Geo: Chapter 13 - : Human Impact on the Environment

Ecology

The scientific study of how living creatures affect one another and what determines their distribution and abundance. 

Biosphere

The thin film of air, water, and earth within which we live, including the atmosphere, surrounding and subsurface waters, and the upper reaches of the earth’s crust.

Food chain

A sequence of organisms through which energy and materials move within an ecosystem.

Channelization

The modification of a stream channel; specifically, the straightening of meanders or dredging of the stream channel to deepen it. 

Ozone

A gas molecule consiting of three atoms of oxygen formed when diatomic oxygen is exposed to ultraviolet radiation. In the lower atmosphere, it constitutes a damaging component of photochemical smog; in the upper atmosphere, it forms a normally continuous, thin layer that blocks ultraviolet light.

Eutrophication

The enrichment of a water body by the addition of nutrients received through erosion from the soil surface and transpiration from plants.