Quiz 2 Vocab

Natural Capital

The world’s stocks of natural assets, which include geology, soil, air, water, and all living organisms.

Provisioning Services

The products obtained directly from ecosystem, including food, fresh water, timber, fiber, genetic resources and medicine

Regulating Services

Climate regulation, flood control, disease control, and water purification maintain environmental conditions favorable to life

Supporting Services

Nutrient cycling, soil formation, and pollination, essential for sustaining ecosystem productivity

Cultural Services

Encompass nonmaterial benefits human obtain from ecosystems, such as recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, spiritual enrichment, and cultural heritage

Point Source Pollution

Easily identifiable locations such as factories, sewage treatment plants, and landfills

Non Point Source Pollution

Diffuse, including agricultural runoff, urban stormwater, road salts, and animal feed-lot runoff.

Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF, 2022)

established concrete measures to address biodiversity loss. GBF targets include protecting at least 30% of global land and marine ecosystems by 2030, restoring degraded ecosystems and reducing areas of biodiversity importance loss to near zero. These targets represent vital steps toward sustain-ability, emphasizing biodiversity as essential for natural resource preservation and overall environmental health

DSM Minerals

Cobalt, nickel, manganese, and copper → essential for electric vehicles, solar panels, and storage batteries

Polymetallic Nodules

Potato-shaped, rock-like mineral concretions that rest unattached on the deep ocean floor

Clarion-Clipperton Zone

The proposed extraction of potato-sized mineral deposits called polymetallic nodules from the floor of the Pacific Ocean

Sediment Plumes

clouds of suspended particles—such as silt, clay, and organic matter—moving through water, caused by natural processes like river discharges or human activities like deep-sea mining and coastal dredging

Salt Marsh

Coastal wetlands that are regularly flooded and drained by tidal saltwater. They form in sheltered areas between land and open water. Act as natural barriers, significantly reducing wave energy and storm surges → prevents coastal erosion and protects the inland

Mangroves

Salt-tolerant trees and shrubs that grow in tropical and subtropical intertidal coastal zones where land meets the sea. Act as natural buffers for coastlines, protecting them from extreme weather events like hurricanes, tsunamis, and reducing flooding and shoreline damage

Wetlands

Encompassing marshes, swamps, and peatlands → provides extensive ecosystem services → filters pollutants improving water quality, absorbs excess nutrients and contaminants, reducing pollution levels in rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. Release water during dry periods, preventing floods and maintaining groundwater recharge.

Thin Layer Placement (TLP)

involves strategically placing sediment onto degraded marshlands. This approach aims to elevate marsh surfaces, counteracting sea-level rise and enhancing resilience to climate-related impacts.

Sand Mining

The extraction of sand from beaches, riverbeds, inland dunes, and ocean beds

Global Equity

refers to the fair distribution and consumption of natural resources—such as water, fossil fuels, minerals, and forests—across different regions and communities. It encompasses who has access to these resources, who benefits from their use, and who bears the environmental costs