APES Midterm Review Questions with solutions 2024 sustainability - answer -ability of Earth's various systems, including human cultural systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely environmental science - answer -interdisciplinary study that uses information from the physical sciences and social sciences to understand how the earth works, learn how humans interact with the earth, and develop solutions to environmental problems ecology - answer -biological science that studies the relations between living organisms and their environment; study of the structure and functions of nature.developing countries - answer -country that has low to moderate industrialization and low to moderate per capita GDP (gross domestic product) -most are located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America developed countries - answer -country that is highly industrialized and has a high per capita GDP (gross domestic product) perpetual resources - answer -essentially an inexhaustible resource on a human time scale because it is renewed continuously -solar energy non-renewable resources - answer -resources that exists in a fixed amount (stock) in the earth's crust and has potential for renewal by chemical, physical, geological processes taking place over hundreds of millions to billions of years -copper, aluminum, coal, and oil -we classify these resources as exhaustible because we are extracting and using them at a much faster rate than they are formed environmental degradation - answer -depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource -soil, grassland, forest or wildlife -used faster than it is naturally replenished if such use continues the resource becomes non-renewable (on a human time scale) or nonexistant (extinct) 1 / 3
ecological footprint - answer -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 waste from such resource use -measures the average environmental impact of populations of different countries or areas recycling - answer -collecting and reprocessing a resource so that it can be made into new products -collecting aluminum cans and melting them down and using the aluminum to make new cans and other products non-point source pollution - answer -large or dispurced land areas that discharge polutants into the environment over a large are -crops fields, streets, and lawns input pollution control/pollution prevention - answer -device or process that prevents a potential pollutant from forming or entering the environment or sharply reduces the amount entering the environment output pollution control/pollution clean up - answer -device or process that removes or reduces the level of a pollutant after it has been produced or entered the environment -automobile emission control devices and sewage treatment plants organisms - answer -any form of life population - answer -group of individual organisms of the same species living in a particular area community - answer -populations of all species living and interacting in an area at a particular time ecosystems - answer -community of different species interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up its non-living environment biosphere - answer -zone of the earth where life is found -it consists of parts of the atmosphere (the troposphere), hydrosphere (mostly surface water and ground water), and lithosphere (mostly soil and surface rocks and sediments of the bottoms of oceans and other bodies of water) where life is found Shannon-Wiener diversity index - answer -the idea is that the more different letters there are, and the more equal their proportional abundances in the string of interest, the more difficult it is to correctly predict which letter will be the next one in the string -the Shannon entropy quantifies the uncertainty (entropy or degree of surprise) associated with this prediction.atmosphere - answer -mass of air surrounding the earth 2 / 3
troposphere - answer -the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere -contains approx. 75% of the atmosphere's mass -the average depth of the trophosphee is deeper in the tropical regions (up to 20 km [12 miles]) and shallower near the poles (about 7 km [4 miles]) -the temperature of the troposphere decreases with height, while saturation vapor pressure decreases with temperature -the pressure of the troposphere is maximum at the surface and decreases with higher altitude -the temperature of the troposphere generally decreases as altitude increases stratosphere - answer -the stratosphere is situated between 10 km (6 miles) and 50 km (31 miles) altitude above the surface at moderate latitudes -the stratosphere is stratified in temperature, with warmer layers higher up and cooler layers farther down
hydrosphere - answer -earth's:
-liquid water oceans, lakes, other bodies of surface water, and other ground water -frozen water (polar icecaps, floating icecaps, and ice/soil known as permafrost) -water vapor in the atmosphere lithosphere - answer -outer shell of the earth composed of the crust and the rigid outermost part of the mantle asthenosphere; material found in the earth's plates carbon cycle - answer -cyclic movement of carbon in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment phosphorus cycle - answer -cyclic movement of phosphorus in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment nitrogen cycle - answer -cyclic movement of nitrogen in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment water cycle/hydrologic cycle - answer -biogeochemical cycle that collects, purifies, and distributes the earth's fixed supply of water from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment oxygen cycle - answer -biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of oxygen within its three main reservoirs the atmosphere, biosphere, and the lithosphere -driven by photosynthesis and cellular respiration aquatic ecosystems - answer -among the largest of Earth's aquatic ecosystems - include oceans, salt marsh and intertidal ecology, estuaries and lagoons, mangroves and coral reefs, the deep sea and the sea floor
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