Environment
Inorganic pesticides
(Arsenic, copper, and lead) Persistent and do not degrade readily, they last about 10 years, have long range transport, and highly toxic (methylmercury in Arctic food web).
Resource issues are connected with population size
1 child in a highly developed country has a greater impact on the environment and resource depilation than around 20 children in a developing country.
5 Steps to the scientific method
1. Recognize a question, or an unexplained occurrence in the natural world. 2. Develop a hypothesis, or an educated guess to explain the problem. 3. Design and perform an experiment to test the hypothesis. 4. Analyze and interpret the data to reach a conclusion. 5. Share new knowledge with the scientific community.
Dilution paradigm
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Endangered Species Act
A Manitoban act that is applied within the provincial jurisdiction. It also has its own advisory committee.
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
A U.N. treaty that seeks to protect human health and the environment from the 12 most toxic persistent organic pollutants (POPs). DDT is still used in some areas to fight malaria-carrying mosquitos in countries where there's no affordable alternative.
Transpiration
A biological cooling process in which water from the soil is absorbed by roots, transported through plants, and then evaporated form their leaves and stems. This provides moisture for clouds, eventually resulting in precipitation.
Science
A body of knowledge, a dynamic process, a systematic way to investigate the world, and an ongoing enterprise.
Feedback loop
A chain of cause-and-effect responses where the output from an event influences the same event in the future to form a loop. Positive feedback is the direction of change, not the outcome (loss of forest). Negative feedback is reducing or inhibiting the change over time to help stabilize the system.
Climate change
A change in the long-term weather patterns observed over a period from decades to millions of years.
Synergistic
A chemical mixture that has a greater combined effect than expected (level 1 + level 1 + level 3).
Integrated pest management (IPM)
A combination of pest control methods that, if used in the proper order and at the proper times, keeps the size of pest population low enough to prevent substantial economic loss.
Poverty
A condition in which people are economically unable to meet their basic needs for food, water, clothing, shelter, education, and health services. (approx. 1 in 4, living on less than $2 a day)
National conservation stragetgy
A detailed plan for manging and preserving the biological diversity in that specific country.
Monometalism
A driving factor in setting aside and designating regions as parks. Parks focusing on significant ecological and/ or scientific attributes, and ecotourism and local economic gains. They work on ecological integrity which is a preservation approach.
Intercropping
A form of intensive substance agriculture that involves growing a variety of plants simultaneously on the same field, they grow larger yields than monocultures.
Shifting cultivation
A form of substance agriculture in which short periods of cultivation are followed by longer periods of fallow (land left uncultivated).
Atmosphere
A gaseous envelope surrounding Earth.
David Suzuki
A geneticist, broadcaster, and environmental activist.
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
A global organization that is responsible for the identification of species at risk throughout the world.
Species
A group of distinct organisms capable of interbreeding with one another in the wild but which do not interbreed with organisms outside their group.
Population
A group of organisms of the same species that live and interact together, in the same area at the same time. Our population went from 5 billion to 6 billion in 12 years.
Population
A group of organisms of the same species that live together in the same area at the same time.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
A group of persistent toxins that bioaccumulate in organisms and travel far, contaminating sites far from their source.
Species
A group of similar organisms whose members freely interbreed with one another in the wild to produce fertile offspring.
Oligotrophic
A lake that's clear and supports only small populations of aquatic organisms because of the restricted or limiting concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus available.
High heat capacity
A large quantity of energy is required to change the phase of water from solid to liquid and from liquid to solid. Water is less dense when frozen because it expands and is a universal solvent.
Background extinction
A low-level extinction of species.
Net primary production (NPP)
A measure of the amount of plant mass that is first generated through photosynthesis but also remains after cellular respirations has taken place.
Hazard quotient approach
A method of assessment used to estimate exposure, toxicity, the highest environmental concentration, and the most sensitive organism (don't want the quotient to be above 1).
Biological control
A method of pest control that involves the use of naturally occurring disease organisms, parasites, or predators to control pests.
Community
A natural association that consists of all populations of different species that live and interact together within an area at the same time.
Community
A natural association that consists of all the populations of different species that live and interact together within an area at the same time. A community ecologist might study how organisms react with one another (feeding relationships).
Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC)
A panel of experts responsible for assessing and identifying Canadian species at risk.
Water pollution
A physical or chemical change in water that adversely affects the health of humans and other organisms. This is divided into eight categories: sediment, sewage and water waste, fecal coliform and other disease-causing agents, eutrophication, organic compounds, inorganic chemicals, radioactive substances, and thermal pollution.
World conservation strategy
A plan designed to conserve biological diversity worldwide.
Storm water retention pond
A pond designed to manage storm water runoff by diverting the water into an artificial lake with vegetation around the perimeter, including a permanent pool of water in its design.
Subduction
A process in which lithospheric plates collide as one descends on another.
Wildlife corridor
A protected zone that connects isolated unlogged or undeveloped areas.
Landscape
A region that includes several interacting ecosystems.
Landscape
A region that may include several interacting ecosystems.
Adaptation (climate change management)
A response to changes caused by global climate change. This implies that global climate change is unavoidable.
System Feedback
A response within a system (molecule, cell, organism, or population) that influences the continued activity or productivity of that system.
Hypothesis
A scientific guess, that needs to be useful, and tells you something that you want to know
Paul Ehrlich
A scientist who is best known for discovering the first effective treatment for syphilis and he got a Nobel prize for it.
Secondary sludge
A slimy mixture of bacteria-laden solids.
Flagship species
A species chosen to represent an environmental cause, such as an ecosystem in need of conservation.
Keystone species
A species that has a disproportionate effect on its environment relative to its biomass. This is crucial for conservation because if these species disappear then other organisms may become more common or rare.
Endangered species
A species that has a high probability of becoming endangered.
Extirpated species
A species that's no longer present in the wild in Canada.
Special concern species
A species that's particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events.
Parasitism
A symbiotic relationship in which one species (parasite) benefits at the expense of the other (host).
Commensalism
A symbolic relationship in which one species benefit and the other is neither harmed nor helped.
Ecotone
A transitional zone where communities meet, contains all or most of the ecological niches of the adjacent communities as well as some niches unique to the ecotone.
Ecotone
A transitional zone where communities meet, contains all or most of the ecological niches of the adjacent communities as well as some niches unique to the ecotone. Species richness following a latitudinal gradient (equator).
Polyculture
A type of intercropping in which several kinds of plants that mature at different times are planted together.
Micro irrigation
A type of irrigation that conserves water by piping it to crops through sealed systems.
Sediment pollution
A type of water pollution caused by the transportation of silt, clay, and sand particles into waterways. Too many chemicals like pesticides, metals, and minerals that are already absorbed on the surface of particulates area carried directly to aquatic systems.
Tertiary treatment
Advanced wastewater treatment methods that are sometimes employed after primary and secondary treatment.
