What term describes a natural resource becoming non-renewable due to excessive extraction?

• A. Natural heritage
• B. Biodiversity
• C. Overharvesting
• D. Ecosystem services

Answer: (C)

Overharvesting describes taking a renewable resource faster than it can regenerate, so its stock falls and it becomes effectively non-renewable. This happens when harvest rates exceed natural growth, as with fisheries where populations can’t replenish quickly enough or forests logged faster than new trees can grow. The other terms don’t describe this process: natural heritage refers to significant natural places or artifacts, biodiversity is the variety of life, and ecosystem services are the benefits ecosystems provide to people.