| A | B |
|---|
| Abiotic | A nonliving factor or element (e.g., light, water, heat, rock, energy, mineral). |
| Allele | Any of a set of possible forms of a gene. |
| Biological diversity | The variety and complexity of species present and interacting in an ecosystem and the relative abundance of each. |
| Biomes | A community of living organisms of a single major ecological region. |
| Biotic | An environmental factor related to or produced by living organisms. |
| Composting | The process of mixing decaying leaves, manure and other nutritive matter to improve and fertilize soil. |
| Consumer | Those organisms that obtain energy by feeding on other organisms and their remains. |
| Decomposer | An organism, often microscopic in size, that obtains nutrients by consuming dead organic matter, thereby making nutrients accessible to other organisms; examples of decomposers include fungi, scavengers, rodents and other animals. |
| Ecosystem | A community of living organisms and their interrelated physical and chemical environment. |
| Embryology | The branch of biology dealing with the development of living things from fertilized egg to its developed state. |
| Endangered species | A species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. |
| Environment | The total of the surroundings (air, water, soil, vegetation, people, wildlife) influencing each living being’s existence, including physical, biological and all other factors; the surroundings of a plant or animals including other plants or animals, climate and location. |
| Enzyme | A protein that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being changed by the reaction; an organic catalyst. |
| Equilibrium | The ability of an ecosystem to maintain stability among its biological resources (e.g., forest, fisheries, crops) so that there is a steady optimum yield. |
| Evolution | A process of change that explains why what we see today is different from what existed in the past; it includes changes in the galaxies, stars, solar system, earth and life on earth. Biological evolution is a change in hereditary characteristics of groups of organisms over the course of generations. |
| Extinction | The complete elimination of a species from the earth. |
| Integrated pest | A variety of pest control methods that include repairs, traps, bait, poison, etc. to eliminate pests. |
| Lentic | Relating to or living in still water. |
| Lotic | Relating to or living in actively moving water. |
| Mitosis | The sequential differentiation and segregation of replicated chromosomes in a cell’s nucleus that precedes complete cell division. |
| Niche (ecological) | The role played by an organism in an ecosystem; its food preferences, requirements for shelter, special behaviors and the timing of its activities (e.g., nocturnal, diurnal), interaction with other organisms and its habitat. |
| Nonpoint source pollution | Contamination that originates from many locations that all discharge into a location (e.g., a lake, stream, land area). |
| Nonrenewable resources | Substances (e.g., oil, gas, coal, copper, gold) that, once used, cannot be replaced in this geological age. |
| Pest | A label applied to an organism when it is in competition with humans for some resource. |
| Point source pollution | Pollutants discharged from a single identifiable location (e.g., pipes, ditches, channels, sewers, tunnels, containers of various types). |
| Renewable | A naturally occurring raw material or form of energy that will be replenished through natural ecological cycles or sound management practices (e.g., the sun, wind, water, trees). |
| Shredder | Through chewing and/or grinding, microorganisms feed on non-woody coarse particulate matter, primarily leaves. |
| Stream order | Energy and nutrient flow that increases as water moves toward the oceans (e.g., the smallest stream (primary) that ends when rivers flow into oceans). |
| Succession | The series of changes that occur in an ecosystem with the passing of time. |
| Sustainability | The ability to keep in existence or maintain. A sustainable ecosystem is one that can be maintained. |
| Theory of evolution | A theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modification in successive generations. |
| Trophic levels | The role of an organism in nutrient and energy flow within an ecosystem (e.g., herbivore, carnivore, decomposer). |
| Waste Stream | The flow of (waste) materials from generation, collection and separation to disposal. |
| Watershed | The land area from which surface runoff drains into a stream, channel, lake, reservoir or other body of water; also called a drainage basin. |
| Wetlands | Lands where water saturation is the dominant factor determining the nature of the soil development and the plant and animal communities (e.g., sloughs, estuaries, marshes). |
