Definitions

• What is anthropogenic climate change?


  changes in the climate that are caused by human activity
• What are biofuels?


  fuels produced using biomass
• What is biomass?


  the dry mass of all the living organisms in an area.
• what is causation?


  when a change in one variable influences another variable
• what is conservation?


  The maintenance of ecosystems and biodiversity by humans in order to preserve the Earth's resources. This typically involves the management of succession.
• what is data extrapolation?


  the process of predicting unknown data using trends in known datasets which has many applications such as predicting changes in the climate
• what is correlation?


  when two data sets show the same trend.
• what is dendrochronology?


  the use of tree rings to work out data about the tree and its environment which can be useful for analysing changes in climate conditions.
• what is reforestation?


  replanting trees to replenish forests that have been destroyed.
• what are sustainable resources?


  resources which can be continually renewed and used without being depleted.
• what is the carbon cycle?


  the processes which cycle carbon through the environment, living organisms and the atmosphere.
• what is the greenhouse effect?


  the increase in global temperatures caused by the trapping of solar heat by gases in the atmosphere.
• what is a trophic level?


  the position that an organism holds in a food chain, food web, pyramid or numbers or pyramid of biomass.
• what is the biomass transfer energy?


  the proportion of energy transferred between biomass levels
• what is gross primary productivity?


  the total amount of energy fixed as chemical energy during photosynthesis carried out by producers.
• what is net primary productivity?


  the amount of chemical energy that is available for transfer once the amount of energy loss from respiration is deducted from the total amount of energy
• what is allele frequency?


  the number of times an allele appears within a population's gene pool
• what is allopatric speciation?


  the development of new species over time following the geographic isolation of members of a species.
• what is evolution?


  a change in allele frequency over time due to natural selection
• what is genomics?


  the study of the structure and function of the genome.
• what is natural selection?


  the process by which the frequency of beneficial alleles gradually increases in a population's gene pool over time (developed by Charles Darwin)
• what is proteomics?


  the study of the structure and function of the proteome
• what is sympatric speciation?


  the development of a new species over time in the same area as the original species without any geographical isolation
• what is carbon fixation (calvin cycle)?


  the addition of carbon dioxide the RUBP to form an unstable 6 carbon intermediate in the calvin cycle catalysed by RUBISCO
• what is chlorophyll?


  the main photosynthetic pigment found in chloroplasts which is used to capture energy from photons during photosynthesis
• what is a chloroplast?


  an organelle found in plants and algae which is the site of photosynthesis
• what is glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (GALP)?


  the 3 carbon molecule produced by the reduction of GP and NADPH using the energy provided by the hydrolisis of ATP.
• what is glycerate 3-phosphate (GP)?


  the 3 carbon molecule produced by the spontaneous breakdown of the 6 carbon product of carbon fixation.
• what is a granum?


  a stack of thylakoids
• what is photolysis?


  the breaking apart of a molecule using light
• what is photophosphorylation?


  the addition of a phosphate group onto a molecule using the energy obtained from sunlight
• what is photosynthesis?


  the process of harnessing the energy from sunlight to split apart the bonds in water molecules and store the hydrogen in organic molecules by combining it with carbon dioxide
• what is RUBISCO?


  the enzyme used to fix carbon dioxide in the calvin cycle
• what is the stroma?


  the liquid portion of the chloroplasts where the light-independent reactions of photosynthesis take place
• what are the thylakoids?


  flattened membrane-bound sacs found inside chloroplasts which are the site of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis.
• what are abiotic factors?


  non-living factors present in the environment which affect ecosystems
• what are biotic factors?


  living factors present in the environment which affect ecosystems
• what is a climax community?


  a community that remains stable and shows little change over time
• what is colonisation?


  the occupation of a new area by a species
• what is a community?


  the interactions of different species in the same area