Download ES CH 3 Test Review

Environmental Science
CH 3 Test Review
1. All material in the universe that has mass and occupies space is called matter.
2. Atoms are the basic units of matter.
3. An element is a chemical substance with a given set of properties that cannot be
broken down into substances with other properties.
4. Every atom has a nucleus, or central core, containing particles called protons and
neutrons.
5. A molecule is a combination of two or more atoms of the same type or of different
types joined by covalent bonds.
6. A substance composed of atoms of two or more different elements is called a
compound.
7. Hydrocarbons are organic compounds containing only hydrogen and carbon.
8. A mixture in which all the ingredients are evenly distributed is called a solution.
9. Proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids are called macromolecules because
of their large size.
10. Proteins are polymers that serve many functions in organisms.
They are organic compounds made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen,
nitrogen, and sometimes sulfur.
11. Nucleic acids are macromolecules that direct protein production.
12. Carbohydrates are polymers that consist of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen
13. Lipids are a chemically diverse group of macromolecules that are classified together
because they do not dissolve in water
14. Water molecules adhere to one another in a special type of attraction called a
hydrogen bond.
15. The acidity or alkalinity of a solution is described by pH.
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16. Sometimes an event is both a cause, or input, and an effect, or output, in the same
system, a cyclical process called a feedback loop.
17. Erosion: the removal of soil by water, wind, ice, or gravity
18. Earth’s geosphere is made of all the rock at and below Earth’s surface.
19. The lithosphere is the hard rock on and just below Earth’s surface—the outermost
layer of the geosphere.
20. The biosphere consists of all the planet’s living or once-living things and the
nonliving parts of the environment with which they interact.
21. The atmosphere consists of the layers of gases surrounding our planet.
22. The hydrosphere encompasses all water—salt, fresh, liquid, ice, and vapor—on
Earth’s surface, underground, and in the atmosphere.
23. Earth’s crust is a thin layer of relatively cool rock that forms Earth’s outer skin both
on dry land and in the ocean.
24. Below the crust is the mantle, a layer of very hot but mostly solid rock.
25. Beneath the lower mantle is Earth’s core.
26. As the asthenosphere moves, it drags along large plates of lithosphere called tectonic
plates.
27. Collisions and separations of plates result in landforms— features such as mountains
(above and beneath the ocean’s surface), islands, and continents.
28. Climate characteristics affect the rates of soil formation, erosion, and deposition (the
depositing of eroded soil at a new location).
29. Water moves from bodies of water and moist soil into the atmosphere by
evaporation, the conversion of a substance from a liquid to a gas.
30. Water also enters the atmosphere by transpiration, the release of water vapor by
plants through their leaves.
31. Water returns from the atmosphere to Earth’s surface as precipitation such as rain or
snow
32. When water vapor undergoes condensation it changes from a gas to a liquid
33. Some precipitation and surface water soaks down through soil and rock to recharge
underground reservoirs, or storage areas, known as aquifers.
34. Groundwater: fresh water found underground.
35. Matter may be transformed from one type to another, but it cannot be created or
destroyed. This principle is called the law of conservation of matter.
36. Nutrients are matter that organisms require for their life processes.
37. Nutrients circulate endlessly throughout the environment in complex cycles called
biogeochemical cycles.
38. Primary producers are organisms, including plants and algae, that produce their
own food.
39. In photosynthesis, producers pull carbon dioxide out of their environment and
combine it with water in the presence of sunlight.
40. Consumers are organisms, mainly animals, that must eat other organisms to obtain
nutrients.
41. Decomposers are organisms such as bacteria and fungi that break down wastes and
dead organisms.
42. Cellular respiration is the process by which organisms use oxygen to release the
chemical energy of sugars and release CO2 and water.
43. The addition of phosphorus to bodies of water can lead to an overgrowth of producers
(usually algae) in a process called eutrophication.
44. Nitrogen fixation is the conversion of nitrogen gas into ammonia.
45. What process is represented by the following equation? 6CO2 + 6H2O + the sun’s energy → C6H12O6 (sugar) + 6O2
photosynthesis