Chronic toxicity
Adverse effects that occur after a long period of low-level exposure to a toxicant.
Acute toxicity
Adverse effects that occur within a short period after high-level exposure to a toxicant.
Seed tree cutting
Almost all the trees are harvested from an area, a scattering of desirable trees is left behind to provide seeds for the regeneration of the forest.
Nitrogen phosphorus loading
Also known as nutrient pollution, when there is too much nitrogen or phosphorites (nutrients) and are added to bodies of water, acting like a fertilizer causing excessive growth of algae.
Garret Hardin
An American ecologist and philosopher who warned of the dangers of overpopulation. Also known for Hardin's First Law of Human Ecology.
Species at Risk Act (SARA)
An act in Canada developed around 15 years ago to provide protection and recovery to animals at risk. This act requires government authorities to prevent Canadian species from becoming extinct, provides for the recovery of any species on the list, and encourages government to ensure other native species in Canada are prevented from becoming at risk.
Climate change and emissions reduction act
An act made in Manitoba to reduce carbon emissions reducing it by 20%, starting in 2008 and we're at around 8%
Pathogen
An agent (usually a microorganism) that causes disease.
Pathogen
An agent that causes disease (25% of diseases are caused by human-caused environmental changes), most bacteria don't cause disease, but the fecal coliform test is a reliable way to indicate the likely presence of pathogens in the water.
Dose
An amount of toxicant that enters the body of an exposed organism.
Mutualism
An association in which both organisms' benefit.
Limiting factor
An environmental factor (chemical element) that can prevent an organism's growth, distraction, or abundance (phosphorus and algae growth).
Limiting factor
An environmental factor that can prevent an organism's growth, distribution, or abundance. Sometimes it can be readily regenerated while others return slowly t9 be reused.
Ecosystem management
An evolving concept that recognizes the need to use ecological components in environmental decision making.
Eutrophication
An increase in the concentration of chemical nutrients in an ecosystem where the enrichment stimulates an increase in a photosynthetic productivity by plants and algae and alters the dynamics involving dissolved oxygen concentrations.
Theory
An integrated explanation of numerous hypothesis, each of which is supported by a large body of observations and experiments. It condenses and simplifies lots of data that might seem unrelated.
Symbiosis
An interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.
Antagonistic
An interaction in a chemical mixture that results in a smaller combined effect than expected (level 1 + level 1 = level 1.3).
Symbiosis
An intimate relationship or association between members of two or more species; including mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.
Indicator species
Any biological species that defines a characteristic of the environment. Chosen by using different criteria, the main three being keystone species, umbrella species, or flagship species. These categories make choosing conservation projects easier.
Carcinogen
Any substance (chemical, radiation, virus) that causes cancer.
Carcinogen
Any substance that causes cancer, tested by exposing the substances it laboratory animals to determine their rates of cancer.
Pesticide
Any toxic chemical used to kill pests.
Monocultures
Areas uniformly covered by one crop, like a field of corn (trees).
Precautionary principle
Argues that for making decisions about new technology or chemical product by assigning the burden of proof of its safety to the developers of that product.
Polar amplification
Arises through positive feedback where the climate forcing that indicated the process of sea ice retreat is reinforced by increased energy absorption.
Management
Attempting to achieve goals or objectives of an enterprise established
Denitrification (The Nitrogen Cycle)
Bacteria that converts nitrates into a nitrogen gas, living in anoxic environments (little to no oxygen).
Aldo Leopold
Best known for his book A Sand County Almanac who was an American author, philosopher, scientist, ecologist, forester, conversationalist, and environmentalist.
Secondary treatment
Biological treatment of waste water to decompose suspended organic material. Secondary treatment reduces the water's biochemical oxygen demand.
Terrestrial Biomes
Biomes that are located on land, rather than in water. An ecological community with a specific climate and certain plants and animals that live in it
Ecosystem
Biotic communities and their associated abiotic components that interact in a defined geographic area.
Pollution and human health
Breathing polluted air puts you at a higher risk for asthma and other respiratory diseases. When exposed to ground ozone for 6 to 7 hours, scientific evidence show that healthy people's lung function decreased, and they suffered from respiratory inflammation.
Federal Sustainable Development Act in 2008
Canada adopted the concept of Sustainable Development by passing. The government uses environmental indicators to measure the progress we have made in implementing and achieving sustainability. These environmental indicators include: air and climate; water; and nature.
Nitrogen fixation
Carried out by nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil and the aquatic environment. They split atmospheric nitrogen and combine the resulting nitrogen atoms with hydrogen under anoxic (no oxygen). (Rhizobium or cyanobacteria)
Umbrella species
Casts an 'umbrella' over the other species by being more or equally sensitive to habitat changes, usually having large homes that cover multiple habitat types.
Active management
Changing management action altogether to test new hypothesis.
Convective cell
Characterized by movement of air between high- and low-pressure regions, formation of clouds and precipitation.
Synergistic interaction
Chemicals combine to cause a multiplied/exponential increase in the toxicological properties (asbestos exposure and cancer risk increasing).
Antagonistic interaction
Chemicals that reduce the overall harmful effects (vitamin pills).
Toxicants
Chemicals with adverse effects.
Types of soil
Composition (mineral, air, water, and organic matter), texture (sand, silt, and clay), soil profile (O, A, B, C horizons), and soil community (diverse food web in soils offering numerous ecosystem services).
How can we help the environment
Consider the effects of our actions on everything, live within the limits of renewable resources, understand the costs to the environment of the products we consume, and share in the responsibility for environmental sustainability.
Consumer hierarchy
Consumers are described by their hierarchy, primary, secondary, or tertiary. Primary consumers are herbivores such as grasshoppers or deer. Secondary consumers eat primary consumers, and tertiary consumers eat secondary consumers. They're also known as carnivores. Omnivores eat a variety of organisms, plants and animals. Detritivores consume detritus, organic matter including animal carcasses and feces.
Invasive alien
Could also be an exotic species that were introduced and will compete out native species for available resources. They can cause ecological changes, economic losses, health concerns, and recreational losses.
Highly developed countries
Countries with complex industrialization bases, low rates of population growth, and high per person incomes (Canada, USA, most of Europe, 20%)
Less developed countries
Countries with low levels of industrialization, very high rates of population growth, very high infant mortality rates, and very low per person incomes compared to highly developed countries. (Bangladesh, Mali, Ethiopia) Because of this there's an abundant of cheap, unskilled labour, and hunger, disease, and illiteracy are common.
Moderately developed countries
Countries with medium levels of industrialization and per person incomes are lower than those of highly developed countries (Turkey, South Africa, and Thailand)
Limestone
Created during the geological carbon cycle with the continual deposition and burial of calcite sediment eventually forms sedimentary rock, limestone.
