Tragedy of the Commons/Clear-cutting
This is the name for a land that is dominated by woody plants and sometimes used for logging
Forest
On of the key points of the Green Revolution was widespread this, which decreased the need for labor while increasing production. However, use of these new tools also meant increased energy consumption, pollution, and soil compaction.
Mechanization
This practice increases the amount of nutrients in the topsoil by mixing it up.
Plowing/Tilling
These are large, underground stores of water enclosed by rock or sediment, and are vital to providing farms with irrigation.
Aquifers
In order to meet the demand for meat, agriculture companies use these, sometimes called feedlots, to produce huge numbers of animals quickly and on the cheap.
CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations)
Tragedy of the Commons occurs when a group pulls limited resources from a shared pool that is not this.
Regulated
Irrigation has a few issues. It can waterlog the soil if not allowed to properly drain, or cause this problem, in which dissolved salts in the water accumulate in the soil.
Salinization
Farmers in areas with poor soil may resort to this practice, in which natural habitats are destroyed and the land is farmed until resources are drained.
Slash-and-Burn/Shifting Agriculture
The pesticide treadmill describes the cycle in which pests become increasingly more this, forcing pesticides to the increase in strength.
Pesticide Resistance
Manure Lagoons
A cost or benefit that is not directly accounted for when making a purchase is called this.
Externality
Subsistence Farming
Because tilling is not a natural process, it leaves soil vulnerable to this problem.
Erosion
If a well or pump is drawing water, it can create this in the water table, preventing other nearby wells from accessing it.
Cone of Depression
As animals overgraze specific regions, those regions may lose the ability to grow back in this process, which affects large parts of Africa, Australia, and the Southwest United States.
Selective Cutting
A key tactic of mass production agriculture is growing exclusively one type or variety of plant, also called this.
Monocropping
Plowing allows the topmost soil to be nourished by nutrients from this horizon level.
A Horizon
One method to reduce the use of pesticides is this practice, shortened to IPM, which includes tactics like manual removal of pests, crop rotation, and growing pest resistant species.
Integrated Pest Management
An alternative to feedlots is this livestock method, which takes up more space and time, but reduces the chance of pollution and the need for antibiotics and growth hormones.
Free-range Grazing
Areas that are clear-cut are vulnerable to lower oxygen levels in water and have increases in this ecological concern, which can hinder future plant growth.
Soil/nutrient erosion
One of the new issues after the Green Revolution is the measurement of this. Farming cattle, for example, takes much more energy to produce than the food it provides contains.
Energy Subsidy
Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium
This is the type of irrigation that is most efficient at retaining water, but also requires technology and equipment to lay hoses and pump water.
Drip Irrigation
If a mackerel fishing boat accidently snags a dolphin in one of its nets, that dolphin is an example of this consequence of mass fishing operations.
Bycatch