Environmental Science (correct answers)
Acid Deposition: correct answers
The settling of acidic or acid-forming pollutants from the atmosphere onto Earth's
surface. This may take place by precipitation, fog, gases, or the deposition of dry
particles.
Acid Drainage: correct answers
A process in which sulfide minerals in newly exposed rock surfaces react with oxygen
and rainwater to produce sulfuric acid, which causes chemical runoff as it leaches
metals from the rocks. Mining greatly accelerates it by exposing many new surfaces.
Acidic: correct answers
In chemistry, something that's acidic has a low pH, as opposed to a base, which has a
higher PH.
Acid-Neutralizing Capacity: correct answers
The capacity of soil, rock, or water to resist pH change from acid deposition, due to its
alkaline chemistry.
Acid Rain: correct answers
Acid deposition that takes place through rain.
Active Solar Energy Collection: correct answers
An approach in which technological devices are used to focus, move, or store solar
energy.
Acute Exposure correct answers Exposure to a toxicant occurring in high amounts for
short periods of time.
Adaptation (Climate Change): correct answers
The pursuit of strategies to protect ourselves from the impacts of climate change.
Adaptation (Evolution): correct answers
The process by which traits that lead to increased reproductive success in a given
environment evolve in a population through natural selection.
Adaptive Management: correct answers
The systematic testing of different management approaches to improve methods over
time.
Adaptive Trait: correct answers
A trait that confers greater likelihood that an individual will reproduce.
Aerobic: correct answers
Occurring in an environment where oxygen is present.
Aerosols: correct answers
,Very fine liquid droplets or solid particles aloft in the atmosphere.
Affluenza: correct answers
Term coined by social critics to describe failure of material good to bring happiness to
people who have the financial needs to afford them.
Age Distribution (Age Structure): correct answers
The relative number of organisms of each age within a population. Effects population
growth or decline and are expressed in ratios.
Agricultural Revolution: correct answers
The shift around 10,000 years ago from a hunter-gatherer life-style to an agricultural
way of life in which people began to grow crops and raise domestic animals.
Agriculture: correct answers
The practice of cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising livestock for human use and
consumption.
Air Pollutants: correct answers
Gases and particulate material added to the atmosphere that can affect climate or harm
people or other organisms.
Air Pollution: correct answers
The act of pollution the air, or the condition of being polluted by air pollutants.
Air shed: correct answers
The geographic area that produces air pollutants likely to end up in a waterway.
Albedo: correct answers
The capacity of a surface to reflect light. Higher albedo values refer to greater
reflectivity.
Allergen: correct answers
A toxicant that over activates the immune system, causing an immune response when
one is not necessary.
Allopatric Speciation correct answers Species formation due to the physical separation
of populations over some geographic distance.
Alloy: correct answers
A substance created by fusing a metal with other metals or nonmetals.
Anaerobic: correct answers
Occurring in an environment that has little or no oxygen.
,Anthropocentrism: correct answers
A human-centered view of our relationship with the environment.
Anthropogenic correct answers Caused by human beings
Aquaculture: correct answers
The cultivation of aquatic organisms for food in controlled environments.
Aquifer: correct answers
An underground water reservoir.
Archipelago: correct answers
A group of islands, most often in a linear arrangement.
Area Effect: correct answers
In island biogeography theory, the pattern that large islands host more species than
smaller islands, because larger islands provide larger targets for immigration because
extinction rates are reduced.
Artesian Aquifer (Confined Aquifer): correct answers
A water-bearing, porous layer of rock, and, or gravel that is trapped between an upper
and lower layer of less permeable substrate, such as clay. Water is under pressure
because it is trapped between two impermeable layers.
Artificial Selection: correct answers
Natural selection conduction under human direction.
Asbestos: correct answers
Any of several types of mineral that form long, thin microscopic fibers, a structure that
allows asbestos to insulate buildings for heat, muffle sound, and resist fire. When
inhaled, leads to lung cancer.
Asian Brown Cloud (Atmospheric Brown Cloud): correct answers
A persistent 2-mile-thick layer of air pollution from southern Asia that hangs over the
Indian subcontinent throughout the dry season, each December through April.
Asbestosis: correct answers
A disorder resulting from lung tissue scarred by acid following prolonged inhalation of
asbestos.
Asthenosphere: correct answers
A layer of the upper mantle, just below the lithosphere, consisting of especially rock.
Atmosphere: correct answers
The thin layer of gases surrounding planet Earth.
, Atmospheric Blocking Pattern: correct answers
A condition in which the atmosphere's jet stream slows and meanders widely into a
north-south orientation that blocks the eastward movement of weather systems across
the middle latitudes.
Atmospheric Deposition: correct answers
The wet or dry deposition on land of a variety of pollutants, including mercury, nitrates,
organic, chlorines and others.
Atmospheric Pressure: correct answers
The weight per unit area produced by a column of air.
Atoll: correct answers
A ring-shaped island (generally a coral reef) surrounding an older submerged island
area.
Atom: correct answers
The smallest component of an element that contain the chemical properties of that
element.
Autotroph (Primary Producer): correct answers
An organism that can use the energy from sunlight to produce its own food.
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt): correct answers
A naturally occurring soil bacterium that produces a protein that kills man pests,
including caterpillars and the larvae of some flies and beetles.
Background Rate of Extinction: correct answers
The average rate of extinction that occurred before the appearance of humans.
Baghouse: correct answers
A system of large filter that physically removes particulate matter from incinerator
emissions.
Barrier Island: correct answers
A long thin island that parallels a shoreline (sand or coral reef), protect coasts from
storms.
Basic: correct answers
The property of a solution in which the concentration of hydroxide ions is greater than
the concentration of hydrogen ions.
Bathymetry: correct answers
The study of ocean depths.
