AP Human Geography Unit 5 Vocabulary

Wetlands

Areas of land that are covered by or saturated with water (eg. swamps, marshes, bogs). Draining them and converting them into farmlands has been accepted because since the soil doesn't support construction or development, they are considered wastelands, but this practice can result in habitat loss.

Food Deserts

Areas where residents lack access to healthy, nutritious foods because stores selling them are too fare away. They are characterized by low median household income, and high poverty and unemployment rates.

Global Supply Chains

Similar to commodity chains but at a global scale. This enables the delivery of a product between 2 countries and are used to trade commercial agriculture products.

Reservoirs

A common source of irrigation for crops in the US, they are artificial lakes created by building dams across streams and rivers. Canals carry water from reservoirs to where they are needed.

Cash Crop

A crop that is produced for its commercial value, often relied on by peripheral countries with export economies. Though this dependency can be negative, if supply is limited, the country that specializes can reap the benefits. For example, vanilla in Madagascar.

Mixed Crop and Livestock Systems

A form of agriculture where both crops and livestock are raised for profit. There are 2 types of mixed farming; on-farming and between-farming. With between-farming, 2 farmers share resources with one growing crops and one raising livestock. With on-farming, livestock and crops are grown on the same farm.

Desertification

A form of land degradation that occurs when soil deteriorates to a desert like condition. It can be the result of poor pastoral nomadism practices in arid or semi-arid lands.

Fair Trade

A global campaign to fix unfair wage practices and to protect the ability of farmers to earn a living wage. It is meant to improve the lives of farmers in the periphery and semi-periphery countries by providing more equitable working and trading conditions. The movement wants to do this by paying an above-market fair price to farmers if they meet standards and regulations, it also provides guaranteed prices and gives farmers access to global markets but means fair trade products will be more expensive.

Metes and Bounds

A land survey method used to draw boundaries by describing property boundaries in terms of lines drawn in a certain direction for a specific distance from clear points of reference. Points of reference are typically natural features. This process results in weird-shaped land parcels that can still be seen in aerial plots. This method was used in Great Britain and subsequently North America.

Township and Range System

A land survey system that created rectangular land lots, designed to create survey townships of 6x6 miles with each square mile having 640 acres. It was used to survey and sell land controlled by the US government as the country expanded westward and got new territories.

Long-Lot Survey System

A land survey system used in French and Spanish colonies where property was divided into a series of adjacent long strips of land that stretch back from the frontage to along a river or lake. It allowed equal access to waterways.

Agribusiness

A large-scale system that includes the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products and equipment. Commercial farmers are only a small part of it. This has grown over the last century as farming modernizes and now farmers are more dependent on food manufacturers, distributors, and markets, and more farms are controlled by processors.

Intensive Agriculture

A method where famers expend lots of effort to produce as much yield as possible from an area of land, relying on high levels of input and energy (eg. physical labor, herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, technology etc.).

Precision Agriculture

A part of a movement some see as the 4th agricultural revolution, it uses cutting-edge technology to apply inputs like water and fertilizer with pinpoint accuracy to specific parts of fields to maximize crop yield, reduce waste, and preserve the environment.

Mediterranean Agriculture

A specialized farming that occurs only in areas where the dry-summer Mediterranean climate prevails (eg. California, Chile, Mediterranean sea area) in which hardy trees (eg. olives, fruit, nut trees) and shrubs A(grape vines) are grown and sheep and goats are raised.

Tariffs

A tax or duty to be paid on a particular import or export, imposed by governments to raise revenue and protect domestic industries against foreign competition. The government puts a tax on imported foreign goods, meaning that if a domestic company wants to buy those foreign goods, they'll have to pay an extra tax, in addition to the original price, and this tax money will go to the government. This added expense makes more domestic companies turn towards domestic producers, and decreases revenue for foreign producers. They affect global trade and can cause trade wars. Imposing these and creating trade wars can disrupt commodity chains, lower farm price products, and cause farmers to lose business.

