Chapter 6 Flashcards
Resource that can be produced or replaced by a healthy ecosystem
Renewable resource
The practice of clearing large areas of land to plant a single highly productive crop year after year
Monoculture
Natural resources that cannot replenish them within a reasonable amount of time
Nonrenewable resource
Musing resources in an environmentally conscious way
Sustainable development
Process of farming, overgrazing, seasonal drought, and climate change can turn farmland into a desert
Desertification
Loss of trees
Deforestation
Harmful material that can enter the biosphere
Pollutant
Occurs if a pollutant, such as DDT, mercury, or PCB is picked up by an organism and is not broken down or eliminated from its body
Biological magnification
Gray brown haze formed by chemical reactions among pollutants released into the air by industrial uses or automobile exhaust
Smog
When airborne acids drift many kilometers before they fall as rain
Acid rain
Total of all the genetically based variation in all the organisms in the biosphere
Biodiversity
Variety of habitats communities, and ecological processes in biosphere
Ecosystem diversity
The number of different species in the biosphere or particular species
Species diversity
The sum total of all different forms of genetic information carried by all organisms on Earth
Genetic diversity
When development splits ecosystems into pieces
Habitat fragmentation
