Glossary
Agroforestry or agro-sylviculture is a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland. It combines shrubs and trees I agural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, and sustainable land-use systems.
Spider or Scorpion.
A segmented worm of the phylum Annelida, such as an earthworm or leech.
Biodiversity
Refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth.
Regions of the world with similar climate (weather, temperature) animals and plants.
A population bottleneck (or genetic bottleneck) is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events (such as earthquakes, floods, fires, disease, or droughts) or human activities (such as genocide).
The planned breeding of a group of animals or plants, usually involving at least several individuals and extending over several generations.
An animal that eats a diet consisting mainly of meat, whether it comes from live animals or dead ones (scavenging).
A change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
Of biodiversity, environment, and natural resources, including protection and management.
Study of the evolutionary basis for animal behavior due to ecological pressures.
The role and position a species has in its environment; how it meets its needs for food and shelter, how it survives, and how it reproduces.
Concerned with ecosystems as a whole, the abundance and distribution of organisms (people, plants, animals), and the relationships between organisms and their environment.
A community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system.
Endangered Species Act of 1973
Signed on December 28, 1973, and provides for the conservation of species that are endangered or threatened throughout all or a significant portion of their range, and the conservation of the ecosystems on which they depend.
Species which have been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as likely to become extinct.
Native or restricted to a certain country or area.
Destroy completely; put an end to.
Make (a hole or channel) by digging.
(of a species, family, or other larger group) having no living members.
A hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food.
A system of interlocking and interdependent food chains.
The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.
Feed and care for (a young animal) until it is fully grown.
A thing, especially a trend or fact, that indicates the state or level of something.
An interaction in population ecology, whereby members of the same species compete for limited resources.
Are those that have been moved by humans to an environment where they didn't occur naturally.
A plant, fungus, or animal species that is not native to a specific location (an introduced species), and which has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy or human health.
Species whose populations fluctuate at or near the carrying capacity of the environment in which they reside.
Environmental conditions that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of an organism or a population of organisms in an ecosystem.
A tree or shrub that grows in chiefly tropical coastal swamps that are flooded at high tide. Mangroves typically have numerous tangled roots above ground and form dense thickets.
In softwood species, trees are 80 to 140 years old. In hardwood species, trees are 60 to 140 years old. Trees have reached the mature size for their species. The growth rate of mature trees has leveled out, and mature trees grow at a slower rate than young trees.
Of indigenous origin or growth
Not indigenous or native to a particular place.
An organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense.
A sudden decline in the number of individuals found in a population because of a scarcity of environmental resources that are required for survival, growth, and reproduction.
An animal that naturally preys on others.
Defined as the passing of genes onto the next generation in a way that they too can pass on those genes.
A document describing protocols for protecting and enhancing rare and endangered species populations.
The action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition.
For those species that produce many "cheap" offspring and live in unstable environments.
Can only thrive in a narrow range of environmental conditions or has a limited diet.
Developed in 1981 by the (American) Association of Zoos and Aquariums to help ensure the survival of selected species in zoos and aquariums, most of which are threatened or endangered in the wild.
In biological classification, subspecies is a taxonomic rank subordinate to species.
A colony of termites, typically within a mound of cemented earth.
Any species (including animals, plants, fungi, etc.) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future.
A hot, moist biome found near Earth's equator.
An animal of a large group distinguished by the possession of a backbone or spinal column, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes.
Refers to the inability (of a system or a unit) to withstand the effects of a hostile environment.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved January 20, 2016 from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com