Slash and Burn

A type of shifting cultivation to maintain land where land is cleared by cutting down trees and bushes then after the vegetation dries up, burning the "slash" resulting in nutrient-rich fertilizer. The cleared land is cultivated until the soil becomes infertile.

Fertile Crescent

An agricultural hearth in Southwest Asia where domestication first took place. Its name references to the arc it forms from the Eastern Mediterranean Coast up to present day Turkey, then south and east along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers through present day Syria, Iraq, and Iran. People in here grew wheat, barley, rye, legumes, and raised sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs.

Extensive Agriculture

An agricultural method that involves fewer inputs and little investment in labor and capital for fewer yields and lower output. It can be practiced both commercial and subsistence purposes and is often found in ranching enterprises in core countries.

Von Thunen Model

An agricultural model that hypothesizes that the perishability of the product and transportation costs to the market both factor into a farmer's decisions on agricultural practices and land. There are 4 rings outside of a central market where business is conducted and products are sold. 1) The ring outside the core represents intensive farming of fruits and vegetables and dairying. These products perishability makes it critical that they make it to the market and are sold in a limited time frame. While the land is more expensive, the products are worth more and are more profitable. 2) This ring represents forests as timber and firewood were hot commodities when this model was first made. They were used for building the community. Since they are so bulky and hard to transport, producing them closer to the market makes it easier. 3) This ring represents grain and cereal crops that are less perishable and not as heavy. The land used is further from the market so less expensive and used extensively. 4) Farthest from the market is where livestock is grown. This land is less desirable and thereby cheap and can be used extensively, and livestock could be walked to the market making transportation easy.

Agricultural Hearth

An area where different groups began to domesticate plants and animals, where a type of agriculture originated.

Topography

An areas land features, including land slope, that affect the ability of soil to stay in place and retain water. Steeper slopes mean an area is more likely to be affected by runoff water. Slope also affects the land's position in relation to the sun which affects agricultural productivity.

Agroecosystem

An ecosystem modified for agricultural use.

Bid-Rent Theory

An idea that explains how land value determines the type of land use. Higher land value means that the farmer will have less land but farm this land more intensively to produce the most agricultural yield per unit of land. Lower land value means that the farmer will have more land and farm is extensively.

Green Revolution

An off-shot of the third revolution, it occurred during the 1950s and 1960s when scientists used increased knowledge of genetics to develop new hybrid, high-yield strains of grain crops. These new crops diffused from the US to areas with low yields and large populations like Mexico, India, and Indonesia.

Third Agricultural Revolution

Beginning in the early 20th century and continuing today, it featured further mechanization and electric power, and the development of new technology advances outside of agriculture. Scientists began developing synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, rather than natural ones. It occurred in core countries before diffusing to the periphery in the mid 20th century.

Terracing

Commonly practiced by subsistence farmers, it is the process of carving parts of a hill or mountainside into small, level growing plots. It is used in mountain areas in various climates. Farmers build steps or terraces into the steep slopes and create paddles for cultivating water-intensive crops like rice. During rainfall, the paddles flood and the water flows through small channels from terrace to terrace without carrying soil down the slope.

Market Gardening

Farming that produces fruits, vegetables, and flowers and typically serves a specific market or urban area where farmers can easily sell to local grocery stores, restaurants, farmer's markets, and road stands. This practice is driven by products perishability and demand.

Commodity Chain

From the rise of agribusinesses, it is a complex network that connects places of production with distribution to consumers, often occurring across many regions. Chains begin with inputs like land, seeds, fertilizers, and animals, tended to by farmers for crops. After cultivation and harvest, the crop is processed, packaged, and transported to wholesalers and retailers with the end result being a finished commodity marketed to consumers.

Debt-for-Nature Swaps

In exchange for local investments in conservation methods, banks agree to forgive a portion of a country's debt. It is usually used in peripheral countries.

