| Term | Definition |
| biodiversity | the variety of all liffe |
| pollution | is the increase of harmful substances or energy into air, soil and water |
| Eutrophication | a process in which a body of water no longer has enough oxygen available to support the species that live there |
| deforestation | the removal of tress in a forest for lumber |
| renewable resources | a resource that can be relatively rapidly replaced |
| resource depletion | when resources are removed faster than they can be replaced |
| nonarenewable resource | a resource that cannot be replaced by nature as fast as it is being consumed |
| global warming | climate change that is caused by the releaseof carbong dioxide into the atmospher |
| pesticides | chemicals designed to kill pest animals |
| carbon oxygen cycle | the continual process of transferring carbon between the earth's living things and earth's geological elements |
| nitrogen cycle | the pathway for the movement of the nitrogen among earth's organisms, water, rocks and minerals and the atmosphere |
| phosphorus cycle | the pathway for the movement of the phosphorus among earth's organisms, water, rocks and minerals and the atmosphere |
| water cycle | hydrologic cycle that refers to the continuous movement of water between earth organisms, atmosphere and surface |
| transpiration | the process by which plants give off water to the atmopshere |
| evaporation | the process by which a liquid is turned into a gas |
| condensation | the process by which a gas is turned into a liquid |
| precitpitatio | the process by which the atmosphere returns gaseous water vapor to the surface in the form or rain, snow, and sleet |