Ecology Workshop

Glossary

abiotic - non-living things, or related to non-living things


biotic - living things, or related to living things


biomass - "living mass", the amount of organisms in a particular area, usually expressed as weight.


bond - "chemical" bond - atoms are linked by sharing an electron or other means.


commensalism - symbiotic relationship between two species, where one benefits and the other is unaffected. Often, one organism lives with another for shelter or support.


emigration - the action of migrating or departing out of a particular place or set of surroundings.


exponential - the value doubles over a particular time period


extinct - a species that has died out or come to an end, has no living representative.


feral - a wild or untamed organism, or one that has lapsed from a domesticated condition to a wild condition.

gene: each of the units of heredity which control the expression of single phenotypic characters. Genes are usually segments of a chromosome at fixed positions relative to each other. The term gene can be used for both a genetic locus and an allele.


immigration - the action of immigrating; entrance into a place for the purpose of settling there.


mammal - animal in the class Mammalia. Mammals are warm-blooded, have fur at some stage of their life cycle, and nourish young by secretions from the mammary gland.


mutualism - symbiotic interaction between two species where both benefit from the association.


niche - all of the factors which determine the distribution of a species.


parasitism - symbiotic interaction between two species where one benefits and the other is harmed.


photosynthesis - the absorption of energy from sunlight by means of pigments, reactivation of pigments, and carbon fixation to produce sucrose in "dark reactions".


potential distribution - all physical locations which might be occupied by a species.


predation - where one organism captures and eats another.


protein - an organic compound consisting of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen with a little sulphur forming an important part of all living organisms.


realised distribution - the physical locations occupied by a species at this point in time.


species - the lowest rank in a taxonomic classification. The biological species concept is a group of interbreeding populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.


symbiosis - interaction in which two organisms live in a relationship that is beneficial to at least one of them.


unpalatable - distasteful or unpleasant to eat.