Ecology 111 Final Flashcards

Acidification

The increased acidic content of waters, notably the world’s oceans, making the concentration of available carbonate ions too low for marine calcifiers, such as coral reefs, molluscs, crustaceans, and some algae, to build their shells and skeletons.

Anoxic

A condition in which there is very little to no dissolved oxygen content in the water column, usually defined as concentrations less than 0.5 mg/L; a more severe condition compared to hypoxic water conditions.

Aquaculture

Seafood farming, the fastest-growing food production sector in the world.

Bottom Trawling

One of the most destructive means of fishing in which heavy nets are dragged along the sea floor, scooping up everything in their path.

Bycatch

Non-target organisms caught or captured in the course of catching a target species, as in fisheries; estimates suggest that 25 per cent of the world’s fish catch is dumped because it is not the right species or size.

Carbon Balance

A balance between the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and bicarbonate in the water.

Coral Bleaching

The death of corals caused by water temperatures becoming too warm.

Coral Polyps

Individual biotic members of a coral reef.

Ecotourism

Visits to view natural areas or species that contribute to conservation of the environment and involve an explicit educational component.

Endocrine Disruption

The interference of normal bodily processes such as sex, metabolism, and growth by chemicals in such products as soaps and detergents that are released into an ecosystem, as happens among aquatic species, often causing feminization.

Exclusive Economic Zones

The area off the coast of a nation that is claimed by that nation for its sole responsibility and exploitation, as permitted by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Exploitation Rate

The proportion of the total stock that is taken at harvest.

Fishing Down The Food Chain

Harvesting at progressively lower trophic levels as higher trophic levels become depleted.

Hypoxic

A condition in which the dissolved oxygen content in the water column is so low that it can no longer support living aquatic organisms, usually defined as concentrations less than 2 or 3 mg/L.

Illegal Fisheries

Fisheries that are not included in most catch statistics.

Incentive Based

Describes inducements encouraging compliance with desired management actions.

Longline

A type of commercial fishing using lines with many baited hooks.

Marine Protected Areas

An underwater reserve set aside and protected from normal human exploitation because of the fragility, rarity, or valued biodiversity of its ecosystem.

Prey Switching

A familiar foraging behaviour whereby a predator shifts from its target species that has been depleted or is not available in an area to the next most preferred or profitable species until that, too, is depleted. This process continues down the food chain. Example are wolves switching from caribou to Arctic hare to small rodents, and humans fishing down the food chain in commercial fisheries.

Serial Depletion

One stock after another becoming progressively depleted as a result of prey switching, even if the total catch remains the same.

Shifting Baseline

A situation that occurs when scientists have no other option than to take the current or recent degraded state as the baseline for stock biomass rather than the historical ecological abundance.

Thermocline

A sharp transition in temperature between the warmer surface waters of the ocean and the cooler waters underneath, generally occurring at a depth of 120 to 240 metres.

Thermohaline Circulation

The movement of carbon-saturated water around the globe, mainly as a result of differing water densities.

Total Allowable Catch

The amount, in tonnage, of a particular aquatic species that the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, for example, determines can be landed within a particular fishery in a given year.

Zooxanthellae

Unicellular algae.

Aboriginal Rights

Collective and inherent rights to practices, customs, or traditions that are integral to the culture of the group claiming the right; in Canada they apply to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.

Annual Allowable Cut

The amount of timber that is allowed to be cut annually from a specified area.

Biocides

A chemical that kills many different kinds of living things; also called pesticide.

Biodiversity

The variety of life forms that inhabit the Earth. Biodiversity includes the genetic diversity among members of a population or species as well as the diversity of species and ecosystems.

Boreal Forest

One of the largest forest belts in the world, extending all across North America and Eurasia, encompassing roughly a third of the Earth’s forest land and 14 per cent of the world’s forest biomass and separating the treeless tundra regions to the north from the temperate deciduous forests or grasslands to the south.

Carbon Sequestration

Using reforestation, afforestation, or specific agricultural crops to ameliorate carbon dioxide loadings in the atmosphere because trees and shrubs use the excess CO2.

