APES Exam: Study guide || A Verified A+ Pass.
Ecological Footprint correct answers Amount of biologically productive land and water needed
to supply a population with the renewable resources it uses and to absorb or dispose of the
wastes from such resource use. It is a measure of the average environmental impact of
populations in different countries and areas
Ecological Tipping Point correct answers Threshold level at which an environmental problem
causes a fundamental and irreversible shift in the behavior of a system.
Ecology correct answers Biological science that studies the relationships between living
organisms and their environment; study of the structure and functions of nature.
Natural Capital correct answers Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other
species alive and support our economies.
Per Capita correct answers Annual gross domestic product (GDP) of a country divided by its
total population at midyear. It gives the average slice of the economic (or environmental) pie per
person.
Ecosystem Services correct answers Natural services or natural capital that support life on the
earth and are essential to the quality of human life and the functioning of the world's economies.
Perpetual Resource correct answers has a never-ending supply. Some examples of perpetual
resources include solar energy, tidal energy, and wind energy
Environmental Wisdom Worldview correct answers Set of assumptions and beliefs about how
people think the world works, what they think their role in the world should be, and what they
believe is right and wrong environmental behavior (environmental ethics).
Planetary Management Worldview correct answers Worldview holding that humans are separate
from nature, that nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants, and that we can
use our ingenuity and technology to manage the earth's life-support systems, mostly for our
benefit. It assumes that economic growth is unlimited.
Stewardship Worldview correct answers Worldview holding that we can manage the earth for
our benefit but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers, or
stewards, of the earth. It calls for encouraging environmentally beneficial forms of economic
growth and discouraging environmentally harmful forms.
Sustainability correct answers Ability of earth's various systems, including human cultural
systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
scientific principles of sustainability correct answers To live more sustainably we need to rely on
solar energy, preserve biodiversity, and recycle the chemicals that we use. These three principles
,of sustainability are scientific lessons from nature based on observing how life on the earth has
survived and thrived for 3.5 billion years
First Law of Thermodynamics correct answers Whenever energy is converted from one form to
another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed, but energy can be
changed from one form to another; you cannot get more energy out of something than you put in;
in terms of energy quantity, you cannot get something for nothing. This law does not apply to
nuclear changes, in which large amounts of energy can be produced from small amounts of
matter.
Second Law of Thermodynamics correct answers Whenever energy is converted from one form
to another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed, but energy can be
changed from one form to another; you cannot get more energy out of something than you put in;
in terms of energy quantity, you cannot get something for nothing. This law does not apply to
nuclear changes, in which large amounts of energy can be produced from small amounts of
matter. It asserts that a natural process runs only in one sense, and is not reversible.
Negative Feedback Loop correct answers Feedback loop that causes a system to change in the
opposite direction from which is it moving.
Positive Feedback Loop correct answers Feedback loop that causes a system to change further in
the same direction
Law of Conservation of Matter correct answers In any physical or chemical change, matter is
neither created nor destroyed but merely changed from one form to another; in physical and
chemical changes, existing atoms are rearranged into different spatial patterns (physical changes)
or different combinations (chemical changes).
Electromagnetic Radiation correct answers Forms of kinetic energy traveling as electromagnetic
waves. Examples include radio waves, TV waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light,
ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays.
Ph correct answers Numeric value that indicates the relative acidity or alkalinity of a substance
on a scale of 0 to 14, with the neutral point at 7. Acid solutions have pH values lower than 7;
basic or alkaline solutions have pH values greater than 7.
High-Quality energy correct answers energy that is concentrated and has great ability to perform
useful work; e.g. heat and energy in electricity, coal, oil, gasoline, sunlight, nuclei of uranium-
235
low quality energy correct answers energy that is dispersed and has little ability to do useful
work; e.g. low-temperature heat
Ions correct answers Atom or group of atoms with one or more positive (+) or negative (−)
electrical charges. Examples are Na+ and Cl-.
, Isotopes correct answers Two or more forms of a chemical element that have the same number of
protons but different mass numbers because they have different numbers of neutrons in their
nuclei.
Species correct answers Group of similar organisms, and for sexually reproducing organisms,
they are a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring. Every organism is a
member of a certain species.
Population correct answers Group of individual organisms of the same species living in a
particular area.
Community correct answers Populations of all species living and interacting in an area at a
particular time.
Ecosystems correct answers One or more communities of different species interacting with one
another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving environment.
Biosphere correct answers Zone of the earth where life is found. It consists of parts of the
atmosphere (the troposphere), hydrosphere (mostly surface water and groundwater), and
lithosphere (mostly soil and surface rocks and sediments on the bottoms of oceans and other
bodies of water) where life is found.
Atmosphere correct answers Whole mass of air surrounding the earth.
Troposphere correct answers Innermost layer of the atmosphere. It contains about 75% of the
mass of earth's air and extends about 17 kilometers (11 miles) above sea level.
Stratosphere correct answers Second layer of the atmosphere, extending about 17-48 kilometers
(11-30 miles) above the earth's surface. It contains small amounts of gaseous ozone , which
filters out about 95% of the incoming harmful ultraviolet radiation emitted by the sun.
Hydrosphere correct answers Earth's liquid water (oceans, lakes, other bodies of surface water,
and underground water), frozen water (polar ice caps, floating ice caps, and ice in soil, known as
permafrost), and water vapor in the atmosphere. See also hydrologic cycle.
Abiotic correct answers Nonliving
Biotic correct answers Living
Aerobic Respiration correct answers Complex process that occurs in the cells of most living
organisms, in which nutrient organic molecules such as glucose combine with oxygen to produce
carbon dioxide , water , and energy.
Anaerobic Respiration (Fermentation) correct answers Form of cellular respiration in which
some decomposers get the energy they need through the breakdown of glucose (or other
nutrients) in the absence of oxygen.