Infrastructure

In the case of commercial agriculture, it is modern farm equipment, advanced technology, large ploys of land, roads, vehicles, rivers, and irrigation systems.

Second Agricultural Revolution

It was launched by new practices and tools in 1770, beginning in Great Britain and the low countries and diffusing from there. It resulted in improvements in crop yields, cultivation, harvesting, and storage. Innovations like better yokes for oxen and subsequent replacement of oxen by horses, advancements in fertilizers, and drainage systems for fields all contributed.

Agricultural Landscapes

Landscapes resulting from the interactions between farming activities and a location's natural environment. Some have endured for years, others change.

Plantation Agriculture

Large-scale commercial farming of one particular crop grown for markets, often distant from the plantation, usually takes place in peripheral or semi-peripheral economies in tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Major plantation crops are cotton, tobacco, tea, coffee, sugar cane, bananas.

Aquifiers

Layers of underground sand, gravel, and rock that contain and release a useable amount of water. They are used for household and agricultural purposes, but if they are not recharged or replenished by drainage through the soil, groundwater levels in these can fall or even become completely depleted.

Farm Subsidies

Low cost loans, insurance, guaranteed prices, and payment given to farmers by the government to combat rising production costs. It originally began during the Great Depression to ensure there was enough food for consumption. But now small farmers that need these aren't seeing the money and big farms benefit more.

First Agricultural Revolution

Occurring 11,000 years ago and lasted for thousands more, this was the shift from foraging (ie. searching for food) ti farming and marked the beginning of agriculture. It happened at different hearths at different times and diffused into other areas.

Climate Regions

Produced by a combination of temperature, precipitation, wind patterns, and topography, they are areas that have similar climate patterns generally based on latitude and location on coasts and continental borders. There are 5 broad climate types represented in Vladmir Koppen's system: tropical, dry, temperate, continental, and polar but these can be further divided into subtypes.

Food Security

Reliable access to safe, nutritious food that can support a healthy and active lifestyle.

Foragers

Small nomadic groups who had primarily plant-based diets and ate small animals or fish for protein. They ranged over land to exploit in season food resources, often returning to the same area each year.

Monoculture

The agricultural system of planting one crop or raising one animal annually, it gained popularity after WWII.

Irrigation

The artificial process of applying controlled amounts of water to land to assist in production of crops. It helps to grow agricultural crops, maintain landscapes, and revegetate disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of less than average rainfall.

Soil

The biologically active coating of Earth's surface ranging on depth formed by the weathering of rock by wind or water that breaks the rock into increasingly smaller pieces over time. Key characteristics are fertility, texture, and structure.

Center Business District (CBD)

The central location of consumer services, aka the market. As land gets farther from the market, its value decreases. The bid-rent theory assumes that there is only one market.

Monocropping

The cultivation of one or two crops that are related seasonally, usually because market demands are so high and the sale is very profitable. This practice is often found on plantations and large corporate farms.

Domestication

The deliberate effort to grow plants and raise animals, making plants and animals adapt to human demands and using selective breeding to develop desirable characteristics.

Food Insecurity

The disruption of a households food intake or eating patterns because of poor access to food or money.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of goods and ideas between the Americas, Europe, and Africa beginning after Columbus' voyage in 1492.

Elevation

The height above sea level. It affects growing seasons and what plants can be grown. Each increase of 1,000 feet above sea level means a decrease of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit in average temperature, so higher elevation means shorter growing season.

Climate

The longterm patterns of weather in a particular area that provides the precipitation and temperature need for seeds to germinate, plants to grow, or livestock to survive.

Deforestation

The loss of forest land.

Clustered Settlement aka Nucleated Settlement

The most common form of settlement where residents live in close proximity and houses and buildings are near each other with farmland and pastures surrounding. It promotes social unity.

Transhumance

The movement of herds between pastures at cooler, higher elevations during summer months and lower elevations during winter months. It primarily practiced by nomads.

