Ch. 5

Question 1

biodiversity

Answer 1

Number of different species living in a specific area.

Question 2

biological augmentation

Answer 2

Technique of adding essential materials to a degraded ecosystem.

Question 3

biological magnification

Answer 3

Increasing concentration of toxic substances, such as ddt, in organisms as trophic levels increase in food chains or food webs.

Question 4

bioremediation

Answer 4

Technique using living organisms to detoxify a polluted area.

Question 5

ecosystem diversity

Answer 5

Variety of ecosystems in the biosphere.

Question 6

edge effect

Answer 6

Any different environmental condition occurring along an ecosystem’s boundaries.

Question 7

endemic

Answer 7

Found only in one specific geographic area.

Question 8

eutrophication

Answer 8

water pollution from nitrogen rich and phosphorus rich substances flowing into waterways, causing algal overgrowth

Question 9

extinction

Answer 9

the disappearance of a species when the last of its members dies

Question 10

genetic diversity

Answer 10

variety of inheritable characteristics or genes in an interbreeding population

Question 11

habitat fragmentation

Answer 11

habitat loss from desperation of an ecosystem into small pieces of land

Question 12

introduced species

Answer 12

nonnative species deliberately or accidentally introduced into a new habitat

Question 13

mass extinction

Answer 13

a large scale dying out of a large percentage of all living organisms in an area within a short time

Question 14

natural resource

Answer 14

any material or organism in the biosphere, including water, soil, fuel, and plants and animals

Question 15

nonrenewable resource

Answer 15

any natural resource available in limited amounts or replaced extremely slowly by natural processes

Question 16

overexploitation

Answer 16

overuse of species with economic value a factor in species extinction

Question 17

renewable resource

Answer 17

any resource replaced by natural processes more quickly than it is consumed

Question 18

species diversity

Answer 18

in a biological community, the number and abundance of different species

Question 19

sustainable use

Answer 19

use of resources at a rate that they can be replaced or recycled

Question 20

background extinction

Answer 20

Gradual process of a species becoming extinct.