Download Chapter Sixteen Vocabulary

Chapter Sixteen Vocabulary
16.1
nonrenewable resource: natural resource that is used more quickly than it can be formed.
renewable resource: resource that replenishes itself quickly enough so that it will not be used faster than
it can be produced.
ecological footprint: amount of land necessary to produce and maintain enough food, water, shelter,
energy, and waste.
16.2
pollution: anything that is added to the environment and has a negative effect on the environment or its
organisms.
smog: air pollution in which gases released from burning fossil fuels form a fog when they react with
sunlight.
particulate: microscopic bits of dust, metal, and unburned fuel produced by industrial processes.
acid rain: precipitation produced when pollutants in the atmosphere cause the pH of rain to decrease.
greenhouse effect: normal warming effect produced when gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane,
trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere.
global warming: worldwide trend of increasing average temperatures.
16.3
indicator species: species whose presence in an ecosystem gives clues about the condition of that
ecosystem.
biomagnification: condition of toxic substances being more concentrated in tissues of organisms higher
up on the food chain than the ones lower in the food chain.
16.4
habitat fragmentation: process by which part of an organism’s preferred habitat range becomes
inaccessible.
introduced species: species that is not native and was brought to an area as a result of human activities.
16.5
sustainable development: practice of not using natural resources more quickly than they can be
replenished.
umbrella species: species whose being protected under the Endangered Species Act leads to the
preservation of its habitat and all the other organisms in its community.