Water Resources
What is lotic?
A toxin that interferes with an organism's development is called this.
What is a teratogen?
Soil degradation is mostly caused by this wind- and water-driven process.
What is erosion?
Most wood pellets made in the U.S. are burned for electricity in this country?
What is the U.K.?
CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (methane) and types of these. Their emissions are a major drawback of burning fossil fuels.
What are greenhouse gases?
This alternative energy source is carbon-free but non-renewable.
What is nuclear energy?
All the land area that drains into a common waterbody is called this.
What is a watershed?
When toxins, such as PCBs, increase in concentration as you go up the food web it is called this.
What is biomagnification (or bioaccumulation)?
This refers to the period from ~1950-1990 when industrialized agriculture expanded throughout much of the developing world thanks to technology and new crop varieties.
What is the Green Revolution?
This is the type of forest most impacted by the wood pellet industry in NC.
What are long leaf pine forests?
Fossil fuels comprise approximately this percentage of U.S. energy use.
What is 80%?
Most hydropower operations require these to be constructed, which can negatively impact both aquatic and terrestrial habitats.
What are dams?
This is the largest aquifer in the U.S. Much of agriculture depends on it, yet it is 50% depleted.
What is the Ogallala Aquifer?
This type of toxicological study involves large-scale comparisons between exposed and unexposed groups of people
What is an epidemiological study?
This practice of growing a single crop is characteristic of conventional agriculture.
What is monoculture?
This is the practice of planting forests on lands that have been deforested.
What is reforestation?
This type of mining is associated with the Keystone XL pipeline and Dakota Access pipeline.
What tar sands (or oil sands or bituminous sands) mining?
Hydropower, nuclear power, and bioenergy are referred to as this type of energy source.
What are conventional alternatives?
A prolonged period of abnormal deficits in precipitation is called this.
What is a drought?
This U.S. Marine Corps base is known for having the worst groundwater contamination crisis in the U.S.
What is Camp Lejeune?
In recent years some farmers have learned that they can no longer farm on their land because it has been contaminated with these chemicals.
What are PFAS (forever chemicals)?
This form of monoculture often replaces forests in NC when they are cut down for pellets.
What are pine plantations?
Natural gas is increasingly being extracted by this process.
What is hydraulic fracturing (or hydrofracking)?
This type of renewable energy has the greatest potential for development in Arizona and the lowest potential in Alaska.
What is solar energy?
The overenrichment of water bodies usually due to fertilizer runoff.
What is eutrophication?
These are known as "forever chemicals" because they do not breakdown; rather, they persist in organisms and the environment.
What are PFAS?
This is one of the many drawbacks of pesticides. It is a common example of artificial selection that results when more and more chemicals are constantly applied (hint: think of the bedbug example).
What is pesticide resistance?
An important ecosystem service of forests is that they sequester a great deal of this. This is also released when forests are cut down.
What is carbon (or CO2)?
This economically efficient method of coal mining may be the most environmentally destructive. The enormous amounts of overburden are dumped into valley fills, which can severely damage stream ecosystems.
What is mountain-top removal mining?
This type of alternative energy is renewable and carbon-free, but may increase wildlife mortality.
What is wind energy?