Environmental Science Mid-term Review
1. Rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars)
2. Gaseous planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune)
3. Rock types (igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary - fossils)
4. Formation of mountain chains – tectonic plates (remember at convergent boundaries mountain ranges form,
divergent boundaries trenches form, and at transform boundaries earthquakes occur).
5. Leaching – a process where rainwater moving through soil removes and carries away minerals.
6. Weather patterns – west to east
7. Biomes and diversity
8. Deserts:
a. Climate – temperature and rainfall
b. Lack of moisture – limiting factor, causes day/night temperature changes
c. Pavement – hardened dirt, rocks, minerals
d. Plants with special adaptations to store water (succulents)
e. Desertification vs. natural desert formation
f.
Mountains force rain to the west side and make deserts to the east side
9. Atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere
a. Atmosphere – the layer of gases that surrounds Earth.
b. Lithosphere – the layer of land that forms Earth’s surfaces.
c. Hydrosphere – the parts of Earth that are made of water.
d. Biosphere – the combined parts of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere where life exists.
10. Gasses in earth’s atmosphere (N, O, CO2)
a. Nitrogen (N) – 78%
b. Oxygen (O2) – 21%
c. Trace gases (CO2, H, Ar) – 1%
11. % Of hydrosphere that is salt water vs. fresh water
a. 97% salt water, 3% fresh water
12. Autotrophs, heterotrophs, decomposers, scavengers
a. Autotrophs – make their own food, AKA producers
b. Heterotrophs – a consumer that forms the second or higher level in a trophic system.
c. Decomposers – a bacterium or fungus that consumes the bodies of dead organisms and other organic
wastes.
d. Scavengers – an animal that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms.
13. Pesticides – DDT
a. Recall Biomagnifications – DDT was a commonly used pesticide and as it traveled up the tropic levels,
the amount in each organism was magnified. It affected the shells of bald eagles and did not allow them
to develop fully, causing bald eagles to become endangered.
14. Biomagnifications
a. The increasing concentration of a pollutant in organisms at higher trophic levels in a food web.
15. Herbivore (eat veggies), carnivore (eat meat) , detrivore (eat dead things) , omnivore (eats all)
16. Biotic vs. abiotic factors
a. Biotic – living factors in the environment
b. Abiotic – non-living factors in the environment. The sun, water, temperature are all abiotic factors.
17. pH of water
a. ph of 7.
18. Predator/prey, competitive exclusion, keystone species (sea star)
a. Predator – consumes prey
b. Competitive exclusion – the extinction of a population due to direct competition with another species
for a particular resource in a nice.
c. Keystone predator – a predator that causes a large increase in the diversity of a habitat.
19. Niche – the role of an organism in an ecosystem.
20. Coevolution (milkweed plant/ monarch butterfly) vs. convergent evolution (bees/bats/birds and
dolphin/ichthyasaur)
21. Generalized (mouse, cockroaches) vs. specialized species (koala, panda)
a. Generalized species – one that occupies a wide niche.
b. Specialized species – one that occupies a small nice.
22. Extinction and evolution
a. Extinction – the disappearance of a species from all or part of its geographical range.
b. Evolution – gradual change in a population of organisms over time.
23. Habitat, population, community, ecosystem
a. Habitat – an environment where a particular species lives.
b. Population – all members of a particular species that live in the same area.
c. Community – all the populations that live and interact in the same environment.
d. Ecosystem – all the communities that live in an area together with the abiotic factors in the
environment.
24. Habitat destruction, loss of species, extinctions
25. Carrying capacity (bear hunt/deer hunt)
a. Carrying capacity – the number of individuals of a species that can be supported by an ecosystem.
26. Proteins – need to eat them to get nitrogen to make them
27. Legumes – specialized plants that contain a lot of protein (beans, peas, nuts)
28. Food chains/ food webs/food pyramids
a. Energy comes from the sun
b. Producers (autotrophs are the 1st level, plants/photosynthesis)
c. Primary consumers (eat producers)
d. Secondary consumers (eat primary consumers)
e. Tertiary consumers (eat secondary consumers)
f.
Trophic levels – (10% energy transfer)
29. Predator/Prey relationships – know how to graph
a. Usually in balance
b. If something happens to decrease predator population – prey population will increase
If something happens to increase predator population – prey population will decrease
c. If something happens to decrease prey population – predator population will decrease
If something happens to increase prey population – predator population will increase