Pest control methods
Cultivation methods, biological controls, phenomes and hormones, reproductive controls, genetic controls, quarantine, and irradiating foods.
Monocultures
Cultivation of only one type of plant over a large area.
Lifestyle
DEF
Ocean convertor belt (thermohaline gradient)
Deep-water circulation of the oceans due to a temperature salinity gradient. The flow of sea water transports vast amounts of absorbed energy from the equator to higher latitudes. Solar input at the equator causes surface waters to evaporate leaving behind dissolved salts that increase the density of sea water which travels at great depths along the sea floor toward the equator where it rises to the surface to complete the cycle.
Natural organic pesticides
Derivatives from plants, nicotine form tobacco (insecticide) pyrethrum from daisy-like flowers (insecticide), and rotenone from topical shrubs (rodenticide and insecticide). Easily degraded by microorganism and do not persist, but highly toxic to bees.
Utilitarian conservation
Designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive, the philosophy that resources should be used for the greater good for the greatest number for the longest time.
Habitation fragments
Destruction of the world's wildlife habitats, isolating wildlife habitats, and crowded refuge.
Landscape structure
Determined by the composition, configuration, and proportion of various patches across a landscape based on their life cycles. An essential component of biodiversity conservation.
5 steps of implementing ecosystem management
Determining the geographic area and the stakeholders. Ecosystem structure, function, and management. Economic factors. Adaptive management over space. Lastly, long term adaptive management.
Organophosphates
Developed during WWll, Broad spectrum but not persistent (malathion and glyphosate), impacts non-target species, don't bio magnify can be extremely toxic and poisonous.
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
Developed in Scandinavia and they do unannounced visits to forestry operations to inspect how they're harvesting and sustaining the landscape.
Infectious
Disease causing organisms.
Convention on international trade in endangered species of wild flora and fauna (CITES)
Drawn up to protect endangered animals and plants considered valuable in the international wildlife trade.
Trophic level
Each level or link in the food chain. The first level has the largest amount of energy.
International movements (Earth day)
Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22. Worldwide, various events are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection.
Hydrosphere
Earth's supply of water, liquid or frozen, fresh or salty.
Cultural diversity
Earths variety of human communities, with its individual languages, traditions, and identities.
Browns five recommendations for sustainable living
Eliminate poverty and stabilize the human population, protect and restore Earth's resources, provide adequate food for all people, migrate climate change, and design sustainable cities.
The Canada Water Act
Enacted in 1970 and administered by Environment Canada, contains requirements to govern water quality, and an advisory committee was established to assist with the implementation of the act.
The first law of thermodynamics
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, although it can change from one form of another.
Cultural eutrophication
Enrichment of an aquatic ecosystem with nutrients such as ammonia and phosphorus from human activities such as agriculture, detergents, and discharge from sewage treatment plants.
Ecosystem goods and services
Environmental benefits, such as food, fibre, clean air, clean water, and fertile soil, provided by ecosystems.
Sustainable development
Environmentally sound decision that are economically viable, and socially equitable decisions.
European expansionism and frontierism
European settlement in North America; rapid exploitation of forests for timber; beavers for pelts. Loss of resources because of heavy demand and disregard for environment limits. Forest decline meant no lumber available for construction. Had to travel further to find resource.
Ecosystem goods and services
Examples of essential ecosystem goods: food, wood, water, oxygen, etc. Examples of ecosystem services are: water and air purification, crop pollination, fertile soils, etc.
EEC (hazard quotient)
Expected environmental concentration, determined from actual environmental samples or from models.
Organochlorines
Fat soluble and easily is absorbed across cell membranes, broad-spectrum, highly persistent, chronic poisoning with eldest in the top predator population displaying highest concentration (DDT and lindane). Long range transport, persistent and bio magnify affecting top predatory bird and mammals (Falcon eggs having thin shells).
Manitoba Provincial Parks Act
Focuses on conservation and ecosystem management.
Canadian National Parks Act
Focuses on ecological integrity, preservation, historical reference, and minimum viable population.
Kinetic energy
For example is when the string of the bow is let go, and the arrow goes flying. It's the energy of motion.
Invasive species
Foreign species that spread rapidly in a new area if free of predators, parasites, or resource limitations that may have controlled their population in their native habitat (zebra mussels - 5 billion dollars in damage each year).
Chemoautotrophs
Found deep in the oceans where sunlight is unavailable, they utilize the energy stored in the hydrogen sulfide to convert into sugars for metabolism.
Bovine tuberculosis
Found in Riding Mountain elk herd, a highly contagious bacterial infection found in the lymph nodes of ungulates species and can spread to other organisms as well. An ecosystem management plan for this would be to select representatives from the park and other government officials. Develop a management objective of being around the minimum viable population (MVP). Lastly, do research studies on them and track their movements.
Greenhouse effect
Gases in the troposphere intercept and absorb infrared radiation as it travels to outer space from the surface of the planet. Two factors are important in determining the radioactive impact of a greenhouse gas include the amount of gas emitted, the length of time the gas resides in the atmosphere (average residence time) and the specific properties.
Greenhouse gases
Gases that absorb infrared radiation, including water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and tropospheric ozone.
Broad spectrum pesticides
Have a significant ecotoxicological consequences and the potential to influence the diversity of species within the ecosystem.
Riparian zones
Heavily vegetated reaches that are adjacent to waterways (wetlands).
Diurnal (daily) oxygen cycle
Highs and lows in dissolved oxygen, which occur over a 24 hour period in a eutrophied water.
Adaptive ecosystem management
Holling and Walters, an approach to management that acknowledges uncertainty and the need for mangers to learn from system responses as they manage.
Biogeochemistry
How matter recycles in the environment, involving biotic actions that influence where matter resides, geological processes over different periods of times, and the chemical reactions that transform matter from one form to another.
Global warming potential (GWP)
How much a given mass of greenhouse gas contributes to global warming over a given time period compared with the same mass of carbon dioxide.
The Haber process
Human activities that have significantly influenced the nitrogen cycle through industrial processes. Converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, which was oxidized to create nitrates and nitrites, nitrogen-fixing bacteria was no longer needed. The largest source of fixed nitrogen is artificial fertilization. This excess of nitrogen ends up in the watersheds creating red tides or dead zones, creating new diseases, contaminated water, and atmospheric problems such as acid rain.
Alternative energies
Hydroelectric dams, solar energy, tidal, wind, geothermal, biodiesel and bioethanol, hydrogen gas, and nuclear energy.
Lethal dose: 50 percent (LD50)
If a dose is lethal to 50% of a population of test animals it's labelled a lethal dose (based on kg).
Poaching
Illegal commercial hunting.
Instream users
Includes hydroelectric power generation, shipping and transportation, and many recreational activities.
