Fundamental Ecology and Environmental Science Terms

Key Environmental and Biological Concepts

• Abiotic: Nonliving components of an ecosystem, such as soil, water, air, light, nutrients, and the like.
• Biscayne Aquifer: A surficial aquifer consisting of a shallow layer of highly permeable limestone located under a portion of South Florida, covering approximately 4,000 square miles.
• Circadian Rhythms: A biological process that displays an endogenous, entrainable oscillation of about 24 hours. These 24-hour rhythms are driven by a circadian clock.
• Climate: The long-term average pattern of local, regional, or global weather.
• Condensation: The transformation of water vapor into a liquid state.
• Critical Daylength: The classification of plants based on their flowering response to the length of daylight.
• Day-Neutral Plant: A plant that flowers regardless of the length of the light period it is exposed to, such as rice, corn, and cucumber.
• Desertification: The process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture.
• Evaporation: The loss of water vapor from soil, open water, or another exposed surface.
• Evapotranspiration: The sum of moisture loss through evaporation from land and water surfaces and transpiration from plants.
• Greenhouse Effect: Selective energy absorption by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which allows short-wavelength energy to pass through but absorbs longer wavelengths and reflects heat back to Earth.
• Groundwater: Water that occurs below the Earth's surface in pore spaces within bedrock and soil, free to move under the influence of gravity.
• Humus: Organic material derived from the partial decay of plant and animal matter.
• Hydrogen Bonding: A type of bond occurring between an atom of oxygen or nitrogen and a hydrogen atom joined to oxygen or nitrogen on another molecule; it is responsible for the unique properties of water.
• Long-Day Organism: A plant or animal that requires long days with more than a certain minimum of daylight to flower or enter a reproductive condition.
• Macronutrient: Essential nutrients that plants and animals need in large amounts.
• Microclimate: Climate on a very local scale that differs from the general climate of the area, influencing the presence and distribution of organisms.
• Micronutrient: Essential nutrients that plants and animals need in small amounts.
• Mycorrhizae: An association of fungus with the roots of higher plants, which improves the plant's uptake of nutrients from the soil.
• Nutrient Cycling: The pathway of an element or nutrient through the ecosystem, from assimilation by organisms to release by decomposition.
• Percolation: The process of a liquid slowly passing through a filter, similar to the brewing of coffee.
• pH: A scale ranging from pH 3 (extremely acidic) to pH 9 (strongly alkaline). Soils with a pH higher than 7 (neutral) are considered basic, and those with a pH of 5.6 or less are acidic.