AP Environmental Science - Chapter 1 - Vocabulary 1-10

Biocapacity

The ability of an ecosystem to produce renewable resources and absorb human waste

Natural capital

The combination of natural resources plus ecosystem services

Natural income

plants, animals, clean water and clean air that we can sustainably use without shrinking our capital

Solar energy

The earths primary power source. Provides warmth and photosynthesis

Biodiversity

The variety of life. Gives ecosystems the genetic and species flexibility to adapt when the environment changes

Chemical or nutrient cycling

The waste of any organism becomes nutrients for another

Full cost pricing

Including hidden environmental and health costs directly into the price of a product

Win-win solution

Developing policies that benefit both human economies and the environment

Natural resources

Physical materials or energy from nature that are essential to humans

Ecosystem services

Free natural tasks done by healthy ecosystems to keep us alive

Inexhaustible resource

A resource that has a continuous, permanent supply that humans cannot run out of

Renewable resource

A resource that nature can replenish rapidly

Nonrenewable resource

A resource that exists in a fixed, finite amount in the earths crust