AP Environmental Science Vocabulary

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Across
  1. 3. natural fuel such as coal or gas, formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms.
  2. 4. the biological mechanism by which organisms adjust to new environments or to changes in their current environment
  3. 7. a situation in which individual users, who have open access to a resource unhampered by shared social structures, formal rules, charges, fees, or taxes that regulate access and use,[1][2] act independently according to their own self-interest and, contrary to the common good of all users, cause depletion of the resource through their uncoordinated action in the case that there are too many users related to the available resources
  4. 9. the average number of children that would be born to a female over their lifetime
  5. 11. rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH)
  6. 18. A _______ curve is a graph showing the number or proportion of individuals surviving to each age for a given species or group
  7. 19. A non-native species that causes harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health
  8. 20. the use of either naturally occurring or deliberately introduced microorganisms or other forms of life to consume and break down environmental pollutants, in order to clean up a polluted site
  9. 23. the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas
  10. 24. any of several liquid mixtures of the volatile hydrocarbons propene, propane, butene, and butane
  11. 25. a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically.
  12. 26. a nuclear reaction in which a heavy nucleus splits spontaneously or on impact with another particle, with the release of energy.
Down
  1. 1. the rearing of aquatic animals or the cultivation of aquatic plants for food
  2. 2. the most likely projected human population of earth by 2100
  3. 5. the process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture.
  4. 6. the amount of an ingested substance that kills 50 percent of a test sample
  5. 8. occur when predators limit the density and/or behavior of their prey and thereby enhance survival of the next lower trophic level
  6. 10. the process by which the mix of species and habitat in an area changes over time
  7. 12. electricity produced from generators driven by turbines that convert the potential energy of falling or fast-flowing water into mechanical energy
  8. 13. the thermal energy in the Earth's crust which originates from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials
  9. 14. the variety of all living things and their interactions
  10. 15. all of the environmental factors and interspecies relationships that influence the species
  11. 16. an area classified according to the species that live in that location
  12. 17. the geological process in which earthen materials are worn away and transported by natural forces such as wind or water
  13. 19. the artificial application of water to the soil through various systems of tubes, pumps, and sprays
  14. 21. compounds that have a high vapor pressure and low water solubility
  15. 22. when humans remove or thin forests for lumber or to use the land where the trees stood for crops, grazing, extraction (mining, oil, or gas), or development as the population increases and people migrate