IB Digital Society 4.3A Natural Resources and Ecosystems Key Definitions

The diversity of living organisms living in a biological environment.

A facility of networked servers that store, process, and distribute digital data. Data centres are the physical infrastructure behind the cloud and consume large amounts of electricity and, often, water for cooling.

A community of living organisms interacting with their physical environment.

AI that produces new text, images, audio, or code by learning patterns from vast training data. It is a powerful form of narrow AI, not a general intelligence, despite how capable it can seem.

Materials and energy drawn from the natural world. Renewable resources (such as solar, wind, and water) replenish on human timescales; non-renewable resources (such as minerals and fossil fuels) are finite and are not replaced once used.

A group of seventeen metallic elements used in small quantities in many digital devices, for example in magnets, screens, and batteries. They are hard to substitute and their mining and refining can be environmentally damaging.

Gathering information about the Earth's surface from a distance, usually using satellites or aircraft sensors. Combined with a geographic information system (GIS), it lets analysts map and monitor changes such as deforestation over time.