ECO NARY

• Acid Rain: Heavy precipitation with nitric and sulfuric acid. Most of it is generated by sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide (air pollution). Its pH is less than 5.6. Results include fish and plant deaths, corrosion, groundwater pollution, and soil erosion. Its long-term effects are unknown.

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• Air Pollution: Sulfur oxides and particles from industrial plants burning fossil fuels are the current worst forms of air pollution. Most air pollution derives in one form or another from the use of petroleum products, oil in particular

• Albedo: The luminosity shining from a reflective surface. Earthshine is one type. About 1/3 of the sun’s radiation is reflected back into space, with the remaining 42% warming the land and air and 23% moving water through the hydrologic cycle.

• Allochthonous: Something organic imported into an ecosystem from outside of it (e.g., nutrients brought by streams or blown in on the wind). Contrasts with Autochthonous. (Autochthonous means indigenous).

• Alternative energy: Energy derived from sources that do not use up natural resources or harm the environment. (Ex: solar energy.....)

• Autotroph: An organism that produces its own food. Autotrophs may be photoautotrophic (fed by using light) or chemoautotrophic (by using chemical products).

• Organic Farming: A form of small-scale agriculture that produces yields without introducing artificial fertilizers or pesticides. The basic aim is to grow things naturally with a minimum of mechanical interference.

o

• Oil: Hydrocarbon liquid commonly drilled from sedimentary layers packed with marine matter left over from the Carboniferous days. It is a smooth dark liquid which is found underground. It is a non-renewable energy.

• Organophosphates: Chemicals that kill pests by ruining their nervous system. Currently the most popular class of pesticides. (Chemicals from poisons and explosives, tractors from caterpillar-treaded tanks: over the years mechanized agriculture assumes more and more of the features of a war against the soil).

• Overdrafting: Taking more water from a well or aquifer than it can recharge.

• Overpopulation: An area is overpopulated when there are more people there than can be supported properly.

• Ecotourism: Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people. (It involves to travel to places such as rainforest, forests, deserts, mountaineous regions and even beaches in economically under-developed or developing nations.

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• Environmentalism: Movement to protect the quality and continuity of life through conservation of natural resources, prevention of pollution and control of land use.