ENSC 201- Final Exam (Chap 10, 11, 12, 14, 15)

Arable land

Land that can be plowed and can produce crops.

Permanent cropland

Land where crops do not require annual replanting.

Permanent Pastures

Land used primarily for grazing livestock.

Prevalence of undernourishment

The proportion of a population that experiences insufficient dietary energy intake to meet their basic nutritional needs.

Food insecurity

Lack of physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

Demitarians

Someone who aims to halve the amount of meat in their regular diet.

Monoculture cropping

The cultivation of one plant species over a large area, which leaves the crop highly susceptible to disease and insects, especially when all the individual plants are genetically identical.

Green Revolution

The development in plant genetics (hybridization) in the 1950s and 1960s resulting in high-yield varieties producing 3-5 times more grain than previous plants but requiring intensive irrigation and fertilizer use.

Hybridization

The crossbreeding of two varieties of plants or animals.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOS)

An organism created by humans through genetic manipulation combining genes from different and often unrelated species to create a different organism that is economically more productive and/or has greater resistance to pathogens.

Biocides

A chemical that kills many different kinds of living things.

Subsistence farming

The production of food and other necessities to satisfy the needs of the farm household.

Virtual water

A concept recognizing that because significant amounts of water are required to grow some foodstuffs, nation can reduce pressure on their water resources by importing such products, allowing use of water for other, higher-value products.

Irrigation

The artificial application of water to soil or land to supplement precipitation and assist in the growth of crops and vegetation.

Biofuels

Solid, liquid, or gas fuel derived from relatively recently dead biological material and distinguished from fossil fuels, which are derived from long-dead biological material.

Livestock Revolution

The shift in production units from family farms to factory feedlots that depend on outside supplies of feed, energy, and other inputs to produce vastly more livestock, a shift that has fueled that growth in meat consumption worldwide, which has doubled since 1977.

Cover Crops

Crops planted during the off-season to prevent erosion, suppress weeds, and enhance soil health and water retention.

Crop Diversification

Shift away from monocultures toward crop rotation and perennial cropping.

No-till or reduced tillage

Zero, minimum, low tillage to protect and stimulate the biological functioning of the soil while maintaining and improving crop yields, which includes direct sowing or drilling of seeds instead of plowing maintenance of permanent cover of plant material on the soil, and crop rotation.

Biochar

Created through pyrolysis of biomass, a type of charcoal used to enhance soil. In addition to sequestering carbon, it increases food security and soil biodiversity.

Recalcitrant

The fraction of organic carbon that is relatively resistant to decomposition by micro-organisms, and therefore tends to decompose at very slow rates, and in absence of more labile sources of organic carbon.

Alley cropping

An agroforestry practice that involves planting rows of trees or shrubs alongside or between rows of agricultural crops.

Shelterbelts

Rows of annual or perennial trees and shrubs that have traditionally served as windbreaks but more recently have been observed to sequester carbon in soils and in both above and below ground biomass.

Riparian Tree Planting

The practice of increasing trees and other vegetation along water bodies to improve water quality, stabilize stream banks, and protect wildlife habitat.

Silvopasture

The integration of trees with paturelands simultaneously managed for livestock, grazing, forage, and tree crops.

Soil Erosion

A natural process whereby soil is removed from its place of formation by gravitational, water, and wind processes.

Soil compaction

The compression of soil as a result of frequent heavy machinery use on wet soils or the overstocking of cattle on the land.

Salinization

The deposition of salts in irrigated soils, making soil unfit for most crops; caused by a rising water table due to inadequate drainage of irrigated soils.

Summer Fallow

A practice, common on the Prairies, in which land is plowed and kept bare to minimize moisture losses through evapotranspiration but leads to increased salinization.

DDT (diclorodiphenyltrichloroethane)

An organochlorine insecticide used first to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes and lice and later to control a variety of insect pests but now banned in Canada because of its persistence in the environment and ability to bio accumulate.

