What is a Wetland?
is an area where water covers the soil or is present near the surface for varying periods of time.
What is water use/withdrawl?
Water use from a watershed for human needs, some of which may be returned back
What is black water?
Is contaminated water containing sewage or other pollutants, and needs significant treatment before it can be reused
What is silvopasture?
Management that optimizes trees, pasture and livestock together
-intensive systems in which the forage system is an improved pasture of introduced grasses or legumes that are managed under normal agronomic principles
What is climate change?
A long-term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years
-may be a change in the average weather conditions or change in the distribution of weather events with respect to an average
What is the prairie pothole region?
Few natural surface water drainage systems that are not connected by surface streams
get water from spring snowmelt and groundwater inflow
What is water depletion/consumption?
Water removed from a watershed or contaminated such that unavailable for other uses
What is life cycle analysis?
Determines blue water that we deliberately choose to use to produce beef instead of other food
-green water is discounted since rain falls whether animals are there or not
-grey is discounted since its difficult to estimate
What is Multistrata agroforestry?
A perennial cropping system that features layers of carbon sequestering vegetation
What is naive?
Doubt but don't really care?
What is a riparian zone?
The interface between land and a river or stream, that plays an important role ecologically in habitat biodiversity and contributes to protecting water quality of rivers
What is green water?
Is the rainwater that is captured by vegetation and soil and is recycled through evapotranspiration back into the atmosphere where is becomes rainwater in another location
What is the hamburger connection?
Tropical deforestation was due to north American demand for artificially cheap beef
-phrase first used in 1980's
-in the past clearing tropical forests was for small scale farms until the success of exporting beef made beef the leading cause
What are shelterbelts?
Plantation usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil
What is a doubter?
Doubt but do not hold particularly strong views
What is bioconcentration?
Movement of the chemical from surrounding environment into an organism
What is blue water?
Is rainwater and snowmelt water that runs over surface into rivers and lakes, or percolates into underground aquifer; it included water captured from nature and diverted into irrigation channels
What is agroforestry?
A land management approach that deliberately combines the production of trees with other crops and/or livestock. By blending agriculture and forestry with conservation practices
-optimizes economic, environment and social benefits = alley cropping or windbreaks
What are heavy metals?
-several different definitions based on density, atomic number, atomic weight, chemical properties, or toxicity
What is an agnostic?
Generally doubt any and all claims to any knowledge
What is biomagnification?
Pesticides (or other) being magnified through food chain increasing levels in top predators
What is grey water?
Water left over from human use that can be reused for some activities without much processing
What is afforestation?
Planting trees where they aren't already
What is ATSDR?
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
What is a skeptic?
Acknowledge the scientific evidence but thoughtfully maintain doubt based on small evidence or logic