Sustainability Principles and Practice
Fourth Edition
aerobic
Living systems or processes that occur in the presence of oxygen.
albedo
A measure of a surface’s ability to reflect sunlight, often expressed as a decimal fraction on a scale of 0 to 1.
anaerobic
Living systems or processes that occur in the absence of oxygen.
biogeochemical cycle
The movement of matter in cycles through the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Examples include the carbon cycle and the hydrologic cycle.
biome
A major regional habitat type characterized by particular climate and soil conditions and particular biological communities.
biosphere
The part of the Earth system on land, in the oceans, and in the atmosphere inhabited by living organisms.
community
A group of interacting species living in a particular area.
disturbance
A natural or human-caused event such as fire, flood, or urban development that changes the structure and function of an ecosystem.
Earth system
The total complex of atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere that influence conditions at the Earth’s surface.
emergence
The spontaneous appearance of novel properties at the level of a system that cannot be predicted by knowledge of the system’s parts.
energy
The ability to do work
food web
A network of feeding relationships in an ecosystem.
habitat
The physical environment where an organism lives and finds food, water, cover, and space to grow and reproduce.
matter
Any physical substance; something which occupies space and has mass.
mitigation
A mechanism in which a damaged habitat is rehabilitated or an intact habitat area is set aside to compensate for habitat that is destroyed elsewhere.
niche
The role an organism plays in its ecosystem.
population
A group of individuals of one species living within a particular area.
reservoir
A location where energy or matter are stored in systems.
resilience
The capacity of a system to accommodate change and still retain the same function and structure.
sink
A reservoir where matter is stored and removed from system interactions.
source
A storage compartment in the environment that releases matter to another location.
succession
Progressive change in species composition, structure, and ecosystem characteristics in a community, often in response to a disturbance,
symbiosis
A relationship between two organisms from different species who live with and interact with each other, benefiting both of them.
thermodynamics
A branch of physics that deals with the transformation of energy.