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Biodiversity
the number and variety of life forms, including specific region as well as all the number and variety of ecosystems within and beyond that region
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Protect
- To guard legally from harm a species that is listed as endangered, threatened, or of special concern
- eg. Polar bears
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Biodiversity hotspot
- a place where there is an exceptionally large number of species in a relatively small area
- eg. Georgian bay biosphere reserves
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Community
all the populations of the different species that interact in a specific area or ecosystem
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Dominant species
species that are so abundant the they have the biggest biomass of any community memeber
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Keystone species
a species that can greatly affect population numbers and the health of an ecosystem
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Captive breeding
the breeding of rare or endangered wildlife in controlled settings to increase population size
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Ecosystem engineer
- a species that causes such dramatic changes to landscapes that it creates a new ecosystem
- eg. beavers
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Sucession
the series of changes in an ecosystem that occurs over time following a disturbance
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Habitat loss
the destruction of habitats which usually results from human activities
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Deforestation
the practice of clearing forests for logging or other human uses, and never replanting them
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Alien species
- a species that is accidentally or deliberately introduced to a new location
- eg. Zebra mussels in the great lakes
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Invasive species
- a species that can take over the habitat of native species
- Invasive species are often alien species
- eg. Round gobies
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Overexploitation
- the use or extraction of a resource until it is depleted
- eg. overhunting of passenger pigeons
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Extinction
the death of all the individuals of a species
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Biodiversity crisis
- the current accelerated rate of extinctions
- result of human actions
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Stewardship
the active assumption of responsibility for the welfare of the enviroment
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Restoration ecology
the renewal of degraded or destroyed ecosystems through active human intervention
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Reforestation
the regrowth of a forest, either through natural processes of seeds or trees in an area where a forest was cut down
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Biocontrol
the use of a species to control the population growth or spread of an undesirable species
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Bioremediation
the use of living organism to clean up contaminated areas naturally
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Bioaugmentation
the use of organisms to add essential nutrients to depleted soils
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