Secondary pollutants
Includes strong acids such as sulphur and nitric acids, particulates, tropospheric ozone, and other powerful oxidants Includes industrial (coal) or photochemical smog (gasoline combustion). This causes acid rain, reduces plant and tree productivity, cardiovascular and respiration illness.
Ecotoxicology
Includes toxicology but also considers the action of the toxic substances on ecosystem dynamics.
Immigration
Individuals enter a population and increase its size.
Emigration
Individuals leave a population and decrease its size.
Population
Individuals of the same species inhabiting a given area, part of a larger organization. There are features of populations that allow us to understand how they change over time: birth rates, death rates, population density, growth rates, and age structure.
Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP)
Is an indicator of the area of land used by humans but also the amount of biomass consumed.
Prime farmland
Land that has the soil type, growing conditions, and available water to produce food forage, fibre, and oilseed crops.
Rangelands
Land that's not intensively managed and used for grazing livestock.
Nomadic herding
Livestock is supported by land too arid for successful crop growth, they must continually move their crop to find food for them.
Characteristics of a population that are more vulnerable to become endangered
Longevity (longer life cycles), low reproductive rates, poor dispersers/ colonizers, colonial breeding habitat, seasonal concentrations, degree of specialization, usefulness, pollution, overexploitation, invasive species, climate change, habitat degradation, and restricted geographic range.
Ecological classification basis
Managing on an ecological basis transcends government and other administrative boundaries.
Selective cuttings
Mature trees are cut individually or in small clusters while the rest of the forest remains intact, allows the forest to regenerate naturally.
Minamata disease
Mercury positioning.
Decomposers
Microorganisms that break down dead organic material and use the decomposition products to supply themselves with energy.
Freshwater systems and ecosystem goods
Moderate water flow and migrate flood, dilute and remove pollutions, provide wildlife habitat, provide humans with drinking water, irrigation water, food, transportation, corridors, electricity, and recreation.
Dispersal
Movement from one region or country to another- affects local populations. This includes immigration and emigration.
Adaption to global climate changes
Moving inland away from dangers of a storm, planting forests, shelterbelts, reducing tillage, and creating efficient farming.
Biosphere reserve
Multiple land uses and various stakeholder interests were considered in an overall plan to manage resources while generally reducing potential for conflict. (In Riding Mountain National Park this includes core areas, corridors, and buffer zones for the elk).
Parks Canada
National parks and protected areas in Canada are managed federally by Parks Canada. Their primary goal is to protect the natural landscapes that occur in Canada's 30 national regions.
Fossil fuels
Natural gases, coal, or oil that's formed from the remains of ancient organisms, they are vast deposits of organic carbon compounds - the end products of photosynthesis which occurred millions of years ago.
Land degradation
Natural or human-induced processes that decrease the future ability of the land to support crops or livestock.
Natural resources
Naturally forming substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified or 'natural' form. Natural resources fall into three categories: perpetual, non-renewable, and renewable.
Perpetual
Never ending or changing, occurring repeatedly or so frequent as to seem endless and uninterrupted. (Solar, tidal, or wind energy)
Tropical dry forests
Occur in other tropical areas where annual precipitation is less but is still enough to support trees. In areas such as India, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Egypt, and Brazil.
Ammonification (The Nitrogen Cycle)
Occurs when organisms produce nitrogen-containing waste products such as urine. Releasing the nitrogen into the abiotic environment such as ammonia. These bacteria are called ammonifying bacteria. Decomposition by bacteria.
People overpopulation
Occurs when the environment is worsening because there are too many people, even if these people consume a few more resources per person.
Polar
One end of the molecule has a positive electrical charge and the other end has an negative electrical charge.
Environmental resistance
Organisms cannot reproduce because they're at their biotic potentials because the surrounding environment sets limits to further growths.
Nitrogen to phosphorus ratio
Organisms need a N:P ratio of 16:1
Endemic species
Organisms that are native to or confined to a particular region.
Heterotrophs / consumers
Organisms that can't make their own food and use the bodies of other organisms as a source of energy and bodybuilding materials.
Ecosystem engineers
Organisms with the ability to modify habitat, for example, Grizzly bears. They transfer salmon-derived nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus from the costal ecosystem to the forest by placing the salmon onto the land before eating it.
Enhanced/ cultural greenhouse effect
Our influence on greenhouse gases.
Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife in Canada (RENEW)
Over 100 recovery teams made up of government representatives and nongovernment researchers that develop recovery plans for many years, resulting of graduate student research.
Voluntary simplicity
People who recognize that a person's values and character define that individual more than how many things they own.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
Persistent toxicants that bioaccumulate in organisms and travel through air and water to contaminate sites far from the source. They're carbon-based molecules and often contain highly reactive chlorine that's harmful to human health and the environment.
The Phosphorus cycle
Phosphorus moves from land into living organisms, then from one organism to another, and then back into the lithosphere. In excess it contributes to rapid growth in plants and in low concentration causes limited primary producers. Phosphorus moves through aquatic communities and terrestrial communities. It enters the water as algae. Phosphorus is a limiting factor for algae growth and in high levels fuel algae populations to grow and become dominant.
Two major aquatic plant groups
Phytoplankton which is free floating microscopic algae and large rooted macrophytes that grow along the littoral edge of lakes. They can undergo photosynthesis is contingent on the supply of solar energy.
Drip / trickle irrigation
Pipes with tiny holes bored in them convey water directly to individual plants.
Assimilation (The Nitrogen Cycle)
Plants absorb ammonia or nitrate through their roots and convert the nitrogen into plant compounds such as proteins and nucleic acids.
Desalination
Plants that will draw water through intake pipes from the ocean and convert the sea water into drinking water.
Nonpoint source pollution (pollution runoff)
Pollutants that enter bodies of water over large areas rather than being concentrated at a single point of entry.
Trophic Cascade
Powerful indirect interactions that can control entire ecosystems, occurring when predators in a food web suppress the abundance or alter the behaviour of their prey.
Surface water
Precipitation that remains on the surface of the land and does not seep down through the soil (1% is useable to humans).
Germplasm
Preserving diverse variations of seeds, plants, and plant tissues of traditional crop varieties, and the sperm and eggs of traditional livestock seeds.
Tropical rainforests
Prevail in warm areas that receive 200 cm or more of precipitation annually. Found in Central and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, mainly in Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia.
Conservation easements
Prevents future urban development in some regions of the country because of urbanization changing the land use and destroying grassland ecoregions.
Combined sewer overflow
Prevents sewage backup into residential basements, the combined sanitary rainwater system includes a weir that diverts excessive sewage into the river and the combined sewer overflow.
Demand management
Promoted by the government to educate and motivate society to adopt sustainable strategies that reduce overall water consumption.
Coasts and ecosystem goods
Provide a buffer against storms, dilute and remove pollutions, provide wildlife habitat, provide humans with food harbours, and provide humans with food, harbours, transportation routes, and recreation.
