1.
Abiotic(1): Non-living chemical or physical factors within the environment (ex. radiation, temperature, and water).
2.
Aerobic Respiration (2): The release of energy from glucose or another organic substrate in the presence of Oxygen (ex. takes place in most living things: to get rid of Carbon Dioxide and excess water this is excretion and maximum energy is released from glucose).
3.
Anaerobic Respiration (2): A way for an organism to produce usable energy in the form of ATP without the presence of Oxygen (ex. glucose + 3NO3- + 3H2O 6HCO3- + 3NH4+, ΔG0' = -1796 kJ) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_respiration#Examples_of_anaerobic_respiration).
4.
Aquatic Life Zone (1): Zones under the water where aquatic life is present which can be characterized by aquatic ecosystems (ex. marine ecosystem and freshwater ecosystem).
5.
Biogeochemical Cycle (1): A pathway by which a chemical element or molecules travels throughout biotic and abiotic components on earth (ex. carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, and water cycle).
6.
Biomass (1): A renewable energy source in which a biological material is from living or recently deceased organisms (ex. garbage, wood, waste, landfill gasses, and alcohol fuels).
7.
Biome (1): Climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on earth and often referred to as "ecosystems" (ex. Tundra, tropical rain forest, and Taiga).
8.
Biosphere (1): The global sum of all the ecosystems together, often referred to as the "zone of life of earth" (sig. Thought to evolved from through a process of biogenesis or biopoesis over 3.5 billion ago).
9.
Biotic Potential (2): The maximum reproductive capacity of a population, if resources are limited (sig. If the value of population increase can be determined, the impact of the environment upon the population can also be determined)
10.
Biotic(1): Relating to, produced by, or caused by living organisms (ex. wood, linoleum, straw, humus and crude oil).
11.
Carbon Cycle (1): The Biogeochemical cycle of which carbon is exchanged throughout the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and the atmosphere (sig. Helps scientific researches discover where large amounts of carbon are stored i.e. the ocean contains the largest active pool of carbon near the surface of earth).
12.
Chemosynthesis (3): The biological conversion of one or more carbon molecules and nutrients into organic matter using the "oxidation of inorganic molecules" as a source of energy (ex. producing sulfur: Hydrogen sulfide chemosynthesis': CO2 + O2 + 4H2S → CH2O + 4S + 3H2O).
13.
Community (1): A group of interacting species sharing a populated environment (ex. human communities, plant communities, and animal communities)
14.
Consumer (1): Any individuals that use goods or services generated within an economy (ex. business consumers and hunting consumers [foxes, wolves, and eagles]).
15.
Decomposer (1): Organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms that carry out of the process of decomposition (ex. fungi and worms).
16.
Ecological Efficiency (1): The efficiency with which energy is transfered from one trophic level to another (ex. 20 units of energy are produced are trophic level 1; one half of that is lost to non-predatory death, while the other half is ingested by trophic level 2; one half of the amount ingested is expelled through defecation while the other half is ingested by trophic level 3).
17.
Ecosystem (1): A biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area as well as non-living components interact with the organisms as well (ex. terrestrial ecosystem, aquatic ecosystem, and artificial ecosystem).
18.
Ecotone (1): A transition area between two adjacent but different plant communities (ex. reed beds tend to accumulate organic matter which is then colonized by trees, forcing the reeds further into the lake).
19.
Food Web (1): Representations of predator-prey relationships between species within an ecosystem or habitat (ex. A snakes prey might be a mouse, while his predator may be a badger that is represented through a web of organisms).
20.
Genetic Diversity (1): The total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species (sig. Plays a large role in survival and adaptability of species due to the change of the species environment, slight gene variations are necessary to change an organisms anatomy to survive).
21.
Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) (3): The total amount of productivity in a region or a system (ex. total amount of Co2 that is fixed by a plant within photosynthesis).
22.
Habitat (1): An ecological or environmental inhabited by a particular species of organism (ex. African elephant habitats spread throughout Africa and Microhabitats)
23.
Humus (1): Any organic matter which has reached a point of stability where it will not break down any further and remain as it is for centuries (ex. mature compost and natural compost used to amend soil).
24.
Hydrologic Cycle (1): The continuous movement of water on, above, or below the surface of earth (sig. Water cycle involves the exchange of heat energy, which can also lead to temperature changes).
25.
Hydrosphere (1): The combined mass of water found on, under, and above the planet Earth (ex. the total mass of the Earth's hydrosphere is about 1.4 x 10^18 tons).
26.
Law of Tolerance (2): The existence, abundance, and distribution of species depends on the tolerance level of each species to physical and chemical factors (ex. In aquatic ecosystems, major limiting factors include pH, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water and the salinity).
