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Subsistence farming
Farming for consumption by the farming family and maybe a few neighbors.
Reserve
In resource management, the known quantity of a resource that can be economically recovered.
Nonpersistent pesticides
Pesticide that breaks down relatively rapidly, usually in weeks or months, and have fewer long-term effects but because they must be applied more often their overall environmental impact is not always lower than that of persistent pesticides.
Water footprint
Total daily per capita use of fresh water for a country or the world.
Tragedy of the commons
The tendency of a shared, limited resource to become depleted if it is not regulated in some way.
Pesticide resistance
A trait possessed by certain individuals that are exposed to a pesticide and survive.
Furrow irrigation
A form of irrigation where the farmer digs trenches, or furrows, along the crop rows, and fills them with water.
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Bycatch
The unintentional catch of nontarget species while fishing.
Strip cropping
An agricultural method of planting crops with different spacing and rooting characteristics in alternating sets of rows to prevent soil erosion.
Persistent pesticides
A pesticide that remains in the environment for years to decades.
Limestone
A calcium carbonated sedimentary rock that has been ground up or crushed for easy application as fertilizer.
Flood irrigation
A form of irrigation where an entire field is flooded with water.
Exurbs
An area similar to a suburb, but unconnected to any central city or densely populated area.
Groundwater recharge
The process by which water from precipitation percolates through the soil into groundwater.
Crop rotation
A crop-planting strategy in which different types of crop species are planted from season to season or year to year on the same plot of land.
Crustal abundance
The average concentration of an element in Earth’s crust.
Agroforestry
An agricultural technique in which trees and vegetables are intercropped.
Slash-and-burn agriculture (Shifting agriculture)
An agricultural method in which land is cleared and farmed for only a few years until the soil is depleted of nutrients.
Selective pesticide (Narrow-spectrum pesticide)
A pesticide that targets a narrow range of organisms.
Industrial agriculture (Agribusiness)
Agriculture that applies the techniques of mechanization and standardization to the production of food.
Waterlogging
A form of soil degradation that occurs when soil remains under water for prolonged periods.
Concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO)
A large indoor or outdoor structure designed for maximum occupancy of animals and maximum output of meat.
Strip mining
The removal of overlying vegetation and “strips” of soil and rock to expose underlying ore.
Subsurface mining
Mining techniques used when the desired resource is more than 100 m (328 feet) below the surface of Earth.
Windbreaks
An agricultural technique that literally plants tall objects that “break” the wind and prevent soil erosion.
Delaney Clause
A clause in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act designed to prevent potentially harmful cancer-causing food ingredients.
Fishery
A commercially harvestable population of fish within a particular ecological region.
Nomadic grazing
The feeding of herds of animals by moving them to seasonally productive feeding grounds, often over long distances.
Rotational grazing
The rotation of farm animals to different pastures and fields to prevent overgrazing.
Forest
Land dominated by trees and other woody vegetation and sometimes used for commercial logging.
Cone of depression
An area surrounding a well that does not contain groundwater.
Economies of scale
The observation that average costs of production fall as output increases.
Spray irrigation
A form of irrigation where water is pumped into an apparatus that contains a series of spray nozzles.
Anthropogenic
Derived from human activities.
Salinization
A form of soil degradation that occurs when the small amount of salts in irrigation water becomes highly concentrated on the soil surface through evaporation.
Energy subsidy
The fossil fuel energy and human energy input per calorie of food produced.
Externality
The cost or benefit of a good or service that is not included in the purchase price of that good or service or otherwise accounted for.
Free range grazing
Allowing animals to graze outdoors on grass for most or all of their lifecycle.
Sustainability
Living on Earth in a way that allows humans to use its resources without depriving future generations of those resources.
Ecological footprint
A measure of the area of land and water an individual, population, or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to process the waste it generates.
Sustainable development
Development that balances current human well-being and economic advancement with resource management for the benefit of future generations.
Intercropping
An agricultural technique that calls for physical spacing of different crops growing at the same time, in close proximity to one another, to promote biological interaction.
Prescribed burn
When a fire is deliberately set under controlled conditions, thereby decreasing the accumulation of dead biomass on the forest floor.
Monocropping
An agricultural method that utilizes large plantings of a single species or variety.
Sustainable agriculture
Fulfills the need for food and fiber while enhancing the quality of the soil, minimizing the use of nonrenewable resources, and allowing economic viability for the farmer.
Fishery collapse
The decline of a fish population by 90 percent or more.
Clear-cutting
A method of harvesting trees that involves removing all or almost all of the trees within an area.
Manure lagoon
Human-made pond lined with rubber built to handle large quantities of manure produced by livestock.
Broad-spectrum pesticide
A pesticide that kills many different types of pest.
Water table
The uppermost level at which the groundwater in a given area fully saturates the rock or soil.
Impervious surface
Pavement or other surfaces that do not allow water penetration.