Grasslands and ecosystem goods
Purify air and water, produce and maintain soil, absorb CO2, provide wildlife habitat, and provide humans with livestock and recreation.
Forests and ecosystem goods
Purify water and air, produce and maintain soil, absorb CO2, provide wildlife habitat, and provide humans with wood and recreation.
Wetlands, marshes, ground water and ecosystem goods
Purify water, provide flood and drought protection, provide important habitat for endangered waterfowl.
Wetland and waterfowl conservation
Recognizing the importance of waterfowl and wetlands to North Americans and the need for international cooperation to help in the recovery of a shared resource, the U.S. and Canadian governments developed a strategy to restore waterfowl populations through habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement.
Three common rules of water conservation
Reduce, retrofit, and repair.
Acid precipitation
Refers to extremely acidic compounds that originate primary through human activities and the combustion of fossil fuels. When reacting with water vapour (Water precipitation) or exposure to liquid water (dry precipitation) to form sulphuric and nitric acids.
Biomagnification
Refers to the movement of toxins through the food web.
Reservoirs
Regions where chemicals pool and reside for a period of time, found in the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and the lithosphere. Further described as sources (supplying chemicals) or sinks (receiving chemicals).
Biodiversity hotspots
Relatively small areas of land that contain an exceptional number of endemic species and that are at a high risk from human activities.
Photosynthesis by trees
Removes large quantities of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and fixes it into carbon compounds while releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere.
Watersheds/ Drainage basins
Represents the area where all surface water drains into the same river, lake, or ocean. Includes the Atlantic Ocean, Hudson's Bay, the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Renewable resources
Resources that are replaced by natural processes and that can be used forever, provided that they are not over exploited in the short term, 'potentially' renewable. Rapid population growth can cause renewable resources to be overexploited. Resources that maybe avaible in the future.
Consumption overpopulation
Results from the consumption-orientated lifestyles existing in highly developed countries, when a population consumes too large a share of resources.
Data
Scientists collect objective data, the information with which science works. Data is collected through observation, experimentation, and then analyzed or interpreted.
Epidemiologists
Scientists who investigate the outbreaks of both infectious and non-infectious diseases.
Autotrophs/ producers
Self feeders, green plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, that use the sun's radiation directly to produce their own food. An organism that manufactures large organic molecules from a simple inorganic substance.
Preservation
Setting aside undisturbed areas, maintaining them in a pristine state and protecting them from human activities.
Environmental hazard
Situations and events that pose threats to the surrounding environment.
Population ecologists
Study how a population responds to its environment, how individuals in a given population compete for food, other resources, and how predation, disease, and other environmental pressures affect that population.
Ecologists
Study the relationship between living things and their environment, often gathering data directly from the site.
Agricultural types
Subsistence nomadic activates, slash-and-burn and industrialized activities. These all affect water resources, air pollution, landscape alterations, loss of biodiversity and ends up turning into an agroecosystem.
12% challenge
The World Wildlife Fund issued this challenge to conserve a target representation of at least 12% of every ecosystem in the world.
Environmental sustainability
The ability to meet human's current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Realized niche
The actual space that an organism inhabits and the resources it can access as a result of limiting pressures from other species.
Relative humidity
The amount of moisture present in the atmosphere in relation to the amount the atmosphere can hold given the present temperature.
Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)
The amount of oxygen that microorganisms need in respiration to decompose biological wastes into carbon dioxide, water, and minerals. This increases when the high biomass of plants and algae die at the end of the summer season.
2 generalizations about the relationship between population growth and consumption of natural resources
The amount of resources essential to an individual is small but the rapid population growth tends to overwhelm and deplete a countries soils, forests, and other natural resources. Also, in highly developed nations, individual demands on natural resources are far greater than the requirements for mere survival.
Biota
The animal and plant life of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.
Flood plain
The area bordering a river channel that has the potential to flood, plant protected soil absorbs much of the excess water.
Climate
The average weather conditions that occur in a place over a period of years.
Photosynthesis
The biological process that captures solar energy and transforms it into the chemical energy of organic molecules, which are manufactured from carbon dioxide and water. Absorbing the radiant energy from the sun, converting it into chemical energy, that is contained in the bonds of sugar molecules.
Ecosystem
The biotic communities and their associated abiotic components that interact in a defined geographic area.
Population ecology
The branch of biology that deals with the number of individuals of a particular species found in an area and why those numbers increase or decrease over time.
Habitat fragmentation/ ecological islands
The breakup of large areas of a habitat into small, isolated patches (islands).
Habitat fragmentation
The breakup of large areas of habitat into small, isolated patches.
Ecology
The broadest field within biological sciences. The discipline of biology that studies the interrelationships between organisms and their environment, a basic tool of environmental science and studies. The study of interactions among organisms and between organism and their abiotic environment.
Bioaccumulation
The buildup of a persistent toxicant in an organism.
Energy
The capacity or ability to do work.
Energy
The capacity or ability to do work. Stored as potential or kinetic energy.
Edge effect
The change in species composition produced at ecotones.
Edge effect
The changes in species composition produced at ecotones.
Hormones
The chemical messengers that organisms produce to regulate their growth, reproduction and other important biological functions.
Macronutrients
The chemicals needed by all life in large quantities, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, etc.
Micronutrients
The chemicals needed in small quantities including boron, copper, iron, etc.
Experimental group
The chosen group in which the variable is altered in a known way.
Control group
The chosen group where the variable isn't altered.
The geological carbon cycle
The compound of the carbon cycle that interacts with the rock cycle in the process of weathering, volcanism, and precipitation and burial of minerals. Carbonic acid is formed when carbon dioxide combines with water, which reaches the lithosphere when it rains and reacts with minerals at the surface. This causes ions to dissolve in the rainwater through a process called weathering. This process forms limestone and the cycle continues until these minerals are drawn into the mantle of the earth by subduction. Carbon then is returned into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide during a volcanic eruption.
Food insecurity
The condition in which people live with chronic hunger and malnutrition, affecting more than 800 million people.
Predation
The consumption of one species (prey) by another (predator).
Weather
The current temperature and precipitation conditions for a location at a given point in time.
Hydrolytic cycle
The cycle of water from the ocean to the atmosphere through evaporation, to the land and back through precipitation in the form of rain, sleet, or hail. Transcription also takes place as the plants take up the water from roots in the soil and release it to the atmosphere through pores in the undersides of their leaves during photosynthesis. Pg 141-142.
Logistic growth
The decrease in growth rate when the population reaches a carrying capacity.
Effective dose: 50 percent (ED50)
The dose that causes 50% of the population to exhibit whatever response is done under study.
Extinction
The elimination of a species from earth.
