British Sign Language Glossaries of Curriculum Terms

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BSL Environmental Science Glossary - Biocapacity definition


Definition: Biocapacity is the measure of an area, the amount or how much of an area that supports the organisms in it. A farm may grow crops for food, has a large biocapacity, and its productivity matches the number of people available to feed. Sometimes the biocapacity, the area available to feed people, shrinks, and there isn't enough to feed the people allocated to eat it. If there are fewer people available, then that smaller biocapacity may be enough to match the number of people around that need feeding. Conversely, if an area has too much biocapacity for the people that can eat that amount, then food is wasted. It can also depend on the area and where it is in the world, it could be a country.

Biocapacity can also cover natural areas like the hedgerows around fields in a farm, or meadows or naturally wild areas near a farm, they consist of living creatures like birds and insects. The health of the surrounding ecosystems can affect how the fields prosper. If the ecosystem in the surrounding wild area or hedgerows is not doing well, the wild animals cannot feed on the pests in the fields and so this affects the growth and yield of the crops leading to a smaller biocapacity, less food to feed people. So, the health of the fields is related to the health of the ecosystem around them.

It's not only farms that are dependent on biocapacity, but also big areas like forests, the sea, grazing areas for livestock, etc.