Chapter 10 (Trees) Flashcards
The theoretical assemblage of plants arising from succession over time, determined by climatic & soil conditions
Climax Vegetation
An event or shock that disrupts an ecological system, thereafter leading either to recovery of that system (ex: through succession) or movement of the system into a new state
Disturbance
Ecologically, the idealized tendency for disturbed forest areas to recover through stages of species invasion & growth, progressing from grassland, to shrubs, & eventually back to tree cover
Succession
Deposition of rain or snowfall with unusually high acidity resulting from the emission of sulfur dioxide & nitrogen oxide into the air, typically from industrial emissions. This form of precipitation is harmful for plant life & aquatic ecosystems
Acid Rain
Benefits that an organic system creates through its function, including food resources, clean air or water, pollution, carbon sequestration, energy, and nutrient cycling, among many others
Ecosystem Services
Total variability and variety of life forms in a region, ecosystem, or around the world; typically used as a measure of the health of an environmental system
Biodiversity
The management of a resource or environment for protection & preservation, typically for its own sake, as in wilderness preservation (compare to conservation)
Preservation
Science of imagining, creating, & sustaining habitats, productive environments, & biodiversity in places used, traveled, & inhabited by human beings
Reconciliation Ecology
A thesis predicting that where agricultural populations grow, demands for food leads to technological innovations resulting in increased food production on the same amount of available land
Induced Intensification
Model that predicts economic responses to scarcity of a resource that will lead to increases in prices that will result either in decreased demand for that resource or increased supply, or both
Market Response Model
The regrowth of vegetation & return of species to an area cleared or reduced by disturbance, as where a forest recovers its “climax vegetation” cover after a fire
Secondary Succession
Model that predicts a period of deforestation in a region during development, when the forest is a resource or land is cleared for agriculture, followed by a return of forest when the economy changes & population out-migrates and/or becomes conservation-oriented
Forest Transition Theory
In Marxist thought, the direct appropriation by capitalists or natural resources or goods from communities that historically tend to hold them collectively, as, for example, where the common lands of Britain were enclosed by wealthy elites & the state in the 1700s.
Primitive Accumulation
An environmental ethical stance that argues that ecological concerns should, over & above human priorities, be central to decisions about right & wrong action (compare to anthropocentrism)
Ecocentrism
An ethical standpoint that views humans as the central factor in considerations of right & wrong action in & toward nature (compare to ecocentrism)
Anthropocentrism
