ESS Definition-1

ESS Definition-1

1. Topic 1

   • Model: a simplified design of an object or system
     • ADV
       • visual and easy to look
       • Help find patterns
       • Can be applied to similar situation
     • DIS
       • Inaccurate
       • Can't show all the impacts and variables
       • if assumptions are wrong, the model will be wrong
   • system: interactions of parts and relationships to create a complex one
     • open system: exchanges matter and energy with its surrounding
       • e.g. ecosystem
     • closed system: exchanges energy but not matter
       • Biosphere II
     • isolated system: exchanges neither matter nor energy
   • First law of Thermodynamics: energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can change form
     • SLT: energy and material go from concentrated into dispersed form
   • Equilibrium: a state of balance among the components of a system
     • Stable: tendency for it to return to a previous equilibrium after ra disturbance
     • Steady-state: should be understood as the common property of most open system
     • Static: there is no change
   • Feedback: return part of the output as an input in a system
     • positive: leads to increase change in a system
       • e.g. global warming, ice cap melting,...
     • negative: self-regulating method of control leading to steady-state equilibrium
       • e.g. global warming, ..., reduces co2 levels
   • Transfers: flow through a system and involve a change in location
     • e.g. dead organic matter entering a lake
   • Transformation: interaction within a system involving a change of state
     • e.g. evaporation
   • ecosystem: a community of interdepend organism and the physical environment it interacts with
   • Gaia hypothesis: compares the Earth to a living organism in which feedback mechanism maintain equilibrium
   • tipping point: serie of small changes that that becomes significant enough to change he equilibrium of an environment

2. Topic 2

   • Abiotic: non-living physical factor that may influence an organism or ecosystem
     • temperature, sunlight, ph, salinity precipitation
     • Gross primary productivity: the total gain in energy or biomass per unit are per unit time fixed by photosynthesis
   • Biotic: biological factor that may influence an organism or ecosystem
     • Predation, disease, competition
   • Biosphere: part of the Earth inhabited by organisms
   • Biome: collection of ecosystem sharing similar climatic conditions
   • Biomass: the mass of organic material in organisms usually per unit area
   • Community: a group of populations living and interacting with each other in a common habitat
   • habitat: The environment in which species normally lives
   • Population: a group of organisms of the same species living in the same area at the same time and are capable of interbreeding
   • species: a group of organisms that interbreed to create an offspring
   • Trophic level: position that an organism occupy in a food chain
   • Biomagnification: increase in concentration of chemicals in an organism higher up the food chain
   • Bioaccumulation: an increase in concentration of a chemical in a specific organ at a level higher
   • Competition: two or more organisms fight for a resource
   • Mutualism: relationship all benefit and none suffer
   • Paratism: one lives on another
   • decomposer: organism that digest part of dead organism and waste of living organism
   • Photosynthesis: process in green plant cells to create oxygen
   • respiration: process using oxygen and organic matter to produce co2 and water
   • Gross productivity: total gain in energy or biomass per unit area per unit time, though photosynthesis or absorption
   • Net productivity: the gain in energy or biomass per unit time remaining after allowing respiratory losses
   • primary productivity: the gain by producers in energy or biomass per unit area per unit time
   • secondary productivity: the biomass gained by heterotrophic organism, though feeding and absorption, in units of mass or energy per area pe unit time
   • GSP: the total gain in energy by consumers per unit are per unit time though absorption
   • NPP: the gain by producer in energy per unit area per unit time remaining after losses in respiration
   • NSP: gain by consumers per unit area per unit time remaining after following respiratory losses
   • Limiting factors: single factor that limits the growth, abundance or distribution of the population ecosystem
   • carrying capacity: maximum number f a species or load that can be sustainably supported by a given environment
   • Density dependent factors: negative feedback mechanisms leading to stability or regulation of the population
   • Density independent factors: r-strategists where weather is most important
   • ecological succession: process of change over time in a community, that creates new established environments that are more complex that appear earlier
     • Primary succession: ecological succession in an area that has never been inhabited by organisms
       • Secondary succession:ES in an area where the vegetation has been removed or destroyed but soil is not destroyed
   • Biome: collection of ecosystem sharing similar climatic conditions
   • Climax community: a community of organisms that is more or less stable is in a n equilibrium with natural environmental conditions
   • zonation: the arrangement of ecosystem into parallel bands in response to change over a distance in some environmental factor

3. Topic 3

   • Diversity: genetic term for heterogeneity
   • Biodiversity: amount of biological diversity per unit area
     • Genetic diversity: range of genetic material present in a gene pool or population of a species
     • Species diversity: the variety of species per unit area
     • Habitat diversity: rang of different habitats or number of ecological niches per unit area in an ecosystem, community or biome.
   • Diversity index: numerical measure of species diversity that is derived from both the number or species and their proportional abundance
   • speciation: process through which new species form. it includes the same species becoming separated and create new species due to different environment, unallowing them to interbreed
   • isolation: process by which two populations become separated by geographical, behavioural genetic or reproductive factors
   • evolution: gradual change in the genetic characteristics creating totally new species
   • Natural selection: process by which only the beneficial gene is reproduced in succeeding generations more than other genes
   • Adaptation: genetically controlled characteristic that helps an organism survive and reproduce under a certain environmental condition
   • habitat fragmentation: breakup of habitats into smaller pieces
   • indigenous or active species: species that normally live and thrive in a particular ecosystem
   • Species: organisms that belong to the same population and are able to breed together to produce fertile offspring
   • exotic or nonnative species: species that migrate into an ecosystem or are deliberately introduced to a new ecosystem
   • endemic species: species found only in one area
   • mass extinction: catastrophic, widespread event where major groups of species are wiped out over a short time
   • conservation: sensible and careful use of natural resources
   • preservation: setting aside or protecting undisturbed natural areas from harmful natural human activities
   • biomass: the mass of organic material in an organism or ecosystem per unit area

4. Topic 4

   • Acid deposition: falling of acids and acid forming compounds from the atmosphere to the Earths surface
   • Eutrophication: when excess nutrients are added on an aquatic ecosystem
   • aquaculture: the farming of aquatic organisms cultivating them under controlled conditions
   • sustainable yield: is the amount that can be taken without permanently decreasing the stock
   • yield: amount of resources produced
   • indicator species: plants and animals that show something about their environment
   • Biotic index: indirectly measures pollution by the impact on species within the community
   • point source pollution: the release of pollutants from a single clearly identifiable site, for example a chimney
   • non-point source: release of pollutants from numerous widely dispersed