Environment and Natural Resources Vocabulary

2. Is a perennial plant with a main woody stem or trunk that supports branches and leaves.
3. A low-to-medium-sized woody plant that has multiple stems rising from near the ground rather than a single main trunk.
5. The removal, minimization, or neutralization of dangerous pollutants and hazardous substances from soil, water, sediment, or air to safeguard human health and the environment.
8. An organism that completes its entire life cycle—from birth/germination to reproduction and death—within a single year or growing season.
9. Low-growing, green plants with narrow, blade-like leaves, jointed stems, and parallel leaf veins.
11. Anything relating to, living in, or made by the sea or ocean.
12. An ecological transition zone between deepwater aquatic systems and well-drained terrestrial uplands where land is covered by shallow water or saturated with water long enough to develop specialized soil and plant communities.
14. A complex ecological system dominated by trees and other woody vegetation interacting with the physical environment, other organisms, and the atmosphere.
15. Biotic factors that are not native to the region and usually cause harm to the environment.

1. The progressive, predictable change in the species composition and structure of a biological community over time.
4. Any plant that lives for more than two years (often many years or decades), continuing to grow and reproduce season after season without needing to be re-planted.
6. Any biotic factor living in a specific region through natural evolution where no human interference established its presence.
7. An expansive, natural land area dominated by native grasses, grass-like plants, forbs, shrubs, or open woodlands that serve as habitat and forage for wild and domestic grazing and browsing herbivores.
10. Living organism.
13. Non-living thing.