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PSSA Unit 12
Ecology PSSA Terms
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Biotechnology Engineering | The application of biotechnology to design processes, products and structures that improve the quality of life. |
Consumer | Those organisms that obtain energy by feeding on other organisms and their remains. |
Decomposer | An organism, often microscopic in size, that obtains nutrients by consuming dead organic matter, thereby making nutrients accessible to other organisms; examples of decomposers include fungi, scavengers, rodents and other animals. |
Engineering | The application of scientific, physical, mechanical and mathematical principles to design processes, products and structures that improve the quality of life |
Ergonomical | Of or relating to the design of equipment or devices to fit the human body’s control, position, movement and environment. |
Hazardous Waste | A solid that, because of its quantity or concentration or its physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, may cause or pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly managed. |
Incinerating | Burning to ashes; reducing to ashes. |
Nonpoint Source Polution | Contamination that originates from many locations that all discharge into a location (e.g., a lake, stream, land area). |
Point Source Pollution | Pollutants discharged from a single identifiable location (e.g., pipes, ditches, channels, sewers, tunnels, containers of various types). |
Risk Management | A strategy developed to reduce or control the chance of harm or loss to one’s health or life; the process of identifying, evaluating, selecting and implementing actions to reduce risk to human health and to ecosystems. |
Waste Stream | The flow of (waste) materials from generation, collection and separation to disposal. |