilia |
Love of life |
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Ecological footprint |
A measure of how much that person consumes expressed in area of land. |
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Scientific method |
An objective way to explore the natural, draw inferences from it, and predict the outcome of certain events, processes or changes. |
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Hypothesis |
A testable conjecture about how something works. |
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Null hypothesis |
A statement or idea that can be falsified or proved wrong. |
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Replication |
A procedure where scientists take several sets of measurements. |
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Sample size |
The number of times a measurement is replicated. |
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Accuracy |
How close a measured value is to the actual or true value. |
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Precision |
How close to one another the repeated measurements of the same sample are. |
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Uncertainty |
Is an estimate of how how much a measured or calculated value differs from a true value. |
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Inductive reasoning |
The process of making general statements from specific facts or examples. |
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Deductive reasoning |
The process of applying a general statement to specific facts or situations. |
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Critical thinking |
Process of questioning the source of the information, consider the methods or processes that were used to obtain the information and draw your own conclusions. |
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Theory |
A hypothesis that has been repeatedly tested and confirmed by multiple groups of researchers and has reached wide acceptance. |
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Natural law |
A theory to which there are no known exceptions and which has withstood rigorous testing. |
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Control group |
A group that experiences exactly the same conditions as the experimental group except for the single variable under study. |
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Natural experiment |
Occurs when a natural event acts as an experimental treatment in an ecosystem. |
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Environmental justice |
A social movement and field of study that works toward equal enforcement of environmental laws and the elimination of disparities. |