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Definition
| complex enviromental system that is formed by weathering of parent material; physical (wind/water), chemical (eactions alter composition), and biological (processes from living organism) |
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Definition
| erodes large chunks of minerals to start the formation of soil |
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Term
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Definition
O - high in organic matter that has not decomposed
A - topsoil rich in decayed organic matter
E - eluviated (leaching) where organic matter and minerals from the topsoil are washed down (leached)
B - subsoil that accumulates nutrients from above
C - weathered parent material
R - rock that supplies parent material |
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Definition
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Definition
| loose and drains water quickly - add if you want to dry |
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Definition
| compacted and poorly drained - high amounts of water |
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Term
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Definition
| zen soils that have a relatively balanced proportion of different particle sizes and most plants are adapted to these types of soil |
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Definition
| when wind or water removes soil compopnents, especially the fetile topsoil |
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Term
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Definition
| overcultivating (excessive tilling); overgrazing (livestock); clearing forests |
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Term
| soil erosion conrol methods |
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Definition
| crop rotation; contour farming; terracing; intercropping; shelterbelts; no-till farming |
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Term
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Definition
| growign different crops from one season to the next instead of letting the field lie fallow - rotating corn or wheat with a legume (soybeans etc.) allows the soil to recover nitrogen becasue legumes contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their roots |
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Term
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Definition
| plowing sideways across a hillside on a gradually sloping land - slows runoff of nutrients downhill |
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Term
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Definition
| planting on level platfoms cut into steep mountains - staircases allow water to stay on farming areas |
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Definition
| planting different crops in alternating bands - increases groundcover and slows erosion |
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Definition
| windbreaks - rows of trees planed along edges of fields; act as shelters to slow wind erosion |
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Definition
| does not turn the soil over after crops are harvested |
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Term
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Definition
| started in the mid 20th century and increased agricultural production ; utilized selective breeding, heavy use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and mechanized farming that encouraged large monocultures |
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Term
| Consequences of pestisides |
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Definition
| increase risk of natural selection of resistent strains - super bugs |
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Term
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Definition
| improves efficiency in planting and harvesting by planting a single type of crop, but reduces biodiversity and makes the crop vunerable to outbreaks of disease or pests |
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Term
| Making recomibinant DNA to produce genetically modified foods |
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Definition
1. Isolate plasmid from bacterium
2. Isolate the gene of interest from target organism
3. Combine the two pieces to form a new plasmid with recombinant DNA
4. Inserts recombinant plasmid back into bacterium
5. Plasmid reproduces with bacterium; many copies of teh gene of interst are also replicated and can be harvested |
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Term
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Definition
| Bt, Roundup ready crops, golden rice |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| glyphosate genetically engineered into crops such as soybeans and cotton |
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Term
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Definition
| transgenic golden rice rich in beta-carotene, which has teh potential to treat vitamin A deficiencies in developing countries where the major staple food is rice |
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Term
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Definition
| soybeans, corn, cotton, canola - account for almost 50% of US crops |
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Definition
| may create superweeds; reduces diversity; may harm nontarget organisms; pest evolve into superbugs |
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Definition
| may reduce use of irrigation and insecticides and allow no-till farming |
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Term
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Definition
| avoid taking new actions until all ramifications of that action are understood |
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Term
| Which type of meat is the most resource intensive to maintain (higher ecological footprint)? |
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Definition
| beef - 20kg of feed must be provided to cattle to produce 1 kg of beef; requries more land and water to raise |
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Term
| Feedlots and their impacts |
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Definition
| (factory farms) - increase of overgrazing; requrie antibiotics to control disease (therefore drug resistance); release more greenhouse gases (CO2, methane etc) than cars; animal waste is a common cause of eutrophication |
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