Shifting Cultivation

The practice of growing crops or grazing animals on a piece of land for a year or two, then abandoning the land when the nutrients have depleted from the soil and moving to a new piece of land to repeat the process. It is practiced globally in marginal agricultural areas of the tropic.

Salinization

The process by which water-soluble salts accumulate in soil. It occurs in arid and semi-arid regions when water evaporates from the ground more rapidly than it is replenished by rain or irrigation, causing a concentration of salts in the soil and making it so plants can no longer extract adequate water.

Enclosure System

The process of consolidating land owned by communities into larger farms owned by individuals. Use of land was restricted to owners or tenets who rented, thereby giving owners more control over farms and leading to more effective practices. It pushed peasants off of land and created a labor surplus.

Subsistence Agriculture

The process of farmers growing and raising a diverse range of crops and livestock for their family's consumption, usually using few mechanical resources and more hard labor.

Commercial Agriculture

The process of farmers growing crops and raising livestock to sell to customers. The type of goods produced depends on geographic and economic factors like farmland, environment, market demand, and agricultural practices.

Nomadic Herding aka Pastoral Nomadism

The process of moving animals seasonally or as needed to allow the best grazing (when animals are allowed to consume wild vegetations outdoor in order to convert grass and other forages into usually on not arable land) that requires lots of land to prevent overgrazing.

Agriculture

The purposeful cultivation of plants or raising of animals to produce goods for survival or for commercial use.

Hybrid

The result of different varieties of plants bred to enhance desired characteristics and improve disease resistance. They were derived from scientists taking the natural process of hybridization and intentionally making hybrids.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

The result of scientists applying advances in scientific understanding to manipulate plants' and animals' genetic makeup, They can the enhance ability of new strains to resist disease or drought or be used to enhance nutritional impact or consumer appeal.

Biotechnology

The science of altering living organisms, often through genetic mutation/manipulation, to create new products for specific purposes like crops that can resist certain pests. Modern biotechnology supports genetic engineering (GE), a type of genetic modification (GM) where scientists transfer specific genes from one organism to another.

Suburbanization

The shifting of populations from cities to surrounding suburbs, accelerated as by more city dwellers wanting cheaper houses, more space, and lower crime-rates. The rise of the suburbs means that land once cultivated by family farms is being bought to build suburban neighborhoods.

Biodiversity

The variety of organisms in a location.

Agricultural Biodiversity

The variety of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are used directly or indirectly for good and agriculture. It is integral to environmentally sustainable agriculture and key in enabling agriculture to achieve productivity gains, improve sustainability, and manage changing conditions. Critics say that genetic engineering threatens biodiversity.

Crop Rotation

The varying of crops from year to year to allow for the restoration of valued nutrients and the continuing productivity of the soil.

Dual Agriculture Economy

Two agricultural sectors within the same country or region that have different access to levels of technology and different patterns in demand. Farmers with more resources for equipment, land, and materials are usually commercial farmers. Subsistence farms where food is grown for farmers to consume exist next to commercial operations that grow crops to sell and export to core countries where demand is high. Examples of this are South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Vertical Integration

When a company controls more than one stage of the production process. When companies manage all parts of their business operation, it helps reduce costs, improve efficiency, and increase profits. It is hard for small, family owned and operated farms to do this. An example is McDonalds because it has complete control over its agricultural resources, processing facilities, distribution centers, transportation systems, and the land their restaurants occupy.

Dispersed Settlement

When houses and buildings are isolated from each other and houses are distributed over a large area of land. These settlements often exist in difficult territories and promote independence and self sufficiency but lack social interaction.

Linear Settlement

When houses and buildings extend in a ling line that usually follows a land feature. People settle along this feature for access to resources (ie. water) and transportation.

Law of Supply and Demand

When supply is high, prices go down. When supply is low, prices are high. When production is successful, prices can drop so low that production costs are higher than the products value, which can be bad for farmers.

Economies of Scale

When the cost of producing good items decreases as the quantity of production increases. It shows large scale farming is more efficient, and that average production costs decreases as farm size increases.