Chapter 10 Vocabulary - Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity

Chapter 10 Vocabulary - Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity (Miller Lite, 17th Edition)

Ancient Forest

  • Definition: See old-growth forest.

Applied Ecology6

  • Definition: See reconciliation ecology.

Biodiversity Hotspot

  • Definition: An area especially rich in plant species that are found nowhere else and are in great danger of extinction.

  • Significance: Areas suffer serious ecological disruption, primarily due to rapid human population growth and the resulting pressures on natural resources.

Clear-Cutting

  • Definition: Method of timber harvesting in which all trees in a forested area are removed in a single cutting.

  • Comparison: Compare selective cutting, strip cutting.

Commercial Forest

  • Definition: See tree plantation.

Controlled Burning

  • Definition: Deliberately set, carefully controlled surface fires that reduce flammable litter and decrease the chances of damaging crown fires.

  • Comparison: See ground fire, surface fire.

Crop Rotation

  • Definition: Planting a field, or a part of a field, with different crops from year to year to reduce soil nutrient depletion.

  • Example:
       - Year 1: Plant corn, tobacco, or cotton (which remove large amounts of nitrogen from the soil).
       - Year 2: Plant a legume such as soybeans (which add nitrogen to the soil).

Crown Fire

  • Definition: Extremely hot forest fire that burns ground vegetation and treetops.

  • Comparison: Compare controlled burning, ground fire, surface fire.

Debt-for-Nature Swap

  • Definition: Agreement in which a certain amount of foreign debt is canceled in exchange for local currency investments that will improve natural resource management or protect certain areas in the debtor country from environmentally harmful development.

Deforestation

  • Definition: Removal of trees from a forested area.

Ecological Restoration

  • Definition: Deliberate alteration of a degraded habitat or ecosystem to restore as much of its ecological structure and function as possible.

Ground Fire

  • Definition: Fire that burns decayed leaves or peat deep below the ground’s surface.

  • Comparison: Compare crown fire, surface fire.

Old-Growth Forest

  • Definition: Virgin and old, second-growth forests containing trees that are often hundreds—sometimes thousands—of years old.

  • Examples:
       - Douglas fir
       - Western hemlock
       - Giant sequoia
       - Coastal redwoods in the western United States.

  • Comparison: Compare second-growth forest, tree plantation.

Overgrazing

  • Definition: Destruction of vegetation when too many grazing animals feed too long on a specific area of pasture or rangeland, exceeding the carrying capacity of a rangeland or pasture area.

Pasture

  • Definition: Managed grassland or enclosed meadow that is usually planted with domesticated grasses or other forage to be grazed by livestock.

  • Comparison: Compare feedlot.

Rangeland

  • Definition: Land that supplies forage or vegetation (grasses, grasslike plants, and shrubs) for grazing and browsing animals and is not intensively managed.

  • Comparison: Compare feedlot, pasture.

Reconciliation Ecology

  • Definition: Science of inventing, establishing, and maintaining habitats to conserve species diversity in places where people live, work, or play.

Reforestation

  • Definition: Renewal of trees and other types of vegetation on land where trees have been removed.

  • Methods:
      - Natural: Seeds from nearby trees.
      - Artificial: Planting seeds or seedlings.

Riparian Zone

  • Definition: A thin strip or patch of vegetation that surrounds streams.

  • Significance: These zones are vital habitats and resources for wildlife.

Second-Growth Forest

  • Definition: Stands of trees resulting from secondary ecological succession.

  • Comparison: Compare old-growth forest, tree farm.

Selective Cutting

  • Definition: Cutting of intermediate-aged, mature, or diseased trees in an uneven-aged forest stand, either singly or in small groups.

  • Purpose: This method encourages the growth of younger trees and maintains an uneven-aged stand.

  • Comparison: Compare clear-cutting, strip cutting.

Strip-Cutting

  • Definition: Variation of clear-cutting where a strip of trees is clear-cut along the contour of the land.

  • Details: The corridor is narrow enough to allow natural regeneration within a few years. After regeneration, another strip is cut above the first, and so on.

  • Comparison: Compare clear-cutting, selective cutting.

Surface Fire

  • Definition: Forest fire that burns only undergrowth and leaf litter on the forest floor.

  • Comparison: Compare crown fire, ground fire.

  • See also: Controlled burning.

Terrestrial

  • Definition: Pertaining to land.

  • Comparison: Compare aquatic.

Tree Farm

  • Definition: See tree plantation.

Tree Plantation

  • Definition: Site planted with one or only a few tree species in an even-aged stand.

  • Harvesting: When the stand matures, it is usually harvested by clear-cutting and then replanted.

  • Purpose: These farms typically raise rapidly growing tree species for fuelwood, timber, or pulpwood.

  • Comparison: Compare old-growth forest, second-growth forest.

Wilderness

  • Definition: Area where the earth and its ecosystems have not been seriously disturbed by humans, and where humans are only temporary visitors.