Environmental Science Cheat Sheet
The core ideas of Environmental Science distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.
Quick Reference
Ecosystem Services
The benefits that humans derive from properly functioning ecosystems, including provisioning services (food, water), regulating services (climate regulation, flood control), cultural services (recreation, spiritual value), and supporting services (nutrient cycling, soil formation). These services are often taken for granted until they are degraded or lost.
Biogeochemical Cycles
The pathways through which chemical elements and compounds move between living organisms and the nonliving environment. The major cycles include the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and water cycles, each involving biological, geological, and chemical processes that regulate the availability of essential nutrients.
Biodiversity
The variety of life at all levels of biological organization, including genetic diversity within species, species diversity within communities, and ecosystem diversity across landscapes. Biodiversity underpins ecosystem stability and resilience, and its loss can trigger cascading ecological consequences.
Climate Change
Long-term shifts in global temperatures and weather patterns driven primarily by the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial processes. The enhanced greenhouse effect traps additional heat, raising average global temperatures and altering precipitation patterns.
Carrying Capacity
The maximum population size of a species that an environment can sustain indefinitely given the available food, habitat, water, and other resources. When a population exceeds its carrying capacity, resource depletion and environmental degradation accelerate, often resulting in population decline.
Sustainability
The practice of meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability requires balancing economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection, often described as the three pillars or triple bottom line.
Trophic Levels
The hierarchical positions organisms occupy in a food chain, determined by their energy source. Primary producers form the base, followed by primary consumers (herbivores), secondary consumers (carnivores), and tertiary consumers (top predators). Energy is lost at each transfer, typically about 90%, limiting the number of trophic levels.
Environmental Impact Assessment
A systematic process used to evaluate the potential environmental consequences of a proposed project, plan, or policy before a decision is made. EIAs identify direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts and propose mitigation measures to minimize environmental harm.
Ecological Succession
The process by which the species composition and structure of a community changes over time following a disturbance. Primary succession occurs on newly formed surfaces with no prior soil, while secondary succession occurs on disturbed but previously vegetated land where soil remains.
Eutrophication
The excessive enrichment of a body of water with nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, often from agricultural runoff and sewage discharge. This nutrient overload stimulates dense algal blooms that block light, and their subsequent decomposition depletes dissolved oxygen, creating dead zones where aquatic life cannot survive.
Key Terms at a Glance
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