Threats to Biodiversity
Modification of Earth's climate associated with Greenhouse gases emissions.
What is Climate Change?
The 16 billion dollar industry that raises the most concern about habitat destruction.
What is logging?
An air pollutant directly from human activity.
What is Primary Pollutant?
Gases that absorb and trap infrared heat emitted from Earth’s surface.
What is Greenhouse Gases?
This term describes harvesting a resource faster than it can naturally replenish.
What is Overharvesting/Overexploitation?
Process of harvesting or overusing too many aquatic or terrestrial species, which depletes their stock.
What is Overexploitation?
The action of clearing large areas of forest and trees.
What is Deforestation?
Pollution from many different sources that are difficult to identify
What is Non-Point Source pollutant?
Quantitative measure that represents our impact on the environment or, aka, the total amount of greenhouse gases that are generated by our actions.
What is Carbon Footprint?
A species introduced to an environment through human activity that becomes harmful to other species.
What is Invasive Species?
Thinning and fragmenting are examples of this threat to biodiversity loss.
What is Habitat Destruction?
The reduction of habitat into small, isolated patches splitting up biodiversity.
What is Fragmenting?
Ozone is an example of this type of pollutant.
What is Burning Fossil Fuels?
This fast-spreading vine, sometimes called “the vine that ate the South,” can grow up to a foot per day in warm climates.
What is Kudzu?
Addition of a substance to the atmosphere, environment, or body of water at a rate quicker than it can be rendered harmless.
What is Pollution?
Selective removal of tree or shrub trunks that are growing directly from the ground.
Pesticides, herbicides, fertilize from lawns, golf courses, farmlands are an example of this type of pollutant.
What is Non-Point Source Water Pollutant?
The most abundant non-living greenhouse gas responsible for long-term climate change.
What is Carbon Dioxide (CO2)?
This is one way an invasive species can disrupt the environment it colonizes.
What is...
- Disrupt food chains
- Steal resources
- Overtake ecological niches
- Prey on key organisms
- Etc.
Any nonnative species that disrupts or modifies an ecosystem that it colonizes.
What is Invasive Species?
Habitat Destruction - Destroy habitat, isolate species, limit breeding, hinder species that require dense forest habitats, produce soil erosion, etc.
Climate change - Hinder natural uptake of CO2 from environment, resulting in more building up in atmosphere and contributing to greenhouse effect.
This act was passed in 1970 making significant changes to industry and vehicular emissions to help eliminate local, regional, and global pollution.
What is Clean Air Act (1970)?
Besides Carbon Dioxide, this is another major greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.
What is Water Vapor (H2O), Methane (CH4), and Nitrous Oxides (NOx)?
This is the main ecosystem type that is overharvested.
What is Aquatic/Marine/Ocean ecosystems?