Artesian well
A well created by drilling a hole into a confined aquifer.
Endangered Species Act
A 1973 U.S. law designed to protect plant and animal species that are threatened with extinction, and the habitats that support those species.
Environmental indicators
Describe the current state of an environmental system or the Earth.
Urban area
An area that contains more than 385 people per square kilometer (1,000 people per square mile).
Mountaintop removal
A mining technique in which the entire top of a mountain is removed with explosives.
Soil conservation
The prevention of soil erosion while simultaneously increasing soil depth and increasing the nutrient content and organic matter content of the soil.
Open-pit mining
A mining technique that creates a large visible pit or hole in the ground.
Insecticide
A pesticide that targets species of insects and other invertebrates that consume crops.
Urbanization
The process of making an area more urban, which means increasing the density of people per unit area of land.
Fungicide
A pesticide that specifically targets fungi (the plural of fungus).
Urban blight
The lack of support for and deterioration of urban communities.
Green manure
Plant material deliberately grown in a field with the intention of plowing it under at the end of the season.
Urban sprawl
Urbanized areas that spread into rural areas.
Reforestation
The natural or intentional restocking of trees after clear-cutting to repopulate the forest reduce erosion, and begin the process of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Rodenticide
A pesticide that specifically targets rodents.
Overgrazing
Excessive grazing that can reduce or remove vegetation and erode and compact the soil.
Maximum sustainable yield (MSY)
The largest quality of a renewable resource that can be harvested indefinitely.
Contour plowing
Plowing and harvesting parallel to the topographic contours of the land.
Ore
A concentrated accumulation of minerals from which economically valuable materials can be extracted.
Saltwater intrusion
An infiltration of salt water in an area where groundwater pressure has been reduced as a result of a cone of depression from extensive pumping of wells.
Green Revolution
A shift in agricultural practices in the twentieth century that included new management techniques, mechanization, fertilization, irrigation, and improved crop varieties, that resulted in increased food output.
Confined aquifer
Surrounded by a layer of impermeable rock or clay, which impedes water flow to or from the aquifer.
Plowing
The process of digging deep into the soil and turning it over.
Sustainable forestry
A methodology for managing forests so they provide wood while also providing clean water, maximum biodiversity, and maximum carbon sequestration in both trees and soil.
Biocontrol
A shortened term for biological control, it uses biological organism to control agricultural pests.
No-till agriculture
An agricultural method used in fields of annual crops where farmers do not till or plow the soil between seasons.
Selective cutting
The method of harvesting trees that involves the removal of single trees or a relatively small number of trees from the larger forest.
Spring
Water that naturally percolates up to the surface.
Placer mining
The process of looking for minerals, metals, and precious stones in river sediments.
Terracing
An agricultural technique where farms shape sloping land into step-like terraces that are flat.
Tilling
The preparation of soil through a variety of activities including plowing but also including stirring, digging, and cultivating.
Carbon footprint
A measure of the total carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emissions from the activities, both direct and indirect, of a person, country, or other entity.
Aquifer
Pore spaces found within permeable layers of rock and sediment underneath the soil that store groundwater.
Unconfined aquifer
Porous rock covered by soil.
Mine tailings
Unwanted waste material created during mining; chemical compounds and rock residues that are left behind after the desired metal or ore is removed.
Integrated pest management (IPM)
An agricultural practice that uses a variety of techniques designed to minimize pesticide inputs.
Metal
An element with properties that allow it to conduct electricity and heat energy and to perform other important functions.
Perennial plants
Plants that live for multiple years and do not need to be replanted at the beginning of each growing season.
Synthetic fertilizer (Inorganic fertilizer)
Fertilizer produced commercially, normally with the use of fossil fuels.
Urban runoff
Runoff, water that does not evapotranspire or infiltrate the soil, that occurs in an urban area.
Sense of place
The feeling that an area has a distinct and meaningful character.
Ecologically sustainable forestry
An approach to removing trees from forests in ways that do not unduly affect the viability of other noncommercial tree species.
Rangelands
Dry, open grassland primarily used for grazing cattle.
Pesticide
A substance, either natural or synthetic, that kills or controls organisms that people consider pests.
Organic fertilizer
Fertilizer composed of organic matter from plants and animals.
Drip irrigation
A form of irrigation where a slowly dripping hose on the ground or buried beneath the soil delivers water directly to the plant roots.
Organic agriculture
The production of crops in a way that sustains or improves the soil, without the use of synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.
Herbicide
A pesticide that targets plant species that compete with crops.
Natural predators
Predators that occur naturally in the environment.
Tree plantation
A large area typically planted with a single fast growing tree species.
Desertification
Transformation of arable, productive low precipitation land to desert or unproductive land due to climate change or destructive land use such as overgrazing and logging.
Suburbs
Areas that surround metropolitan centers.