Electromagnetic spectrum
The entire range of electromagnetic radiation including gamma, x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, microwave, and radio. These are absorbed by the stratosphere; Earth surfaces absorb portions of infrared radiation and ultra-violet as well as visible light. 2/3 of incoming solar radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere, land, and oceans. 1/3 of solar radiation is reflected back to space by clouds, atmospheric particles, snow, ice and the oceans (earth's energy budget).
Economic growth
The expansion in output of a nation's goals and services.
Albedo
The extent to which an object diffusely reflects light from the sun.
Variable
The factors that influence a process, it's necessary to hold all variables except for one in an experiment so that it's not misleading or confusing.
Population ecology
The field of study that's concerned with populations and how they react with their environment.
Aerosols
The fine particles that are suspended in the atmosphere that may contribute to a scattering effect on sunlight, enhancing reflections directly back into space and preventing this energy from reaching the surface of the earth. It also affects the atmosphere because it can modify the size of cloud particles, changing how the clouds reflect and absorb sunlight. Human made sulphate aerosols outweigh the naturally produced sources.
Atmospheric pressure
The force exerted by the column of air molecules located above a surface.
Energy budget
The gains and losses of solar radiation to Earth. When in equilibrium there are no changes in overall energy amount for the planet.
Energy budget
The gains and losses of solar radiation to Earth. When in equilibrium, there are no changes in overall energy amount for the planet, 1/3rd of the energy budget being reflected back to outer space and 2/3rds being absorbed by the earth's atmosphere.
Atmosphere
The gaseous envelope surrounding Earth composed primarily of nitrogen and oxygen. Other gases are found in trace amounts. The atmosphere is made up of 21% of oxygen, 78% of nitrogen, and carbon dioxide and the other trace gases (pollution) make up the last 1%. It's made up of four major concentric layers: the troposphere (distributes gases and energy around the planet and the formation of local and global climate regimes), stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere.
Genetic diversity
The genetic variety within all populations of a species, which is critical for long-term health and survival.
The Carbon Cycle
The global movement of carbon between the abiotic environment, including the atmosphere, oceans, and lithosphere. Carbon makes up approximately 0.04% of the atmosphere.
Salinization
The gradual accumulation of salt in soil, often as a result of improper irrigation methods.
Consumption
The human use of material and energy.
Radioactive forcing
The imbalance in Earth's energy budget that results when either the gains through energy absorbed or losses through the amount of energy radiated to outer space is changed through either natural or human influences. Positive forcing results in a warming influence and negative forcing leads to a cooling influence. Changes in the Earth's rotation may alter the distribution of radiation over the planet's surface that may lead to the occurrence of glaciation periods.
Radiative forcing
The imbalance in Earth's energy budget that results when either the gains through energy absorbed or losses through the amount of energy radiated to outer space is changed through either natural or human influences. Positive forcing results in a warning influence and negative forcing leads to a cooling influence.
Biological magnification
The increase in toxicant concentration as a toxicant pass through successive levels of the food chain. Persistent toxins move through soil, water, and air.
Biological magnification
The increase in toxicant concentrations as a toxicant pass through successive levels of the food chain (mercury).
Competition
The interaction among organisms that vie for the same resources in an ecosystem (food or living space). Divided into intraspecific and interspecific competition.
Environmental science and environmental studies
The interdisciplinary fields of humanity's relationship with other organisms and the physical environment. Environmental science relies more heavily on the scientific method. Environmental studies deals more with social issues, which often are value-laden. But both "science" and "Studies" deal with the all encompasses and interdisciplinary aspects of the environment. These are newly developed fields of investigation.
Carrying capacity (K)
The largest population that can be sustained over the long term given that there are no changes in the environment.
Biosphere
The layer of Earth that contains all living organisms.
Persistence
The length of time tat a chemical or toxin resides in the environment. A substance may be extremely stable and may take many years to break down into a less toxic form (DDT).
Realized niche
The lifestyle an organism actually peruses and the resources it actually uses.
Biotic
The living environment, which includes all organisms.
Habitat
The local environment in which an organism lives.
Water table
The location underground where saturated water meets unsaturated water.
Grasshopper effect
The long range of transport of contaminants.
Threshold level
The maximum dose that has no measurable effect, lower than threshold doses are assumed to be safe.
Carrying capacity
The maximum population that can be sustained by a given environment or by the world as a whole.
Biotic potential
The maximum rate at which a population could increase under ideal conditions. Factors that affect this are the lifespan or reproduction, the number of reproduction periods, and the number of offspring (also known as life history characteristics).
Entropy
The measure of disorder, quality, or randomness of usable energy. Organized, usable energy has low entropy and disorganized energy such as heat has high entropy.
Secondary carbon footprint
The measure of the indirect carbon emissions from the entire lifecycle of the produce we use.
Primary carbon footprint
The measure of your direct emissions of carbon dioxide by your activities and lifestyle.
Migration (climate change management)
The moderation or postponement of global climate change through measure that can buy us time to further our understanding of global climate change ad pursue more permanent solutions.
Species dominance
The most abundant species in a community.
Runoff
The movement of fresh water from precipitation and snowmelt to rivers, lakes, wetlands, and the ocean.
Salt water intrusion
The movement of sea water into a freshwater aquifer near the coast when the water table drops due to withdrawal rates that exceed groundwater recharge.
Abiotic
The non-living environment, which includes physical factors such as living space, temperature, sunlight, soil, etc.
Loss of biodiversity
The number and variety of Earth's organisms.
Crude death/ birth rate
The number of deaths or births per 1000 individuals.
Species richness
The number of different species in a community, less rich on islands and richer on a latitudinal gradient.
Population density
The number of individuals within a population per unit area. A higher density means it'll be easier to find mates and group together but there's more competition if there's too little food or space.
The three most important facts in determining environmental impact
The number of people, the affluence (consumption) per person, the environmental effects of technology, also known as the IPAT equation. I = PxAxT, but we don't know all the environmental impacts of particular technology such as vehicles.
Pollution
The overuse of sinks (waste products).
Resource degradation
The overuse of sources (raw materials).
Shrub layer
The part of the forest that is closer to the ground where shady conditions dominate.
Forest floor
The part of the forest that is rich with decomposers and the soil community.
Canopy layer
The part of the forest with leaves and branches that capture solar energy to drive photosynthesis.
Energy flow
The passage of energy in a one-way direction through an ecosystem.
Exponential population growth
The population growth that occurs when environmental resources are not limited and there is a constant rate of reproduction. With exponential growth, the birth rate alone controls how fast (or slow) the population grows.
Fundamental niche
The potential, idealized ecological niche of an organism.
Values
The principles that an individual or society considers important or worthwhile and are in constant flux over one's lifetime.
Risk
The probability of harm (disease, injury, death, or environmental damge) occurring under certain circumstances.
Risk
The probability of harm occurring under certain circumstances.
Risk management
The process of identifying, assessing, and reducing risks.
Genetic resistance
The prolonged use of a a particular pesticide that can cause a pest population to develop to the pesticide.
