Chapter 6 Flashcards
Monoculture
Farming strategy of planting a single, highly productive crop year after year
Renewable resource
Resource that can be produced or replaced by healthy ecosystem functions
Nonrenewable resource
Resource that cannot be replenished by a natural process within a reasonable amount of time
Sustainable development
Strategy for using natural resources without depleting them and for providing human needs without causing long-term environmental harm
Desertification
Lower land productivity caused by over-farming, overgrazing, seasonal drought, and climate change
Deforestation
Destruction of forests
Pollutant
Harmful material that can enter the biosphere through the land, air, or water
Biological magification
Increasing concentration of a harmful substance in organisms at higher trophic levels in a food chain or web
Smog
Gray-brown haze formed by a mixture of chemicals
Acid rain
Rain containing nitric and sulfuric acids
Biodiversity
Total variety of organisms in biosphere
AKA: biological diversity
Ecosystem diversity
Variety of habitats, communities, and ecological processes in the biosphere
Species diversity
Number of different species that make up a particular area
Genetic diversity
Total sum of all different forms of genetic information carried by a particular species or by all organisms
Habitat fragmentation
Process of splitting an ecosystem into pieces