Acid Deposition: correct answers
The settling of acidic or acid-forming pollutants from the atmosphere onto Earth's
surface. This may take place by precipitation, fog, gases, or the deposition of dry
particles.
Acid Drainage: correct answers
A process in which sulfide minerals in newly exposed rock surfaces react with oxygen
and rainwater to produce sulfuric acid, which causes chemical runoff as it leaches
metals from the rocks. Mining greatly accelerates it by exposing many new surfaces.
Acidic: correct answers
In chemistry, something that's acidic has a low pH, as opposed to a base, which has a
higher PH.
Acid-Neutralizing Capacity: correct answers
The capacity of soil, rock, or water to resist pH change from acid deposition, due to its
alkaline chemistry.
Acid Rain: correct answers
Acid deposition that takes place through rain.
Active Solar Energy Collection: correct answers
An approach in which technological devices are used to focus, move, or store solar
energy.
Acute Exposure correct answers Exposure to a toxicant occurring in high amounts for
short periods of time.
Adaptation (Climate Change): correct answers
The pursuit of strategies to protect ourselves from the impacts of climate change.
Adaptation (Evolution): correct answers
The process by which traits that lead to increased reproductive success in a given
environment evolve in a population through natural selection.
Adaptive Management: correct answers
The systematic testing of different management approaches to improve methods over
time.
Adaptive Trait: correct answers
A trait that confers greater likelihood that an individual will reproduce.
Aerobic: correct answers
Occurring in an environment where oxygen is present.
Aerosols: correct answers
,Very fine liquid droplets or solid particles aloft in the atmosphere.
Affluenza: correct answers
Term coined by social critics to describe failure of material good to bring happiness to
people who have the financial needs to afford them.
Age Distribution (Age Structure): correct answers
The relative number of organisms of each age within a population. Effects population
growth or decline and are expressed in ratios.
Agricultural Revolution: correct answers
The shift around 10,000 years ago from a hunter-gatherer life-style to an agricultural
way of life in which people began to grow crops and raise domestic animals.
Agriculture: correct answers
The practice of cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising livestock for human use and
consumption.
Air Pollutants: correct answers
Gases and particulate material added to the atmosphere that can affect climate or harm
people or other organisms.
Air Pollution: correct answers
The act of pollution the air, or the condition of being polluted by air pollutants.
Air shed: correct answers
The geographic area that produces air pollutants likely to end up in a waterway.
Albedo: correct answers
The capacity of a surface to reflect light. Higher albedo values refer to greater
reflectivity.
Allergen: correct answers
A toxicant that over activates the immune system, causing an immune response when
one is not necessary.
Allopatric Speciation correct answers Species formation due to the physical separation
of populations over some geographic distance.
Alloy: correct answers
A substance created by fusing a metal with other metals or nonmetals.
Anaerobic: correct answers
Occurring in an environment that has little or no oxygen.
,Anthropocentrism: correct answers
A human-centered view of our relationship with the environment.
Anthropogenic correct answers Caused by human beings
Aquaculture: correct answers
The cultivation of aquatic organisms for food in controlled environments.
Aquifer: correct answers
An underground water reservoir.
Archipelago: correct answers
A group of islands, most often in a linear arrangement.
Area Effect: correct answers
In island biogeography theory, the pattern that large islands host more species than
smaller islands, because larger islands provide larger targets for immigration because
extinction rates are reduced.
Artesian Aquifer (Confined Aquifer): correct answers
A water-bearing, porous layer of rock, and, or gravel that is trapped between an upper
and lower layer of less permeable substrate, such as clay. Water is under pressure
because it is trapped between two impermeable layers.
Artificial Selection: correct answers
Natural selection conduction under human direction.
Asbestos: correct answers
Any of several types of mineral that form long, thin microscopic fibers, a structure that
allows asbestos to insulate buildings for heat, muffle sound, and resist fire. When
inhaled, leads to lung cancer.
Asian Brown Cloud (Atmospheric Brown Cloud): correct answers
A persistent 2-mile-thick layer of air pollution from southern Asia that hangs over the
Indian subcontinent throughout the dry season, each December through April.
Asbestosis: correct answers
A disorder resulting from lung tissue scarred by acid following prolonged inhalation of
asbestos.
Asthenosphere: correct answers
A layer of the upper mantle, just below the lithosphere, consisting of especially rock.
Atmosphere: correct answers
The thin layer of gases surrounding planet Earth.
, Atmospheric Blocking Pattern: correct answers
A condition in which the atmosphere's jet stream slows and meanders widely into a
north-south orientation that blocks the eastward movement of weather systems across
the middle latitudes.
Atmospheric Deposition: correct answers
The wet or dry deposition on land of a variety of pollutants, including mercury, nitrates,
organic, chlorines and others.
Atmospheric Pressure: correct answers
The weight per unit area produced by a column of air.
Atoll: correct answers
A ring-shaped island (generally a coral reef) surrounding an older submerged island
area.
Atom: correct answers
The smallest component of an element that contain the chemical properties of that
element.
Autotroph (Primary Producer): correct answers
An organism that can use the energy from sunlight to produce its own food.
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt): correct answers
A naturally occurring soil bacterium that produces a protein that kills man pests,
including caterpillars and the larvae of some flies and beetles.
Background Rate of Extinction: correct answers
The average rate of extinction that occurred before the appearance of humans.
Baghouse: correct answers
A system of large filter that physically removes particulate matter from incinerator
emissions.
Barrier Island: correct answers
A long thin island that parallels a shoreline (sand or coral reef), protect coasts from
storms.
Basic: correct answers
The property of a solution in which the concentration of hydroxide ions is greater than
the concentration of hydrogen ions.
Bathymetry: correct answers
The study of ocean depths.
