| Term | Definition |
|---|
| agriculture | the practice of farming |
| monoculture | farming strategy in which large fields are planted with a single crop, year after year |
| green revolution | the development of highly productive crop strains and the use of modern agricultural techniques to increase yields of food crops |
| renewable resource | resource that can regenerate quickly and that is replaceable |
| nonrenewable resource | resource that cannot be replenished by natural processes |
| sustainable development | using natural resources at a rate that does not deplete them |
| soil erosion | wearing away of surface soil by water and wind |
| desertification | in areas with dry climates, a process caused by a combination of poor farming practices, overgrazing, and drought that turns productive land into desert |
| deforestation | destruction of forests |
| aquaculture | the raising of aquatic organisms for human consumption |
| smog | mixture of chemicals that occurs as a gray-brown haze in the atmosphere |
| pollutant | harmful material that can enter the biosphere through the land, air, or water |
| acid rain | rain containing nitric and sulfuric acids |
| biodiversity | biological diversity; the sum total of the variety of organisms in the biosphere |
| ecosystem diversity | variety of habitats, living communities, and ecological processes in the living world |
| species diversity | number of different species in the biosphere |
| genetic diversity | sum total of all the different forms of genetic information carried by all organisms living on Earth today |
| extinction | disappearance of a species from all parts of its geographical range |
| endangered species | species whose population size is rapidly declining and will become extinct if the trend continues |
| habitat fragmentation | splitting of ecosystems into small fragments |
| biological magnification | increasing concentration of a harmful substance in organisms at higher trophic levels in a food chain or food web |
| invasive species | plants and animals that have migrated to places where they are not native |
| conservation | wise management of natural resources, including the preservation of habitats and wildlife |
| ozone layer | atmospheric layer in which ozone gas is relatively concentrated |
| global warming | increase in the average temperatures on Earth |
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