Glossary
Abundant: present in great quantity; more than adequate; overly sufficient
Abiotic: nonliving things
Adapt: to adjust oneself to different conditions, environments
Adaptation: change in an organism or its parts that better fits it for the conditions of its environment; also, a a structure resulting from this change
Air current: moving bodies or streams of air; can be measured on many different scales and can carry considerable force
Ambush: an act or instance of attacking unexpectedly from a concealed position
Amphibian: any organism that is able to live both on land and in water; especially any of a class of cold-blooded vertebrate animals (such as frogs and salamanders) that in many respects are between fishes and reptiles
Angiosperms: also known as flowering plants; all have seeds that are protected by an ovule (think of an apple or other fruit).
Aquifer: a porous subsurface rock that holds water
Atmosphere: the gaseous envelope surrounding Earth; the air
Bird: any of a class of warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals with a body covered with feathers and forelimbs modified as wings
Biodiversity: biological variety in an environment as indicated by numbers of different species of plants and animals
Biome: regions of the biosphere with a particular type of climate and similar plant and animal species
Biosphere: the part of the world in which life can exist
Biotic: living things
Blade: the leaf that grows out of the side of the stem
Camouflage: the hiding or disguising of something by covering it up or changing the way it looks
Carnivore: an organism that eats mostly meat
Carrying capacity: the balance between the availability of habitat components (food, water, shelter) and the number of animals a habitat can support
Census: a count of the number of animals in an area
Chlorophyll: a pigment that makes leaves green and facilitates photosynthesis by absorbing sunlight
Chrysalis: the pupa of a butterfly or moth; the hardened outer layer of such a pupa
Classification: a systematic arrangement in groups
Cold-blooded: having a body temperature that is not internally regulated and that takes on the temperature of the environment
Collection: water that falls back to earth as precipitation; it may fall back in the oceans, lakes, or rivers, or it may end up on land
Community: a group of living things that belong to one or more species, interact ecologically, and are located in one place (such as a bog or pond)
Conclusion: a reasoned deduction or inference
Condensation: water vapor that changes back to liquid as the air cools, forming clouds
Conservation: the management of resources such as water so as to eliminate waste or maximize the efficiency of use
Consumer: a plant or animal that requires complex organic compounds for food which it obtains by preying on other living things or eating particles of organic matter
Crepuscular: active at twilight and dawn; asleep or hiding during day and night
Cryptic coloration: colors and patterns that obscure, making an animal hard to see
Culm: the main stem of the grass plant; it carries water from the roots to the blade where food is made.
Decomposer: an organism (such as a bacterium or a fungus) that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter
Dehydrated: deprived of water
Diurnal: active by day; asleep or hiding by night
Domestication: the process of adapting organisms for human use
Echolocation: a process for locating distant or invisible objects by means of sound waves reflected back to the sender from the objects
Ecosystem: a system made up of an ecological community of living things interacting with their environment, especially under natural conditions
Electromagnetic radiation: energy that travels in the form of a wave; examples include visible light, radio waves, infrared and ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays
Endangered species: a species whose dwindling population numbers have caused it to be classified as being threatened with extinction
Erosion: the process by which water, ice, wind, and gravity reshapes the land by moving rocks, soil, and other weathered material
Evaporation: the process by which a substance changes from a liquid to a gas or vapor; the opposite of condensation
Evapotranspiration: the combination of evaporation from the ground and transpiration from plants
Environment: the whole complex of factors (such as soil, climate, and living things) that influence the form and the ability to survive of a plant or animal or ecological community
Ethogram: a list of an animal’s observed behaviors
Evaporation: the process by which water changes from a liquid to a gas or vapor
Evapotranspiration: water transpired from plants and evaporated from the soil
Extinct: no longer in existence anywhere in the world
Exoskeleton: an external skeleton
Fish: a cold-blooded, vertebrate that lives and breathes in water and typically has a long, scaly, tapering body, limbs developed as fins, and a vertical tail fin
Flower: part of the plant where reproduction takes place; sometimes they look like small leaves.
Food chain: a sequence of organisms arranged in such a way that each feeds on the organism below it in the chain and serves as a source of food for the organism above it
Food web: all the connected or linked food chains within an ecological community
Galaxy: a large system of stars held together by mutual gravitation and isolated from similar systems by vast regions of space
Grasses: plants that have slender leaves and reproduce by sending out underground stems called rhizomes that usually grow horizontally
Grassland: specific ecosystem characterized by its grasses; in Africa they are called savannas.
Ground cover: soil, pavement, grass, concrete, etc.
Gymnosperm: a term meaning “naked seed;” refers to plants with seeds that aren’t protected by an ovule. Examples are conifers, which have pinecones.
