People and the Biosphere Glossary

Question 1

What is abiotic?

Answer 1

Non-living part of a biome, included the atmosphere, water, rock and soil.

Question 2

What is altitude?

Answer 2

Height of land

Question 3

What is Altitudinal zonation?

Answer 3

The change in ecosystems at different altitudes, caused by alterations in temperature, precipitation, sunlight and soil type

Question 4

What is atmosphere?

Answer 4

The layer of gases above the Earth’s surface.

Question 5

What is biomass?

Answer 5

Renewable organic materials such as wood, agricultural crops or wastes, when used as a source of fuel or energy

Question 6

What is a biome?

Answer 6

A large-scale ecosystem, e.g. tropical rainforest

Question 7

What is a biosphere?

Answer 7

The living layer of Earth between the lithosphere and atmosphere

Question 8

What is biotic?

Answer 8

Living part of a biome, made up of plant (flora) and animal (fauna) life

Question 9

What is Boserupian?

Answer 9

A view based on a published works of Ester Boserup, which argues that as a population grows, innovative humans invent new ways of producing more food

Question 10

What is carbon sequestration?

Answer 10

Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locking it up in biotic material

Question 11

What is a carbon sink?

Answer 11

Natural stores for carbon-containing chemical compounds, like carbon dioxide or methane

Question 12

What is climate?

Answer 12

The average weather conditions over a 30 year period

Question 13

What is Club of Rome?

Answer 13

A think tank that popularised the Malthusian view in the 1970s

Question 14

What is decay?

Answer 14

Decomposition of organic material by bacteria and fungi

Question 15

What is decomposition?

Answer 15

The process of decay or rotting

Question 16

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 16

Localized biome made up of living things and their non-living environment. For example a pond, a forest, a desert.

Question 17

What is Ecosystem services?

Answer 17

A collective term for all of the ways humans benefit from ecosystems

Question 18

What is evaporation?

Answer 18

The changing of a liquid into a vapour or gas

Question 19

What is fallout?

Answer 19

Dead plants and animals become litter on the soil surface

Question 20

What is a food web?

Answer 20

A complex network of overlapping food chains that connect plants and animals in biomes

Question 21

What are goods?

Answer 21

Physical materials such as timber from trees or fish caught in a lake

Question 22

What is groundwater?

Answer 22

Water that is stores in the ground

Question 23

What is the hydrological cycle?

Answer 23

The movement of water between its different forms; gas (water vapour), liquid and solid (ice) forms

Question 24

What are indigenous people?

Answer 24

The original people of a region. Some indigenous groups still lead traditional lifestyles, e.g. a tribal system, hunting for food

Question 25

What is industralisation?

Answer 25

Where a mainly agricultural society changes and begins to depend on manufacturing industries instead

Question 26

What is infiltration?

Answer 26

The soaking of rainwater into the ground

Question 27

What is interception?

Answer 27

The capture of rainwater by leaves and branches

Question 28

What is latitude?

Answer 28

How far north or south a location on the Earth’s surface is from the Equator, measured in degrees

Question 29

What is leaching?

Answer 29

Nutrients are washed out of the soil as water moves through

Question 30

What is the lithosphere?

Answer 30

The uppermost layer of the Earth which includes the crust and the very top of the mantle

Question 31

What is litter?

Answer 31

Decaying leaves and twigs

Question 32

What is Malthusian?

Answer 32

A theory introduced in 1798 by Reverend Thomas Malthus which argues that human population will eventually grow as large that the planet will run out of resources

Question 33

What are natural resources?

Answer 33

Materials found in the environment that are used by humans

Question 34

What is the nutrient cycle?

Answer 34

Nutrients move between the biomass, litter and soil as part of a continuous cycle which keeps both plants and soil healthy

Question 35

What is nutrient transfer?

Answer 35

The movement and exchange of nutrients between biomass, litter and soil, which are called nutrient stores

Question 36

What does it mean when it is permeable?

Answer 36

Allows water to pass through

Question 37

What is photosynthesis?

Answer 37

The process of plants converting sunlight into energy

Question 38

What is precipitation?

Answer 38

Water vapour that is released from clouds and falls to Earth as rain, sleet, snow and hail

Question 39

What is runoff?

Answer 39

The movement of rainwater over ground

Question 40

What are services?

Answer 40

Functions that satisfy our needs

Question 41

What is slash-and-burn?

Answer 41

A type of farming where farmers clear small areas of forests by cutting and burning, and the ash adds nutrients to the soil

Question 42

What is soil erosion?

Answer 42

The removal of soil by wind and rain

Question 43

What is treeline?

Answer 43

The limit, or altitude, in a biome where trees will no longer grow

Question 44

What is the Tundra?

Answer 44

Cold desert biome

Question 45

What is Urbanisation?

Answer 45

Means a rise in the percentage of people living in urban areas, compared to rural areas

Question 46

What is Weathering?

Answer 46

The physical, chemical or biological breakdown of solid rock by the action of weather (e.g. frost, rain) or plants