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Key terms and concepts
| Abiotic | Non-living factors in an ecosystem such as rocks, topography and climate. |
| Bio-degradable | Able to break down in the environment. |
| Biodiversity | The variety of all life forms, their genes and the ecosystems they make up |
| Biotic | Living factors in an ecosystem including plants and animals, together with important micro-organisms, such as fungi and bacteria. |
| Conservation | The protection, preservation, management or restoration of wildlife and natural resources such as forests, soil, and water. |
| Ecology | The science that deals with the life-sustaining systems on earth. |
| Ecosystem | Ecological community, together with its environment, functioning as a unit. |
| Environment | Everything that affects an organism during its lifetime. |
| EPA | Environmental Protection Authority. |
| Habitat | The area or environment where an organism or ecological community normally lives or occurs. |
| Hazardous waste | Any material containing significant quantities of a substance that may present a danger to the life or health of living organisms when released into the environment. |
| Limiting factors | Physical or biological factors that control the growth of species within the ecosystem. |
| Pollution | Contamination of soil, water or the atmosphere by the discharge of harmful substances. |
| Recycle | Extract and reconstitute raw materials in discarded items, for example glass, some plastics and paper. |
| Reuse | Use single items more that once for the same or a different purpose. |
| Riparian vegetation | Vegetation found in riparian zones, usually includes different species on the upper, middle and lower areas of the bank and may include aquatic plants. |
| Riparian zone | The transition areas between land and water, including the banks of creeks, river or dams, and mangrove tidal areas. |
| Salinity | The presence of soluble salts in soil or water. |
| Scheduled or intractable waste |
Waste that cannot be destroyed, such as certain heavy metals or material for which there is no suitable disposal technique, such as certain pesticides and radioactive waste. |
| Sustainability | The ability of an ecosystem to continuously support the life forms within it. |
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