Agriculture & Food Systems
What is the term for growing a single crop over a large area year after year?
Monocropping
What is the term for underground layers of rock or sediment that store and transmit groundwater?
Aquifers
Which layer of the atmosphere contains the weather and the highest concentration of air pollutants?
Troposphere
What is the term for the number of individuals per unit area in a population?
Population density
Which group of organisms converts solar energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis?
Producers (or autotrophs)
Which agricultural practice involves removing trees and burning the vegetation to clear land for short-term farming?
Slash-and-burn agriculture
Which global process drives the continuous movement of water through evaporation, condensation, and precipitation?
The water cycle (or hydrologic cycle)
Which common waste disposal method involves burning trash at high temperatures to reduce volume but can release harmful air pollutants like dioxins?
Incineration
Which demographic statistic represents the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime?
Total Fertility Rate (TFR)
What type of consumer eats only primary producers?
Herbivore (or primary consumer)
What is the name for the method of farming that reduces tilling and leaves crop residues to improve soil health and reduce erosion?
Conservation tillage (or no-till farming)
What process occurs when excessive nutrients in water bodies lead to algal blooms and oxygen depletion?
Eutrophication
What is the term for contaminated runoff from landfills that can seep into groundwater if not properly contained?
Leachate
Name the population model that describes rapid growth followed by a sudden crash due to overshooting carrying capacity.
Boom-and-bust (or overshoot-and-collapse model)
Name the process by which living organisms obtain nitrogen compounds.
Assimilation
What is the name of the environmental issue that occurs when irrigation water evaporates and leaves certain minerals behind, reducing soil fertility?
Salinization
What term describes the area of land that drains into a particular stream, river, or lake?
A: Watershed
Identify the group of pollutants that include flame retardants, plasticizers, and other synthetic compounds that persist in the environment and accumulate in fatty tissues.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
Which stage of the demographic transition model is marked by declining birth rates, low death rates, and slowing population growth?
Stage 3
What is the term for the rate at which producers store energy in their tissues after accounting for respiration?
Net Primary Productivity (NPP)
What global trend, driven by increasing meat consumption and crop yields, has led to biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and increased greenhouse gas emissions from food production?
The Green Revolution
Identify the federal U.S. law that originally aimed to protect navigable waters from pollution by regulating discharges.
Clean Water Act
What is the name of the U.S. federal program established in 1980 to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites and hold polluters accountable?
Superfund (officially CERCLA — Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act)
What is the term for the delayed population growth that continues even after birth rates decline, due to a large proportion of young individuals entering reproductive age?
Population momentum
Identify the biogeochemical cycle that does not involve a gaseous phase and is most commonly disrupted by fertilizer runoff.
Phosphorus cycle