Unit 5 Vocabulary

1. Gradual process of a species becoming extinct.
4. The number of different species living in a specific area.
5. Overuse of species with economic value; a factor in species extinction.
9. Any material or organism in the biosphere, including water, soil, fuel, plants, and animals.
12. The variety of inheritable characteristics or genes in an interbreeding population.
14. Any natural resource available in limited amounts or replaced extremely slowly by natural processes.
16. Increasing concentration of toxic substances, such as DDT, in organisms as trophic levels increase in food chains or food webs.
17. Found only in one specific geographic area.
18. The variety of ecosystems in the biosphere.
19. Any resource replaced by natural processes more quickly than it is consumed.

2. Nonnative species deliberately or accidentally introduced into a new habitat.
3. Habitat loss from separation of an ecosystem into small pieces of land.
6. Use of resources at a rate that they can be replaced or recycled.
7. In a biological community, the number and abundance of different species.
8. Water pollution from nitrogen-rich and phosphorus-rich substances flowing into waterways, causing algal overgrowth.
10. Technique using living organisms to detoxify a polluted area.
11. A large-scale dying out of a large percentage of all living organisms in an area within a short time.
13. Technique of adding essential materials to a degraded ecosystem.
15. Any different environmental condition occurring along an ecosystem's boundaries.
20. The disappearance of a species when the last of its members die.