Environmental Vocabulary

1. The complex of a community of organisms and its environment functioning as an ecological unit
6. Energy produced from Earth's own internal steam and hot water
7. Compound used in refrigerants and making plastics which can deplete the ozone
15. rise in global temperature which is due to increases in CO2 from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels
18. factor that limits the growth, abundance, or distribution of the population of an ecosystem
20. Process in which heavy atomic nuclei split into smaller, lighter nuclei

2. A measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems
3. Percentage of population living in areas with greater than 2,500
4. Diversity of an ecosystem which is determined by the variety of species of plants and animals
5. Natural resource such as fresh air and most groundwater that can be used indefinitely without causing a reduction in the available supply
8. An organic compound containing only carbon and hydrogen and often occurring in petroleum, natural gas, and coal
9. A nonliving condition or thing, as climate or habitat, that influences or affects an ecosystem and the organisms in it
10. Resource that exists in Earth's crust in a fixed amount and can be replaced only by geological, physical, or chemical processes that take hundreds of millions of years
11. Maximum population a species can support
12. Any living component that affects another organism
13. Involves global management of Earth's natural resources to ensure that current and future energy needs will be met without harming the environment
14. Nonrenewable energy resource formed over geologic time from the compression and partial decomposition of organisms that lived millions of years ago
16. Natural heating of Earth's surface by atmospheric gases. CO2, 03, CFC's, NO2
17. Biological material derived from living or recently living organisms
19. Removal of trees from an area without adequate replanting, often using clear cutting which results in loss of topsoil and water pollution