AP Notes, Outlines, Study Guides, Vocabulary, Practice Exams and more!
Depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife that is used faster than it is naturally replenished. If such use continues, the resource becomes nonrenewable (on a human time scale) or nonexistent (extinct). See also sustainable yield.
All external conditions and factors, living and nonliving (chemicals and energy), that affect an organism or other specified system during its lifetime.
Ability of a form of energy to do useful work. High-temperature heat and the chemical energy in fossil fuels and nuclear fuels are concentrated high-quality energy. Low-quality energy such as low-temperature heat is dispersed or diluted and cannot do much useful work. See high-quality energy, low-quality energy.
Percentage of the total energy input that does useful work and is not converted into low-quality, usually useless heat in an energy conversion system or process. Also use energy productivity. See energy quality, net energy. Compare material efficiency.
Capacity to do work by performing mechanical, physical, chemical, or electrical tasks or to cause a heat transfer between two objects at different temperatures.
Species that is found in only one area. Such species are especially vulnerable to extinction.
Wild species with so few individual survivors that the species could soon become extinct in all or most of its natural range. Compare threatened species.
Forms of kinetic energy traveling as electromagnetic waves. Examples are radio waves, TV waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X rays, and gamma rays. Compare ionizing radiation, nonionizing radiation.
Existence of a greater number of species and a higher population density in a transition zone (ecotone) between two ecosystems than in either adjacent ecosystem. See ecotone.
Transitional zone in which one type of ecosystem tends to merge with another ecosystem. See edge effect.
We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.
For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.
If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.
While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!
