Download EnSys. 12 Cert. - Study Guide

EnSys. 12 Cert. - Study Guide-Final Exam (2 Hours)
For your revision, please refresh yourselves on:
Global Warming (Chapter 20 - “Environmental Science”)
Major points & responses you should know
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The Greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by
atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions.
Extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms, normally a species.
Carbon dioxide is naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently
bonded to a single carbon atom.
Fossil fuels are formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms.
Emission is the term used to describe the gases and particles which are put into the air or emitted by
various sources.
Weather is he state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy,
clear or cloudy.
Radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energy or waves travel through a medium or space.
Forecasting is the process of making statements about events whose actual outcomes (typically) have not
yet been observed.
A catastrophe is an extremely large-scale disaster, a horrible event.
An Ice Age is A generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface
and atmosphere.
What are likely to be the effects of Global Warming on all life on Earth?
How does the warming of sea waters affect sea animals?
To what extent have people caused global warming and how?
How can we make forecasts about Global Warming and other kinds of climate change?
What can we do to minimize the potential negative effects of Global Warming?
Wildlife & Endangered Species – (Chapter 13 - “Environmental Science”)
Major points & responses you should know
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In every ecosystem, living things are linked by the food they eat and the energy they get from the food.
The links within an ecosystem make up the food web.
Food chains within the food webs, often involve predator & prey relationships.
Each animal in a Biome is dependent on the other for its survival.
Each food chain begins with the energy that the grass collects from the sun (photosynthesis).
A large number of plant eating animals found in Biomes, provide food for many predators.
Predators work together most of the time to capture their prey.
After catching their food, most predators are Highly Competitive amongst themselves.
Large predators need to eat less frequently because their bodies use up energy at a much slower rate.
Any food that predators leave behind gets broken down and returns to the soil as nutrients for plants.
Why do people want to conserve wildlife and endangered species?
What is the importance of habitat, ecosystems, and landscape in the conservation of endangered species?
What are the current causes of extinction?
What steps we can take to achieve the sustainability of wildlife and endangered species?
How can people cause extinctions and affect biological diversity?
Ecosystems: food chains, food webs & trophic levels – (Chapter 5 “Environmental Science”)
Major points & terminology you should know
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Ecology - The science of the study of the relationships between living things and their environment.
Ecosystem - An ecological community and its local, nonbiological community. An ecosystem is the
minimum system that includes and sustains life. It must include at least an autotroph, a decomposer, a
liquid medium, a source and sink of energy, and all the chemical elements required by the autotroph and
the decomposer.
Ecosystem energy flow - The flow of energy through an ecosystem—from the external environment
through a series of organisms and back to the external environment.
Environment - All factors (living and nonliving) that actually affect an individual organism or population at
any point in the life cycle.
Food chain - The linkage of who feeds on whom.
Food web - A network of who feeds on whom or a diagram showing who feeds on whom. It is
synonymous with food chain.
Trophic level - In an ecological community, all the organisms that are the same number of food-chain
steps from the primary source of energy. For example, in a grassland the green grasses are on the first
trophic level, grasshoppers are on the second, birds that feed on grasshoppers are on the third, and so
forth.
Photosynthesis - Synthesis of sugars from carbon dioxide and water by living organisms using light as
energy. Oxygen is given off as a by-product.
Autotroph - An organism that produces its own food from inorganic compounds and a source of energy.
There are photoautotrophs and chemical autotrophs.
Heterotrophs - Organisms that cannot make their own food from inorganic chemicals and a source of
energy and therefore live by feeding on other organisms.
Herbivore - An organism that feeds on an autotroph.
Carnivores - Organisms that feed on other live organisms; usually applied to animals that eat other
animals.
Decomposers - Organisms that feed on dead organic matter.
Organic - relating to, or derived from living organisms
Pelagic ecosystem - An ecosystem that occurs in the floating part of an ocean or sea, without any physical
connections to the bottom of the ocean or sea.
Omnivores - Organisms that eat both plants and animals.
Biological control - A set of methods to control pest organisms by using natural ecological interactions,
including predation, parasitism, and competition.
Biological evolution - The change in inherited characteristics of a population from generation to
generation, which can result in new species.
Biome - A kind of ecosystem. The rain forest is an example of a biome; rain forests occur in many parts of
the world but are not all connected to each other.
Competition - The situation that exists when different individuals, populations, or species compete for the
same resource(s) and the presence of one has a detrimental effect on the other. Sheep and cows eating
grass in the same field are competitors.
Evolution
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Evolution is the gradual change in a species over time.
A change in a cell’s genetic material is known as a Mutation.
Speciation is the process by which a new species evolves from a prior species.
A Clade is a branching tree that shows an ancestor and its evolutionary descendents.
The total genetic information available in a population is known as a Gene pool.
Hybrids are the offspring of parents from two different species
The preserved remains or traces of an organism that lived in the past are known as Fossils
Speciation is the process by which a new species evolves from a prior species.
Artificial selection is the deliberate form of selection used in breeding plants and animals.
Adaptation is a trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce.
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What is biological diversity?
What is symbiosis?
What is predation.
What is parasitism?
How do people affect biodiversity?
Natural Disasters
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Volcano - A landform where molten rock erupts through to the surface of the planet
Fissures - Narrow cracks in the Earth’s crust through which Magma escapes to the Earth’s surface
Magma - Molten rock below the Earth’s surface
Lava - Molten rock that appears on the surface of the Earth
Vulcan - The god of fire in Roman mythology
Tectonic plates - Pieces of the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle (lithosphere)
Seismograph - An Instrument that measures motions of the ground
Radioactive decay - The source of heat which is happening deep in the Earth
Ring of Fire - Home of the most active volcanoes in the world
Dragon jar - An instrument that can register the occurrence of an earthquake
Sciorrucks - Underwater landslides that generate tsunamis
Meteotsunami - Tropical cyclones that generate a storm surge
ML scale - Genuinely calculates a magnitude for a tsunami
Tsunamis - Can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms
Trough - Also known as a drawback
Twister - A violently rotating column of air
Pulse-Doppler radar - Detects tornadoes before or as they occur
Waterspouts - These can develop over bodies of water
Fujita scale - Rates tornadoes by the damage they cause
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Vortex - Where the rapid movement of the air in the tornado is its strongest
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Why and how do volcanic eruptions occur?
What is the difference between Magma and Lava?
Why do people build homes on the sides of volcanoes knowing the potential danger?
What are the 4 shapes of volcanoes and why?
What is “Seismic Activity”?
What is the difference between Tectonic, Volcanic and Collapse Earthquakes?
What is the difference between the Richter scale and the Mercalli scale?
What is a Tsunami and what are some possible causes?
What a tornado?
Why do tornadoes may have a wide range of colors.
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