APES Unit 5

The Tragedy of the Commons

The tendency of a shared, limited resource to become depleted as people act from self-interest for short-term gain from overuse.

Clear-Cutting

Removing all or almost all the trees within an area and is the easiest and most economical method. May reduce biodiversity and can cause wind and water erosion on slopes.

Selective Cutting

Removes single or small numbers of trees in a given area. Allows for reseeding and younger trees planted but can only specifically target shade-tolerant species.

Impact of Fire Suppression

Suppressed fires can often lead to an accumulation of dead biomass, which built up until fire was inevitable.

Prescribed Burns

Fires set under controlled conditions that help reduce risky fires and recycle biomass, avoiding build-up.

Famine

The condition in which food insecurity is so extreme that large numbers of deaths occur over a relatively short period.

Irrigation

A way of supplying water to an area of land. Negative consequences include waterlogging and salinization.

Waterlogging

A form of soil degradation that occurs when soil remains under water for prolonged periods.

Salinization

Accumulation of salts in soil that can eventually make the soil unable to support plant growth.

Organic Fertilizers

Organic material from plants and animals, typically manure.

Synthetic Fertilizers

Fertilizers that are manufactured using chemical processes and fossil fuels.

Pesticides

Substances, either natural or synthetic, that kill or control organisms that people consider pests.

Pesticide Resistance

A trait possessed by certain individuals that are exposed to a pesticide and survive.

Monocropping

Utilizing large plantings of a single species that is encouraged by mechanization and use of synthetic fertilizer, but can cause erosion.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Organisms that posses an isolated gene from another organism that was transferred to that organism.

No-Till Agriculture

A plowing technique that minimally disturbs the soil, thereby reducing soil loss.

Intercropping

Growing two or more different crops at the same time on a plot.

Contour Plowing

Plowing fields along the curves of a slope to prevent soil loss.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

An agricultural practice that uses a variety of techniques designed to minimize pesticide inputs.

CAFO

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation

crop rotation

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.

Desertification

the gradual transformation of habitable land into desert

drip irrigation

the practice of using small pipes that slowly drip water just above ground to conserve water to use for crops

Runoff

water that flows over the ground surface rather than soaking into the ground