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Chapter 5
vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Biodiversity | Number of different species living in a specific area |
| ecosystem | biological community and all the nonliving factors that affect it |
| extinction | the disappearance of a species when the last of its members die. |
| Genetic Diversity | variety of inheritable characteristics or genes in an interbreeding population |
| Species Diversity | in a biological community the number and abundance of different species |
| Background Extinction | gradual process of a species becoming extinct |
| Biological Magnification | increasing concentration of toxic substances such as DDT in organisms as tropic levels increase |
| Edge Effect | any different environmental condition occurring along an ecosystems boundaries |
| Eutrophication | water pollution from nitrogen rich and phosphorous rich substances flowing into waterways causing algal growth |
| Habitat Fragmentation | habitat loss from separation of an ecosystem into small pieces of land |
| Introduced Species | nonnative species deliberately or accidentally introduced into s new habitat |
| Mass Extinction | a large scale dying out of a large percentage of all living organisms in an area within a short time |
| Natural Resource | any material or organism in the biosphere including water, soil, fuel, and planets and animals |
| Overexploitation | overuse of species with economic value a factor in species extinction |
| Biological Augmentation | technique of adding essential materials to a degraded ecosystem |
| Bioremediation | technique using living organisms to detoxify a polluted area |
| Endemic | found only in one species geographic area |
| Nonrenewable Resource | resources that wants there gone you can not get no more |
| Renewable Resource | resources you can get or make you never run out of |
| sustainable | use of resources at a rate that they can be replaced |