Exponential growth
The rate in which growth is more rapid in proportion to the growing number or size. Snow geese study in ducks unlimited video in peril
Growth rate
The rate of change increase or decrease of a population's size, which is typically expressed in percentage per year.
Resource partitioning
The reduction in competition for environmental resources such as food among coexisting species as a result of the niche of each species differing from the niches of others in more than one way.
Second growth/ secondary growth forests
The regeneration of tree species that occurs after a natural disturbance. They have less biodiversity than old-growth forests because there's fewer layers.
Species evenness
The relative number of species present in a community.
Shelter wood cutting
The removal of all mature trees in an area over an extended period of time.
Aquifer depletion
The removal of groundwater faster than it can be recharged by precipitation or melting snow.
Water consumption
The removal of water for human use without any return of water to its original source, agricultural crop irrigation being the largest consumptive use of water.
Water withdrawals
The removal of water from a source such as lake or river where a portion of this water is returned to the source and its viable to be used again.
Environmental justice
The right of every citizen to adequate protection from environmental hazards.
Competition
The rivalry between or among living things for territory, resources, goods, mates, etc. A basis of ecological niches (how an organism(s) responds to the distribution of resources and competitors.
Silviculture
The science of forest and harvest management; selective and clear cutting.
Conservation
The sensible and careful management of natural resources.
Food chains / food webs
The series of feeding relationships
Lithosphere
The soil and rock of the Earth's crust.
Primary sludge
The solid material that settles out after primary treatment.
Ecosystem management approach
The stakeholders and the ecosystem area, ecosystem, structure, function, and management, economic issues, adoptive management over space, and adaptive management over time.
Thermodynamics
The study of energy and its transformations made up of two laws. Energy cannot be created or destroyed but transformed (photosynthesis), and transformations are rather inefficient as energy moves from one form to another there is a tremendous loss that's not directed to useful work. When animals eat plants only 10% of the energy is used and the other 90% is lost as thermal energy.
Economics
The study of how people use their limited resources to try and stratify their unlimited needs.
Invasion biology
The study of human-mediated introduction of organisms to areas outside their natural range.
Ecology
The study of the interaction among organisms and between organisms and their abiotic environment.
Landscape ecology
The study of the relationship between spatial patterns and ecological processes on a number of different landscape scales and organizational levels.
Toxicology
The study of toxicant chemicals that have adverse effects on health.
Toxicology
The study of toxicants, chemicals with adverse effects on health.
Groundwater
The supply of fresh water under Earth's surface that is stored in underground aquifers, the majority of it being a non-renewable resource.
Biocapacity
The supply or availability of nature and represents the biologically productive area available to provide goods and services, influenced by out activities.
Deforestation
The temporary or permanent clearance of large expanses of forest for agriculture, mining, or other uses. It destroys biological habitats and increases soil erosion. Due to agricultural expansion but also economic, social, and governmental policies.
Biomass
The total amount of organic matter (or fixed energy) measured at a point in time. NPP = B2 - B1 (Biomass measured at time interval 1 and 2). It can also be measured by carbon isotopes.
Ecological niche
The totality of an organism's adaptations, its use of resources, and the lifestyle to which it is fitted. Every organism is thought to have its own role or its own ecological niche. An ecological niche is hard to define precisely because it must take all the aspects of an organism into account. This includes what an organism eats, competes with, and how abiotic components interact and influence it.
Long range transport
The transporting of air and contaminants In the atmosphere toward the poles through the circulation of convective cells
Response
The type of damage that exposure to a particular does causes. It may cause death (lethal dose) or harm but not death (sublethal dose).
Sustainable forestry
The use and management of forest ecosystems in an environmentally balanced and enduring way. The art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests and woodlands to meet the diverse needs and values of landowners and society on a sustainable basis. Includes economic, social, and environmental.
Sustainable consumption
The use of goods and services in a way that satisfies basic human needs and improves the quality of life but also minimizes resource use and preserves resources for the use of future generations. (Developing countries need to increase consumption)
Risk assessment
The use of statistical methods to quantify risks so they can be compared and contrasted.
Risk assessment
The use of statistical methods to quantify the risks of an action so they can be compared with other risks using hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization.
Biological diversity (biodiversity)
The variety of life in all forms, at all levels, and in all combinations in a defined area. It can be considered at the level of genes, species, populations, communities, ecosystems, and landscapes. The area is defined by humans and can vary in size from something as large as Earth to a puddle in your backyard.
Biogeochemical cycles
The various cycles that move matter from one part of an ecosystem to another. They include the carbon, hydrologic, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles.
Annual allowable cut (AAC)
The volume of trees to be logged from a given area in a year.
Scientific method
The way a scientist approaches a problem, by formulating a hypothesis and then testing it.
Sustainable water use
The wise use of water resources without harming the essential functioning of the hydrologic cycle.
The Nitrogen Cycle
There are five steps to the cycle, nitrogen fixation (combustion or biological), nitrification (nitrifying bacteria), assimilation, ammonification, and denitrification. Through these steps, nitrogen gas is transformed into ammonia and nitrates that form the biologically available sources to plants. The atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen gas.
Pathways
They facilitate the movement of chemicals from the source to sink reservoirs.
Prevailing winds
Three different types in the atmosphere. The Coriolis effect is the direction of winds deflected east or west over different parts of the Earth. Polar easterlies are winds from the north east or the south east. Lastly, westerlies are winds that blow in from the middle latitudes from the southwest in the northern hemisphere or from the northwest in the southern hemisphere.
TBC
Toxicological benchmark concentration, determined from toxicity data acquired through dose response studies.
Narrow spectrum pesticides
Toxins made to only kill the undesirable organisms (pesticides).
Water soluble
Toxins that easily dissolve in water but are unable to cross the cell membrane of biota.
Substance agriculture
Traditional agricultural methods, which depend on labour and a large amount of land to produce enough food to feed oneself and one's family.
Primary treatment
Treatment of waste water that involves removing suspended and floating particles by mechanical processes.
Traditional forest management
Trees that aren't commercially desired are thinned out or removed and often results in low-diversity forests.
Aquifers
Underground reservoirs of permeable rock from which groundwater can be extracted. Includes unconfined and confined aquifers.
Ecologists
Understanding how ecosystems function.
Additivity
Used to assign risk to mixtures, they add the known effects of each compound in the mixture. The effect is exactly what you'd expect.
Administrative biases
Useful to define the geographic area, but... def?
Passive management
Uses modelling to forecast information that may guide future management decisions.
Green revolution
Using modern cultivation methods and the high-yield varieties of certain stable crops to produce more food per acre of cropland.
Air pollution
Various chemicals (gases, liquids or particulates) present in the atmosphere in high enough concentrations to harm humans, ecosystems, or materials.
