The State of Canada's Environment — 1996

Glossary of Selected Terms - F

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Sources for definitions

factor cost: Valuation of factor cost represents the costs of the factors of production (Statistics Canada 1994). The valuation is expressed in terms of the expense of the producer, rather than the purchaser. It excludes all indirect taxes, such as sales and excise taxes, customs duties, and property taxes. See also market prices.

factors of production: Productive agents that, when combined, create economic output (Statistics Canada 1994). In broad terms, the two factors of production are labour and capital.

feedback: With reference to climate, a regulating mechanism within the climate system that dampens or enhances the effects of a forced change or fluctuation (Environment Canada 1995). Feedbacks that enhance effects are termed "positive," whereas those that dampen them are "negative."

feral: Refers to domestic species that have "gone wild" (Environment Canada 1993).

flyway: A geographic migration route for birds, including the breeding and wintering areas that it connects (Lapedes 1978). The Pacific flyway, one of four in North America, runs north-south along the mountainous areas of the west.

food chain: A food relationship in an ecosystem in which energy and nutrients are transferred through a series of organisms by each stage feeding on the preceding one and providing food for the succeeding stage (adapted from Demayo and Watt 1993). Each stage of a food chain is known as a trophic level. The first trophic level consists of the green plants that can undertake photosynthesis, thereby obtaining their energy from the sun. See also food web.

food web: A complex intermeshing of individual food chains in an ecosystem (Wells and Rolston 1991).

fossil fuels: Oil, gas, coal, and other fuels that were formed under the Earth's surface from the fossilized remains of plants and tiny animals that lived millions of years ago.

fragmentation: The disruption of extensive habitats into isolated and small patches (Meffe et al. 1994).

fuel: (also known as combustible) Any form of matter that in its primary use is combusted or oxidized for the generation of energy (Government of Canada 1988).

full-tree harvesting: A tree harvesting process that includes removing the trunk, branches, and, in some instances, roots from a forest site. In Canada, this process is used to control root diseases (Natural Resources Canada 1994).

furans: See dioxins and furans.