Human Impact on the Environment - Environmental Science Vocabulary

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Across
  1. 12. Any alteration of Earth’s normal, average climate conditions
  2. 13. Air pollution; can contain ozone
  3. 15. A complex system that includes all plants, animals, micro-organisms, and chemicals that exist together as a community in a particular place
  4. 16. A substance that can dissolve other substances within it
  5. 17. (verb) to dissolve minerals in soil that are carried away by water
  6. 18. The universal solvent
  7. 19. When water and wind blow and wash topsoil away
  8. 20. Capable of being broken down into reusable minerals and nutrients, by decomposers, sunlight, and oxygen, and then recycled through an ecosystem
  9. 21. Agents causing a disease, such as some bacteria, viruses, and fungi
  10. 22. Substances that cause harm to the air, soil, water, or organisms in the environment
  11. 24. The pore space in soil, needed for plants to get air and water
  12. 26. By-products of sewage and wastewater treatment
Down
  1. 1. Increases in Earth’s annual average temperature
  2. 2. Animals and plants that eat other animals and plants to get the energy they need to grow and reproduce
  3. 3. Fungi and bacteria that break down waste and dead producers and consumers into chemicals that producers can use
  4. 4. Non-native species that harm native species by competing with them for resources, preying on them, or exposing them to new diseases.
  5. 5. Water on land; such as lakes, rivers, and ponds
  6. 6. Fine, dark dirt made of or containing organic matter including bacteria and fungi
  7. 7. Using methods, systems, and materials that meet our needs today without harming the ability of future generations to meet theirs
  8. 8. Water in the solid or rock below the Earth’s surface
  9. 9. The process in which a fertile soil becomes unable to support plant life due to the erosion of topsoil or leaching of nutrients
  10. 10. Includes fuels such as natural gas, propane, gasoline, diesel oil, heating oil, and coal - formed from organic matter millions of years ago
  11. 11. The most fertile (rich) part of the soil; located on the surface
  12. 14. The chemical processes in an organism that transform food into energy
  13. 23. A mixture of organic matter, minerals, air, and water
  14. 24. Plants and some bacteria that can make their own food by photosynthesis or other chemical processes
  15. 25. Water from precipitation that runs off the land into lakes, rivers, oceans, and other bodies of water