Hormesis
Very small doses of toxins with beneficial health responses in a population.
Sewage (pollution)
Waste water from drains or sewers, including human wastes, soaps, detergents, and inorganic nutrients.
Environmental effects of industrialized agriculture
Water issues (pollution runoff, groundwater depletion, pollution from animal wastes), air pollution (pesticide sprays, greenhouse gasses, odour from livestock), land degradation (soil erosion, loss of soil fertility, waterlogged), and loss of biological diversity (habitat fragmentation, monocultures, stressors from pesticides).
Point source pollution
Water pollution that can be traced to a specific spot.
Irrigation water
Water that contains small amounts of dissolved salts.
Confined aquifers
Water that's between two impermeable layers or confining beds that restrict movement and the water is under high pressure.
Carbon management
Ways to separate and capture the CO2 produced during the combustion of fossil fuels and then sequester (store) it.
Rachael Carson
Well known for her writings on environmental pollution and the natural history of the sea.
Upland and riparian buffer zone management
Well-developed riparian area comprising the vegetation along banks, shores, and the uplands farther away from these a waterway. The buffers act as natural filters for both surface and groundwater.
Feedback loops
What causes ecosystem to undergo change.
Fundamental niche
When a organism's niche is in the absence of compeition form another species.
Potential energy
When energy has the potential to do something. For example, loading a bow and pulling the string back, but not shooting it.
The second law of thermodynamics
When energy is converted from one form to another some of it is degraded into heat, a less useable form that disperses into the environment.
Combustion
When organic molecules in wood coal, oil, and natural oil are burned, accompanying releases of heat, light, and carbon dioxide.
Ecosystem services
When organisms and the natural environment provide protection of watersheds, soils, fertile agriculture lands, climate stabilization, and maintenance of habitats.
Conservation tilling
When residues from previous crops are left in the soil, partially covering it and helping to hold topsoil in place.
Recharge zone
When soil is becoming more porous to permit water to move into the air pockets between particles and must allow for easy drainage. Airspaces must be unsaturated and not filled with water (vadose zone).
Desertification
When soil is exposed to runoff and erosion which reduces the productivity of the food web and contributes to the loss of species in the region.
Hydrogen bond
When the negative side of the water molecule is attracted to the positive side.
Respiration
When the stored potential energy in glucose is released through the opposite reaction in which oxygen is reacted with glucose to form carbon dioxide and water.
Effluent stream
When the water table is at a higher elevation than the bottom of the river, water will flow from the ground into the river. The river will continue to receive groundwater.
Influent stream
When there is unsaturated space between the river bottom and the water table so the water flows into the ground and rely on surface runoff.
Unconfined aquifers
Where groundwater seeps through an unsaturated zone until it reaches the water table. The ground is saturated, and the groundwater collects in reservoirs.
Endocrine disrupters
Widely used industrial and agricultural chemicals that interfere with the normal actions of the endocrine system (body's hormones) in humans and animals.
Dirty 30's and drought
a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent the aeolian processes (wind erosion)
Slash
and-burn agriculture - A type of shifting cultivation that involves clearing small patches of tropical forest to plant crops, because tropical soils lose their productivity quickly when they're cultivated and end up moving areas every three years or so.
Slash
and-burn agriculture - Subsistence farmers follow loggers' access roads until they find a suitable spot, cut down the trees and allow them to dry, burn the area and plant crops immediately after.
Multi
cropping - Growing more than one crop per year when possible to increase the productivity of agricultural land, but care must be taken to prevent soil infertility.
Clear
cutting - A logging practice I which all the trees in a stand of forest are cut, leaving just the stumps.
Buffering
def
Dissolved oxygen (DO)
def. Affects fish because there's not enough DO to support them and in the winter the solar rays are blocked by the thick layer of ice.
Temperature pollution
def. It can have the effect of removing needed DO from water and causing biota to suffocate in the process.
Co
evolution - The interdependent evolution of two interacting species, resulting in symbiosis (flowering plants evolving to make it easier for bees and bees and their fuzz)
Blue
green algae - Has a competitive advantage because they can rapidly uptake phosphorus as well as obtain ammonia through nitrogen fixation of atmospheric nitrogen gas but might also reach toxic levels over the growing season.
Old
growth forests - Forests that have been around for years with unique biological and structural features, in Manitoba considered to be 100 years old but in BC 500-1000-year-old trees are considered old growth trees.
Industrialized agriculture (high
input) - Modern agricultural methods, which require a large capital input and less land and labour than traditional methods.
Utilitarian expansionist worldview
is anthropocentric or human-centred and utilitarian. This worldview is associated with the belief that the environment is available for the exploitation and extraction of resources for economic growth and prosperity. Environmental concerns and management are focused on human interests and resource development.
Brundtland Commission
more formally known as the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), issued the report Our Common Future in 1987, which called on Humanity to control overpopulation, eradicate poverty and reduce resource consumption to promote environmental sustainability. The report outlined that sustainable development must encompass 3 pillars, which should all be weighted equivalently in decision-making: the needs of society and human well-being; economic evaluation; the context of environmental limitations and constraints.
Oil
or-fat-soluble toxins - Usually organic compounds containing carbon and hydrogen, nonpolar, which means they can penetrate through cell membranes.
Utilitarian conservation
philosophy that resources should be used for the greater good for the greatest number for the longest time.
Long
range transport of air pollutants (LRTAP) -The transport of atmospheric pollutants within a moving air mass for a distance over 100 km. This is due to atmospheric wind and ocean currents, where the Artic regions is particularly vulnerable.
United Nations general assembly
realized that there was extreme depletion and destruction of the Earth's environment and resources and established the Brundtland Commission in an effort to bring nations together to discuss and commit to sustainable development strategies.
Non
renewable resources - Natural resources that are present in limited supplied and are depleted as they are used (Aluminum, tin, oil, etc.). We might be able to find a way to renew these sources if we are able to slow down the population growth.
Dose
response curve - A graph in toxicology that shows the effects of different doses on a population of test organisms.
Dose
response curve - A graph that shows the effect of different doses on a population of test organisms.
World views
shared values that help us make sense of the world. Two extreme worldviews from an environmental perspective are the utilitarian or expansionist worldview and deep ecology.
Critical load
soil def
Narrow
spectrum pesticide - The ideal pesticide that only kills the intended organism and doesn't harm any other species.
Broad
spectrum pesticides - Pesticides that don't degrade readily or break down into compounds that are dangerous.
Environment
the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates. The natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity.
DDT (dichlorobiphenyl
trichloroethane) - A pesticides that has an effect on many bird species and their tissues. They'd would lay eggs and the shells would be so fragile they'd break and kill the chicks.
deep ecology or biocentric worldview
will strive for harmony with nature, a spiritual respect for life, and a belief that all species have an equal worth on Earth. People will find they fall somewhere in between these two extreme worldviews.