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Environmental: explore STEM content (page 17 of 27) · openstem
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Search the community's STEM library — free to study, yours to make your own.
Environmental
Geology, climate and the environment on openstem — flashcards, notes, quizzes, plots and sketches shared by the community. Study free, or clone anything into your library.
What is industrial ecology, and what natural system does it use as its central metaphor?1 / 8
Industrial ecology studies industrial systems as though they were ecosystems — tracking material and energy flows the way ecologists track nutrient cycles, and looking for ways one facility's waste output can become another's raw material input, mimicking how natural ecosystems recycle nutrients with essentially zero waste.
Why do plants and animals need a 'nitrogen cycle' at all, when 78% of the atmosphere is already nitrogen gas (N₂)?1 / 9
N₂ is extremely stable (a strong triple bond) and cannot be used directly by most organisms. It has to be 'fixed' — converted into a reactive form like ammonia — before living things can build proteins and DNA from it.
What an SDM Actually Estimates A species distribution model fits a statistical relationship between known occurrence records and environmental predictor layers, producing a suitability surface used for conservation planning, invasive-specie
Environmental
Environmental · L5 · Species Distribution Modeling: Niche Theory and Model Transferability
The Species Continuity Equation A chemical transport model (CTM) tracks pollutant concentration C(x,y,z,t) by solving a continuity equation on a 3D grid: transport by resolved winds, turbulent diffusion, chemical production/loss, emissions,
Environmental
Environmental · L5 · Atmospheric Chemistry & Chemical Transport Modeling
Two Landmark Agreements, Two Structures International climate policy has largely moved from a top-down model to a bottom-up one. The Kyoto Protocol (1997) set legally binding emissions targets, but only for developed nations — the US never
Environmental
Environmental · L3 · Environmental Policy & International Agreements
What Makes a Desert a Desert? A desert is not defined by heat — it is defined by dryness. Any place that receives very little rain or snow each year counts as a desert, whether it is scorching hot or freezing cold. How a Rain Shadow Desert
A volcano is an opening in Earth's crust where melted rock called magma pushes up from deep underground. When it reaches the surface it is called lava.
Plate tectonics: mechanisms, evidence, and Earth's dynamic crust Plate tectonics is the unifying theory of modern geology, explaining the distribution of earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges, and ocean basins. It describes the lithospher
Energy That Never Runs Out Renewable energy comes from natural sources that keep replenishing themselves — the Sun keeps shining, the wind keeps blowing, and rivers keep flowing. From Nature to Your Lightbulb Whichever source is used, the e
A coral polyp is a tiny, soft-bodied animal — related to jellyfish and sea anemones — that builds a hard, cup-shaped skeleton of calcium carbonate around itself. Millions of polyps living together, generation after generation, build up the massive rocky structures we call a coral reef.
The ratio of the energy a power plant actually produces over a period to the maximum energy it could produce if it ran at full rated ('nameplate') output the whole time.
Environmental
Environmental · L3 · Renewable Energy Technologies
AAn animal staying in exactly one place foreverBA regular, often long, seasonal journey between placesCAn animal hibernating in winterDA type of animal habitat
What's the key difference between PM2.5 and PM10 particulate matter?1 / 9
PM10 is particulate matter up to 10 micrometres across — visible dust, pollen, mould spores. PM2.5 is finer, up to 2.5 micrometres — small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and even cross into the bloodstream, making it more hazardous to health at the same mass concentration.
Environmental
Environmental · L3 · Air Quality Index & Pollutants
Life in the Ocean The ocean is home to an enormous number of living things — from tiny plankton to the biggest animal that has ever lived, the blue whale. How Plastic Gets to the Ocean Most ocean plastic does not start in the ocean — it sta
Environmental
Environmental · L1 · Ocean Life & Plastic Pollution
What attributes does the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) use to define a 'restored' ecosystem?1 / 8
SER's core attributes include: characteristic species composition and community structure resembling the reference system, ecological processes functioning normally (nutrient cycling, energy flow), resilience to normal periodic stress, and — critically — the ability to sustain itself with minimal further intervention. A site isn't 'restored' just because it looks green again; it must be functionally self-sustaining.