Ecology

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community

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two or more species occupying the same geographical area at a given time

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physical structure

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biological structure

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zonation

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The broad distribution of vegetation according to latitude and altitude. The control is primarily climatic, and similar vegetation zones are encountered on the flanks of high tropical mountains to those found at sea level between the tropics and the poles.

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stratification

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vertical layering of a habitat; the arrangement of vegetation in layers.

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hierarchy

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Ecological hierarchy theory describes the arrangement of biological organisms in relation to one another. (biosphere, ecosystem, community, population, individual )

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species richness

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Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the abundances of the species or their relative abundance distributions.

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species density

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Population density is a measure of the number of organisms that make up a population in a defined area. To calculate the population density, you will divide the population by the size of the area. Thus, Population Density = Number of People/Land Area.

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species distrubution

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Individuals of a population can be distributed in one of three basic patterns: they can be more or less equally spaced apart (uniform dispersion), dispersed randomly with no predictable pattern (random dispersion), or clustered in groups (clumped dispersion) .

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dominance

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A dominant species in an ecosystem is the most abundant species present. It makes up the highest percentage of the total biomass in the system. A keystone species is one that has the greatest effect on all of the other species in an ecosystem.

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keystone species

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A keystone species is one that has the greatest effect on all of the other species in an ecosystem.

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environmental gradient

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An environmental gradient is a gradual change in abiotic factors through space (or time).Environmental gradients can be related to factors such as altitude, temperature, depth, ocean proximity and soil humidity. Species abundances usually change along environmental gradients in a more or less predictive way.

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competition

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Competition is an interaction between organisms or species in which both the organisms or species are harmed. Limited supply of at least one resource (such as food, water, and territory) used by both can be a factor.

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primary succession

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Primary succession is one of two types of biological and ecological succession of plant life, occurring in an environment in which new substrate devoid of vegetation and other organisms usually lacking soil, such as a lava flow or area left from retreated glacier, is deposited.

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secondary succession

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Secondary succession is the series of community changes which take place on a previously colonized, but disturbed or damaged habitat. Examples include areas which have been cleared of existing vegetation (such as after tree-felling in a woodland) and destructive events such as fires.

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seral stage

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A seral community (or sere) is an intermediate stagefound in ecological succession in an ecosystem advancing towards its climax community. In many cases more than one seral stage evolves until climax conditions are attained.

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pioneer species

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Pioneer species are hardy species which are the first to colonize previously disrupted or damaged ecosystems, beginning a chain of ecological succession that ultimately leads to a more biodiverse steady-state ecosystem.

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climax species

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Climax species are plant species that will remain essentially unchanged in terms of species composition for as long as a site remains undisturbed.

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disturbance

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In biology, a disturbance is a temporary change in environmental conditions that causes a pronounced change in an ecosystem. Disturbances often act quickly and with great effect, to alter the physical structure or arrangement of biotic and abiotic elements.

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gap analysis

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Gap analysis is a tool used in wildlife conservation to identify gaps in conservation lands (e.g., protected areas and nature reserves) or other wildlands where significant plant and animal species and their habitat or important ecological features occur.

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ecosystem stability

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Ecosystem stability is an important corollary of sustainability. Over time, the structure and function of a healthy ecosystem should remain relatively stable, even in the face of disturbance. If a stress or disturbance does alter the ecosystem is should be able to bounce back quickly.

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ecosystem resiliance

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Ecosystem resilience refers to the capacity of anecosystem to recover from disturbance or withstand ongoing pressures.1 2 It is a measure of how well anecosystem can tolerate disturbance without collapsing into a different state that is controlled by a different set of processes.

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sustainability

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Ecological sustainability refers to the capacity of the biosphere to meet the needs of the present generation, without hindering future generations from being able to meet their needs. This means using our natural resources wisely in the short-term so that these resources are available in the long-term.

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environmental management

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Ecological and Environmental Management. Nowadays, environmental protection, the restoration of natural resources, industrial waste utilization, andecological disaster prevention are priority issues around the world.

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resoration

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Restoration ecology emerged as a separate field inecology in the 1980s. It is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoringdegraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human intervention and action.