Habitat: the place where an animal or plant naturally or normally lives or grows
Habitat loss: the destruction or disappearance of the natural environment an animal or plant species requires to survive
Herbaceous plants: those with leaves and stems that die at the end of the growing season
Herbicide: a chemical substance used to destroy or stop plant growth
Herbivore: an organism that eats mostly plants
Human intervention: human activity that affects the paths and cycles within an ecosystem
Hypothesis: a proposed explanation of something that could occur
Infiltrate: to filter into or through; permeate, as into the ground
Insect: any member of a class of arthropods (such as butterflies, true bugs, two-winged flies, bees, and grasshoppers) that has a three-part body (head, thorax, and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, and usually with one or two pairs of wings
Insecticide: a chemical used to kill insects
Interdependence: depending on one another
Invasive species: a species that is not native to an environment and whose introduction is likely to harm that system
Kinetic energy: the energy of motion. Any object with mass and velocity has kinetic energy. K = ½ mv2.
Larva: a young wingless often wormlike organism (such as a grub or caterpillar) that hatches from the eggs of many insects
Latitude: the angular distance north or south from the equator of a point on Earth’s surface
Limiting factor: Something such as disease, predator and prey relationships, weather, pollution, or habitat destruction that can affect an animal population
Mammal: any of a class of warm-blooded vertebrates that includes human beings and all other animals that nourish their young with milk produced by mammary glands and that have some hair on their skin
Metamorphosis: the process of basic and usually rather sudden change in the form and habits of some animals during transformation from an immature stage (such as a tadpole or a caterpillar) to an adult stage (such as a frog or a butterfly)
Monoculture: the cultivation or growth of a single crop or organism especially on agricultural or forest land
Niche: a habitat that contains the things necessary for a particular plant or animal to live, or the part that a particular living thing plays in an ecological community
Nocturnal: active at night; asleep or hiding during the day
Non-vascular: plants that don’t use roots and stems
Observation: an act or instance of viewing or noting a fact or occurrence for a scientific purpose
Omnivore: an organism whose diet is broad, including both animal and plant foods
Oral history: the process of handing down information by word of mouth rather than through writing
Organism: an individual living thing that carries on the activities of life by means of organs that have separate functions but are dependent on each other; a living person, plant, or animal
Overgrazing: intense eating of vegetation over long periods that allows no time for the plants to recover
Ovule: a minute structure that, after fertilization, becomes a plant seed
Photosynthesis: the process by which plants convert sunlight into energy using carbon dioxide and water
Pistil: the (female) part of the flower that receives the pollen
Poaching: the illegal hunting, capturing, or killing of a species especially for economic gain
Pollen: a fine powder produced by certain plants that plays a role in reproduction
Pollination: the transfer of pollen from a stamen to a pistil
Population: a group of one or more species of organisms living in a particular area or habitat
Precipitation: rain, hail, sleet, or snow, all of which are formed by condensation of moisture in the atmosphere and fall to the ground when the air can hold no more
Predator: an animal that lives by killing and eating other animals
Prey: an animal or animals hunted as food by another animal
Proboscis: a long, tube-shaped body part (such as the sucking organ of a butterfly) in the mouth region of an invertebrate; a flexible snout
Producer: a living thing (such as a green plant) that makes its food from simple inorganic substances (such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen); many are food sources for other organisms
Property: a special quality of something
Pupa: a stage of an insect (such as a bee, moth, or beetle) having complete metamorphosis that occurs as it changes from a larva to an adult, usually inside a cocoon or a case
Reptile: any of a group of cold-blooded, air-breathing vertebrates (such as snakes, lizards, turtles, and alligators) that usually lay eggs and have skin covered with scales or bony plates
Reproduce: to produce new individuals of the same kind
Retaliation killing: taking the life of an animal out of revenge for some act it did against humans, such as killing livestock or a person
Rhizome: an underground, usually horizontal, stem that can produce new plants
Roots: anchor the plant to the ground, absorb water and nutrients from the soil, support the stem, and store food
Runoff: precipitation that flows over the ground rather than seeping into it
Scavenger: an organism (such as a vulture or hyena) that usually feeds on dead or decaying matter
Seed: part of the plant that contains the beginnings of a new plant that will grow if exposed to the proper conditions
Snowmelt: water from melting snow
Sonar: a device that uses sound waves to detect the presence and location of submerged objects (such as submarines)
Species: a class of things of the same kind and with the same name
Stamen: the (male) part of a flower where pollen is produced
Stem: central structure of the plant that provides support for the plant and a pathway for transportation of water and nutrients for the plant
Stigma: the tip of the pistil (female part of the flower), which receives the male pollen grains
Stolon: a horizontal, aboveground stem that produces roots and shoots
Sublimation: most commonly, the process of snow and ice changing into water vapor without first melting into water
Sundial: a device that uses the position of the sun and the shadow it casts to tell the time of day
Terrain: a tract of land, especially in reference to its natural features
Territory: any area defended by one or more individuals against intrusion by others of the same or different species
Time budget: a record of how much time an organism spends at various activities
Transpiration: process in plants by which water is carried through the stem to the leaves and evaporates into the air
Trees: woody shrubs that have a main trunk and many branches
Universe: a world or sphere in which something exists or prevails
Vascular: plants that use roots and stems to take in water and nutrients
Warm-blooded: maintaining a constant internal body temperature regardless of external conditions
Water cycle: a term that describes the movement of water in, on, and above Earth
Windmill: a machine or device that transforms kinetic energy from the wind into another useful form of energy, such as electricity
Woody shrubs: plants that have stems that are covered by a layer of bark