CHAPT 43 BIO GLOSSARY
Terms
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- biodiversity
- [Gk. bios, life] All species living in a defined region, ranging from the smallest habitat to the biosphere, in a specified interval.
- biogeochemical cycle
- Slow movement of an element from environmental reservoirs, through food webs, then back to the environment.
- biological magnification
- Ever increasing concentration of a nondegradable or slowly degradable substance in body tissues as it is passed along food chains.
- biomass
- Combined weight of all organisms at a given trophic level in an ecosystem.
- carbon cycle
- An atmospheric cycle. Carbon moves from reservoirs (sediments, rocks, the ocean), through the atmosphere (mostly as CO2), food webs, and back to the reservoirs.
- carnivore
- Animal that devours other animals.
- consumer
- [L. consumere, to take completely] A heterotroph that feeds on cells or tissues of other organisms (e.g., herbivores, carnivores).
- decomposer
- [L. dis-, to pieces] Prokaryotic or fungal heterotroph; gets carbon and energy from products, remains, of organisms. Helps cycle nutrients to producers in ecosystems.
- detritivore
- Heterotroph that feeds on decomposing particles of organic matter (e.g., crab, earthworm, roundworm).
- diversity of life
- Sum of all variations in form, function, and behavior in all lineages, from the time of life's origin to the present.
- ecosystem
- Array of organisms, together with their environment, interacting through a flow of energy and a cycling of materials.
- energy pyramid
- Pyramidal diagram of an ecosystem's trophic structure; it shows energy losses at each transfer to another trophic level.
- food chain
- Straight-line sequence of who eats whom in an ecosystem.
- food web
- Of ecosystems, cross-connecting food chains consisting of producers, consumers, and decomposers, detritivores, or both.
- global warming
- A long-term increase in the temperature of the Earth's lower atmosphere.
- greenhouse effect
- Atmospheric gases impede escape of infrared wavelengths (heat) from Earth's sun-warmed surface, absorb them, and radiate much of the heat back toward Earth.
- herbivore
- [L. herba, grass, + vovare, to devour] Plant-eating animal (e.g., snail, deer, manatee).
- hydrologic cycle
- Biogeochemical cycle, driven by solar energy, in which water moves slowly through the atmosphere, on or through surface land, to the ocean, and back to the atmosphere.
- nitrogen cycle
- Atmospheric cycle. Nitrogen moves from its largest reservoir (atmosphere), through the ocean, ocean sediments, soils, and food webs, then back to the atmosphere.
- omnivore
- [L. omnis, all, + vovare, to devour] Animal that eats at more than one trophic level.
- phosphorus cycle
- A sedimentary cycle; the movement of phosphorus (mainly phosphate ions) from land, through food webs, to ocean sediments, then back to land.
- primary producer
- Type of autotroph that secures energy directly from the environment and stores some in its tissues.
- trophic level
- All organisms the same number of transfer steps away from the energy input into an ecosystem.
- watershed
- Land area that delivers the water, sediment, and dissolved substances via small streams to a major stream (river).