Bioaccumulation

The storage of chemicals in an organism in higher concentrations than are normally found in the environment.

Persistent Organic pollutants (POPS)

Chemical substances that persist in the environment.

Biomagnification

The buildup of chemical elements or substances in organisms in successively higher trophic levels.

Grasshopper Effect

Atmospheric transport and deposition of persistent and volatile chemical pollutants whereby the pollutants evaporate into the air in warmer climates and travel in the atmosphere toward cooler areas, condensing out again when the temperature drops. The cycle then repeats itself in a series of “hops” until the pollutants reach climates where they can no longer evaporate.

Bioconcentration

The combined effect of bio accumulation and bio magnification.

Synergism

An interaction between two substances that produces a greater effect than the effect of either one alone; an interaction between two relatively harmless components in the environment.

Intensive livestock operations (ILOS)

Factory farms, feedlots, etc., where large quantities of external energy inputs are required to raise for market larger numbers of animals than the area in which they are raised can support, which can result in problems of disease and dealing with animal waste.

No-till/conservation agriculture (NT/CA)

Zero, minimum, or low tillage to protect and stimulate the biological functioning of the soil while maintaining and improving crop yields, which includes direct sowing or drilling of seeds instead of plowing, maintenance of permanent cover of plant material on the soil, and crop rotation.

Integrated pest management (IPM)

The avoidance or reduction of yield losses caused by diseases, weeds, insects, etc. while minimizing the negative impacts of chemical pest control.

Integrated plant nutrient systems (IPNSS)

Interrelated set of methods of maximizing efficiency of nutrient use by recycling all plant nutrient sources within the farm and by using nitrogen fixation by legumes.

Crop Rotation

The practice of alternating crops in fields to help restore soil fertility and also control pests.

Three Sisters

Corn, Squash, and beans that were traditionally grown together by the Indigenous peoples of North America.

Crop Mixing

Growing two or more crops in a single plot.

Crop Rotation

The practice of alternating crops in fields to help restore soil fertility and also control pests.

Organic farming

An agriculture production management system that focuses on food web relations and element cycling to maximize agro-ecosystem stability and to promote and enhance ecosystem health. It is based on minimizing the use of external inputs.

Green Manure

A planted crop that is plowed into the soil as fertilizer.

Regenerative agriculture

A farming approach focused on rehabilitating and enhancing soil and ecosystem health while simultaneously producing food.

Climate-smart agriculture

Approaches that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon, while also incorporating food security and climate adaptation considerations.

Food miles

The distance food must travel from point of production to consumption.

Locavore

Someone who eats locally produced food.

Permaculture

Agricultural designs, such as urban farming and organic farming, based on ecological relationships with the fundamental principle of minimizing wasted energy and with the wastes of one component becoming the inputs for another.

Wetlands

An area that is a hybrid aquatic and terrestrial system, such as swamps or marshes, where the ground is saturated with water much or all of the time.

Renewable Water Supply

Water supply based on precipitation that falls, then runs off into rivers, often being held in lakes before draining to the ocean or moving downward into aquifers. The flows associated with precipitation or snowmelt should be identified as the renewable supply.

Diversions

The movement of water from one water system to another in order to enhance water security, reduce flood vulnerability, or generate hydroelectricity.

Megaprojects

A large-scale engineering or resource development project that costs at least 1 billion and takes several years to complete.

Estuary

A coastal region, such as an inlet or the mouth of a river, where salt water and fresh water mix.

International Joint Commision (JJC)

A bilateral institution, consisting of three Canadian commissioners and three American commissioners, established by the 1909 boundary Waters Treaty to manage inter jurisdictional resource issues between Canada and the United States.

Leaking underground storage tanks (LUST)

A tank that can contaminate aquifers.

Residence time

The average period that a substance remains in the atmosphere.

E.Coli

a bacterium present in fecal matter that can get into a water supply and pollute it.

Multi-barrier Approach