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reclamation

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Reclamation and Restoration Ecology (RRE) undergraduate minor and graduate certificate are now available. RRE involves the use of basic and applied ecologicalconcepts to rehabilitate and restore processes and functions to disturbed ecosystems. Ecosystems of concern include: Coal and bentonite mined lands.

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precautionary stance

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The precautionary principle (or precautionary approach) to risk management states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public, or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus (that the action or policy is not harmful), the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking that action.

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conservation

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Conservation ecology is the branch of ecology and evolutionary biology that deals with the preservation and management of biodiversity and natural resources. It is a discipline that is emerging rapidly as a result of the accelerating deterioration of natural systems and the worldwide epidemic of species extinctions.

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biodiversity

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variety of life in an ecosystem

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how do you calculate biodiversity

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Ecological diversity is a type of biodiversity. It is the variation in the ecosystems found in a region or the variation in ecosystems over the whole planet. Ecological diversity includes the variation in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

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hotspots

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mating grounds are chosen by females preference for an area

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extinction

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In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms (taxon), normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point.

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extirpated

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Local extinction, or extirpation, is the condition of a species (or other taxon) that ceases to exist in the chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions.

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threatened species

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species at risk of being endangered

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vulnerable species

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A vulnerable species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as likely to becomeendangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction improve. Vulnerability is mainly caused by habitat loss or destruction of the species home.

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invasive species

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an invasive species is a plant, fungus, or animalspecies 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.

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extinction vortex

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, the extinction vortexis the term used to describe the process that declining populations undergo when”a mutual reinforcement occurs among biotic and abiotic processes that drives population size downward to extinction”

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habitat fragmentation

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Habitat fragmentation is an umbrella term describing the complete process by which habitat loss results in the division of large, continuous habitats into a greater number of smaller patches of lower total area, isolated from each other by a matrix of dissimilar habitats, Forest fragmentation is the breaking of large, contiguous, forested areas into smaller pieces of forest; typically these pieces are separated by roads, agriculture, utility corridors, subdivisions, or other human development.Oct 13, 2014

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edge ecosystems

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In ecology, edge effects refer to the changes in population or community structures that occur at the boundary of two habitats. Areas with small habitat fragments exhibit especially pronounced edge effects that may extend throughout the range.

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fine filter approach

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An approach to the conservation of biodiversity that is directed toward particular habitats or species that may be threatened or endangered and might fall through the coarse filter.

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coarse filter approach

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The coarse filter approach focuses on managing ecosystems and their natural processes. Most stand level elements (including stand structure, wildlife trees, andcoarse woody debris) are maintained through the maintenance (or mimicking) of ecosystem processes and disturbance patterns.

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soil restoration

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Soil restoration (SR) is the technique of enhancing compacted soils to improve their porosity and nutrient retention. It includes biological (worms) and mechani- cal aeration, mechanical loosening (tilling), plant- ing dense vegetation, and applying soilamendments.

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greenhouse effect

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the trapping of the sun's warmth in a planet's lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface.

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carbon

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The source of the carbon found in living matter iscarbon dioxide (CO 2) in the air or dissolved in water. Algae and terrestrial green plants (producers) are the chief agents of carbon dioxide fixation through the process of photosynthesis, through which carbondioxide and water are converted into simple carbohydrates

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emissions

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GHG) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide,methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.

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climate change

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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.

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xylem

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the vascular tissue in plants that conducts water and dissolved nutrients upward from the root and also helps to form the woody element in the stem.

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phloem

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the vascular tissue in plants that conducts sugars and other metabolic products downward from the leaves.

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photosynthesis

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the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.

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dendrochronology

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Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in order to analyze atmospheric conditions during different periods in history.

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migration

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seasonal movement of animals from one region to another.

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emigration

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the act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another; moving abroad.

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colonization

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Definition. Colonization is the occupation of a habitat or territory by a biological community or of an ecological niche by a single population of a species. Biologicalcolonization relates to all species, from microbes – including bacteria, archaea, and fungi – to more complex organisms, like plants and animals.