27.
Leaching (1): The extraction of certain materials from a carrier into a liquid (ex. agriculture leaching, chemical science leaching, and pedology leaching).
28.
Limiting Factor (1): A factor that controls a process such as an organisms growth or species population, size or distribution (ex. sunlight in a rainforest).
29.
Lithosphere (1): The rigid outtermost shell of a rocky planet (ex. Earth consists of a crust and uppermost mantle within it's lithosphere.
30.
Loams (3) (1): A soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in relatively even concentration (ex. sandy loam, silty loam and clay loam).
31.
Net Primary Productivity (NPP) (1): The production of organic compounds from atmospheric or aquatic carbon dioxide, principally through the idea of photosynthesis (ex. reduced carbohydrate: CO2 + H2O + light CH2O + O2).
32.
Nitrogen Cycle (1): The process by which nitrogen is converted between ammonia acids (sig. Scientists use the nitrogen cycle to determine the total amount of Nitrogen on Earth, which amounts to about 79%).
33.
Nitrogen Fixation (2): The natural process by which nitrogen in the universe is converted to ammonia (ex. used by many prokaryotes including bacteria and actinobacteria).
34.
Percolation (3): The movement and filtering of fluids through porous materials (ex. coffee percolation, the solvent being water, permeable substances being coffee grounds, and soluble constitutes are the objects that give coffee taste and color).
35.
Permeability (1): A measure of the ability of a porous material to transmit fluids (sig. Determines the flow characteristics of hydrocarbons in oil and gas reservoirs).
36.
Phosphorus Cycle (1): The movement of phosphorous through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere (sig. Scientists analyze the amounts of phosphorus amounts throughout the earth and discover its essentiality for plants and animals in the form of ions).
37.
Photosynthesis (2): The process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds using the energy from sunlight (ex. process always begins when energy from light is absorbed by proteins that contain chlorophylls).
38.
Population (1): All the organisms which belong to the same species and live in the same geographical area (ex. human population, plant population, and animal populations).
39.
Porosity (1): The measure of the void spaces within material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume (sig. The porosity of a rock, is an important consideration when attempting to evaluate the potential volume of water or hydrocarbons it may contain).
40.
Precipitation (1): Any product of condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity (ex. rain, snow, sleet, hail, and graupel).
41.
Primary Consumer (1): A consumer in which they get their energy from the consumption of plants (ex. cows, moose, and rabbits).
42.
Producer (1): An organism that produces complex organic compounds from simple inorganic molecules using energy from light (ex. plants and trees).
43.
Pyramid of Energy Flow (1): Graphical representation designed to show the biomass productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem (sig. helps discover the amount of energy distributed within each given trophic level).
44.
Range of Tolerance (1): The range of conditions in which an organism can survive and thrive (sig. can mathematically predict the amount of a population with given standards in an ecosystem).
45.
Scavenger (1): A carnivorous feeding behavior in which a predator consumes a corpse that was not killed to be eaten by the predator (ex. vultures, blowflies, and raccoons).
46.
Secondary Consumer (1): A consumer in which consumes the consumer of the plants or autotrophs (ex. foxes, owls, and snakes).
47.
Soil (1): A natural body consisting of layers of mineral constitutes of variable thickness, which differ from the parent material in their physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics (ex. differs from its parent rock in the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere).
48.
Soil Horizons (1): Specific layer in the land area that is parallel to the soil surface that possesses physical characteristics which differ from the layer above and beneath (ex. alluvium, sand dunes, and volcanic ash).
49.
Soil Texture (2): A soil property used to describe the relative proportion of different grain sizes of mineral particles in the soil (ex. clay, silt, sand, and loam).
50.
Species (1): One of the basic units of biological classification and taxonomic rank, one of a group of organisms capable of breeding and producing fertile offspring (ex. generic name and specific name, Boa Constrictor)
51.
Species Diversity (1): An index that incorporates the number of species in an area and also their relative abundance (ex. Simpsons Diversity index: D = (n / N)2)
52.
Sulfur Cycle (1): One of the constitutes of many proteins, vitamins, and hormones, and it recycles throughout the earth also in a Biogeochemical cycle (ex. mineralization of organic sulfur to the inorganic form, hydrogen sulfide: (H2S))
53.
Terrestrial (1): An animal that lives predominantly or entirely on land which evolved from marine animals (ex. cats, dogs, giraffes).
54.
Tertiary (higher level) consumers (1): A carnivore at the topmost of the food chain that feeds on other carnivores (ex. humans).
55.
Trophic Levels (1): An organism and the position it occupies on the food chain (ex. primary producers level 1 and predators at level 3).
