| A | B |
|---|
| 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 developing them and for providing human needs without causing long-term environmental harm |
| desertification | lower land productivity caused by overfarming, overgrazing, seasonal drought, and climate change |
| pollutant | harmful material that can enter the biosphere through the land, air, or water |
| biological magnification | increasing concentrations of a harful substance in organisms at higher trophic levels ina food chain or food web |
| smog | gray-brown hase formed by a mixture of chemicals |
| acid rain | rain containing nitric and sulfuric acids |
| biodeversity | total of the variety of organisms in the biosphere; also caled biological diversity |
| ecosystem diversity | variety of habitats, communities, and ecological processes in the biosphere |
| species diversity | number of species that make up a particular area |
| genetic diversity | sum total of all the different forms of genetic information carried by a particular species, or by all organisms on Earth |
| habitat fragmentation | splitting of ecosystems into pieces |
| ecological hot spot | small geographic area where significant numbers of habitats and soecies are in immediate danger of extinction |
| ecological footprint | total amount of functioning ecosystem needed both to provide the resources a human population uses and to absorb the wastes that population generates |
| ozone layer | atmospheric layer in which ozone gas is relatively concentrated; protects life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays in sunlight |
| aquaculture | raising of aquatic organisms for human consumtion |
| global warming | increase in the average temperatures on Earth |
