Introduction

Abiotic factors

Aerobic respiration

Allelopathy

Aquifer

Autotrpohs

Biodiversity

Biogeochemical cycles

Biome

Biosphere

Biotic factors

Carnivores

Chaparral

Commensalism

Community

Competition

Conservation

Consumers

Detritus

Ecology

Ecosystem

Environmental ethics

Environmental policies

Environmental science

Food chain
Food web

Freshwater

Greenhouse effect

Habitat

Herbivores

Heterotrophs

Hydrologic cycle

Mutualism

Natural resources

Neritic

Niche

Non-point sources

Omnivores

Pelagic

Photosynthesis

Point sources

Pollution

Population

Prairie

Predation

Preservation

Primary producers

Primary production

Scientific method

Stewardship
Sustainable

Taxonomists

Top predators

Trophic levels

Chapter 1
Calorie: the energy required to raise the temperature of 1000 grams of water by one degree Celsius. 1
Calorie = 1000 calories.

Copepods: Small, mostly herbivorous planktonic crustaceans, about 1 to 5 mm in length commonly

found in freshwater, marine, and estuarine water. The most numerous animal in the oceans.

Cyanobacteria: (blue-green algae) Prokaryotic, generally photosynthetic, bacteria classified as

monerans.

First Law of Thermodynamics: The scientific principle that energy cannot be created or destroyed but
can be transformed from one form to another.

First trophic level: The lowest feeding level in a food chain or food wed where food is produced typically
by photosynthetic green plants.

Gross primary production: The rate at which solar energy is captured through photosynthesis in a given
area. Part of this energy becomes plant biomass and part is used for plant metabolism, tissue repair,
and reproduction.

Inorganic: Non-organic chemical compounds including salts such as sodium chloride, nutrients such as
phosphates and nitrates, minerals such as sulfur, and metals such as iron.

Lichens: A symbiotic community of algae (or cyanobacteria) and fungi living together.

Mutualism: A symbiotic relationship between two species where each species may benefit.

Nekton: Larger animal life of the sea with locomotory abilities enabling them to swim against water
currents.

Net primary production: the rate at which solar energy is converted into plant biomass through
photosynthesis in a given area.

One Percent Rule: The concept that on the average about one percent of sunlight energy is captured
during photosynthesis and stored in plant biomass.
Organic: Referring to substances, both natural and human-made, living and non-living, that contain
carbon and other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Includes alcohols, sugars,
carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins, and lipids.

Permafrost: Permanently frozen ground in polar regions occurring a few inches to a few feet below most
tundra soils and extending in some places to depths as great as 600 meters.

Photic zone: A water-column depth through which sufficient sunlight can penetrate to support
photosynthesis.

Phytoplankton: Microscopic autotrophic plant organisms that drift with water and wind currents due to
limited locomotory capabilities.

Plankton: Very small plant and animal life that drift with water and wind currents due to limited
locomotory capabilities.

Rut: The season of mating among wildlife such as caribou.

Second Law of Thermodynamics: The scientific principle that the use of energy cannot be 100 percent
efficient: part is always lost as waste heat which is discharged to the environment.

Second trophic level: A food-wed feeding level where primary consumers obtain energy by consuming
first-trophic-level primary producers.

Solar constant: The fraction of total electromagnetic energy radiating from the sun that is intercepted by
the earth.

Symbiosis: An intimate biological relationship involving two species where both species may benefit, the
host species may be unaffected, or the host species may be harmed.

Ten Percent Rule: The concepts that on the average about ten percent of plant biomass is converted
into animal matter at the second and higher trophic levels.

Tundra: A mostly flat, almost tree-less arctic ecosystem eroded from disturbed watersheds or by algal
blooms.

Zooplankton: Microscopic, free-floating, aquatic animal life with limited locomotory power causing them
to drift with wind and water currents.