Certification

The confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person, or organization; for example, various forestry programs certify that wood products have come from sustainably managed forests.

Chain of Custody

Describes procedures for verification of compliance with sustainable practices from product origin through to the final product, as with wood products from the forest to Home Depot.

Clear Cutting

A forest harvesting technique in which an entire stand of trees is felled and removed.

Complete Tree Harvesting

The harvesting of all of the above- and below-ground biomass of a tree.

Culmination Age

The age of economic maturity of a tree crop, which varies widely but usually falls within the 60- to 120-year range in Canada.

Deforestation

The permanent conversion of forests to other land uses, such as agriculture or urban areas.

Duty to Consult

A legal obligation that must be fulfilled by a government prior to taking actions or making decisions that may have consequences for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Eco Colonialism

The act of developed nations trying to influence the internal policies and activities of lesser developed countries, ostensibly for environmental reasons.

Ecological Forestry

A silvicultural approach that mimics natural processes more closely through emphasizing long-term site productivity by maintaining ecological diversity.

Ecosystem Based Management

A holistic management approach that takes into account the entire ecosystem and emphasizes biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, as opposed to focusing primarily or solely on one or more resources, such as water or timber, within an ecosystem.

Ecosystem Services

The contribution of ecosystems to human well-being.

Falldown Effect

The lower volume of harvestable timber at the culmination age for second growth on sites where old-growth forest was previously harvested.

Full Tree Harvesting

Timber-cutting in which trees are felled and transported to roadside with branches and top intact.

Intact Forest Landscapes

Landscapes large enough to retain native biodiversity and contain no signs of fragmentation.

Leaching

The downward movement of dissolved nutrients to the hydrological system.

Long Range Sustained Yield

The yield for an area that is equal to the culmination of mean annual increment weighted by area for all productive and utilizable forest land types in that area; what a given unit of land, such as a forest, should yield in perpetuity.

Non Timber Forest Products

A forest resource of economic value but not related to the lumber and pulp and paper industries, such as wild rice, mushrooms and berries, maple syrup, edible nuts, furs and hides, medicines, and ornamental cuttings.

Nutrient Capital

The amount of nutrients within a particular nutrient reservoir.

Old Growth Forests

A forest that generally has a significant number of huge, long-lived trees; many large standing dead trees; numerous logs lying about the forest floor; and multiple layers of canopy created by the crowns of trees of various ages and species.

Pheromones

A volatile compound, or “scent,” used by insects of a given species to communicate with each other.

Reclamation

The process of bringing an area back to a useful, good condition—similar to rehabilitation.

Second Growth

A second forest that develops after harvest of the original forest.

Silviculutre

The practice of directing the establishment, composition, growth, and quality of forest stands through a variety of activities, including harvesting, reforestation, and site preparation.

Treaty Rights

Rights held by First Nations based on the terms of a historic or modern treaty agreement with the Canadian government.

Tree Length Harvesting

Felling, delimbing, and topping the trees in the cut-over area.

Windthrow

The uprooting and blowing down of trees by wind.

Wood Supply

The amount of wood that a given unit of land, such as a forest, should yield in perpetuity.

Arable Land

Land that can be plowed and can produce crops.

Bioaccumulation

Biocides

A chemical that kills many different kinds of living things; also called pesticide.

Bioconcentration

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.

Biomagnification

Contour Cultivation

Crop Rotation

DDT

Demitarian

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

Food Miles

Food Security

GMOs

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

Grasshopper Effect

Green Manure

Green Revolution

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

Hybridization

The crossbreeding of two varieties or species of plants or animals.

Integrated Pest Management

Integrated Plant Nutrient Systems

Intensive Livestock Operations

Livestock Revolution

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

Locavore

Monoculture Cropping

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

No Till/Conservation Agriculture

Organic Farming

Permaculture

Permanent Cropland

Land where crops (e.g., coffee, tea, fruit) do not require annual replanting.

Permanent Pastures

Land used primarily for grazing livestock.

Persistent Organic Pollutants

Salinization

Soil Compaction

Soil Erosion

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

Strip Cropping

Subsistence Farming

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

Summer Fallow

Synergism

Virtual Water

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