algae: Single-celled organisms, as soon as thought of vegetation (they aren’t). As aquatic organisms, they develop in water. Like inexperienced vegetation, they depend upon daylight to make their meals.
ambiance: The envelope of gases surrounding Earth, one other planet or a moon.
micro organism: (singular: bacterium) Single-celled organisms. These dwell almost in all places on Earth, from the underside of the ocean to inside different residing organisms (akin to vegetation and animals). Micro organism are one of many three domains of life on Earth.
biologist: A scientist concerned within the research of residing issues.
bloom: (in microbiology) The fast and largely uncontrolled development of a species, akin to algae in waterways enriched with vitamins.
carbon: A chemical aspect that’s the bodily foundation of all life on Earth. Carbon exists freely as graphite and diamond. It is a vital a part of coal, limestone and petroleum, and is able to self-bonding, chemically, to kind an unlimited variety of chemically, biologically and commercially essential molecules. (in local weather research) The time period carbon generally shall be used virtually interchangeably with carbon dioxide to connote the potential impacts that some motion, product, coverage or course of could have on long-term atmospheric warming.
carbon dioxide: (or CO2) A colorless, odorless gasoline produced by all animals when the oxygen they inhale reacts with the carbon-rich meals that they’ve eaten. Carbon dioxide is also launched when natural matter burns (together with fossil fuels like oil or gasoline). Carbon dioxide acts as a greenhouse gasoline, trapping warmth in Earth’s ambiance. Crops convert carbon dioxide into oxygen throughout photosynthesis, the method they use to make their very own meals.
carcass: The physique of a useless animal.
chemical: A substance fashioned from two or extra atoms that unite (bond) in a set proportion and construction. For instance, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to 1 oxygen atom. Its chemical system is H2O. Chemical additionally will be an adjective to explain properties of supplies which might be the results of numerous reactions between completely different compounds.
local weather: The climate situations that sometimes exist in a single space, basically, or over an extended interval.
local weather change: Lengthy-term, vital change within the local weather of Earth. It may occur naturally or in response to human actions, together with the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests.
cloud: A plume of molecules or particles, akin to water droplets, that transfer beneath the motion of an outdoor pressure, akin to wind, radiation or water currents. (in atmospheric science) A mass of airborne water droplets and ice crystals that journey as a plume, often excessive in Earth’s ambiance. Its motion is pushed by winds. (in computing) A community of computer systems ({hardware}), generally known as servers, that are linked to the web. They can be utilized to retailer knowledge and pc applications (software program) that may be accessed by one or many individuals without delay, and from anyplace on the earth.
compost: The tip product within the breakdown, or decomposition, of leaves, vegetation, greens, manure and different once-living materials. Compost is used to counterpoint backyard soil, and earthworms generally support this course of.
present: A fluid — akin to of water or air — that strikes in a recognizable course. (in electrical energy) The circulation of electrical energy or the quantity of cost transferring by some materials over a specific time frame.
diatoms: Tiny, ocean- and lake-dwelling organisms fabricated from no various cells. Diatoms have cells fabricated from silica, or glass. They dwell like vegetation, utilizing daylight to show carbon dioxide into sugars.
weight loss program: (n.) The meals and liquids ingested by an animal to supply the diet it must develop and preserve well being. Generally this can be a particular food-intake plan. (v.) To undertake a particular food-intake plan. Folks could undertake one for non secular or moral causes, to handle meals allergy symptoms or to regulate a illness akin to hypertension or diabetes. They could additionally undertake one in an effort to reduce weight, though this may be unhealthy if not performed beneath the steering of a well being skilled, akin to a doctor or registered dietician.
echidna: Also referred to as the spiny anteater, that is an egg-laying mammal native to Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. The commonly solitary animal has small eyes and an extended beak-like nostril. It has poor imaginative and prescient however a eager sense of listening to and odor. The short-beaked species have darkish fur largely hidden by hole spines. Spines on long-beaked echidnas are for much longer — about 5 centimeters (2 inches) lengthy — and assist to provide it camouflage.
ecologist: A scientist who works in a department of biology that offers with the relations of organisms to 1 one other and to their bodily environment.
ecosystem: A bunch of interacting residing organisms — together with microorganisms, vegetation and animals — and their bodily setting inside a specific local weather. Examples embody tropical reefs, rainforests, alpine meadows and polar tundra. The time period may also be utilized to parts that make up some a synthetic setting, akin to an organization, classroom or the web.
egg: A reproductive cell that incorporates half of the genetic data essential to kind a whole organism. In people and in lots of different animals, ovaries produce eggs. When an egg fuses with a sperm, they mix to supply a brand new cell, known as a zygote. This is step one within the growth of a brand new organism.”
setting: The sum of the entire issues that exist round some organism or the method and the situation these issues create. Setting could confer with the climate and ecosystem wherein some animal lives, or, maybe, the temperature and humidity (and even the placement of issues within the neighborhood of an merchandise of curiosity).
feral: Animals that have been as soon as domesticated however now run wild. Examples could embody feral canines, horses or pigs.
fertilizer: Nitrogen, phosphorus and different plant vitamins added to soil, water or foliage to spice up crop development or to replenish vitamins that have been misplaced earlier as they have been utilized by plant roots or leaves.
focus: (in physics) The purpose at which rays (of sunshine or warmth for instance) converge generally with the help of a lens. (In imaginative and prescient, verb, “to focus”) The motion an individual’s eyes take to adapt to mild and distance, enabling them to see objects clearly. (in habits) To look or focus intently on some explicit level or factor.
forest: An space of land lined principally with bushes and different woody vegetation.
fruit: A seed-containing reproductive organ in a plant.
gait: The sample of leg motions by which an animal walks from place to put.
glass: A tough, brittle substance constituted of silica, a mineral present in sand. Glass often is clear and pretty inert (chemically nonreactive). Aquatic organisms known as diatoms construct their shells of it.
habitat: The realm or pure setting wherein an animal or plant usually lives, akin to a desert, coral reef or freshwater lake. A habitat will be house to hundreds of various species.
herbivore: A creature that both solely or primarily eats vegetation.
insect: A kind of arthropod that as an grownup can have six segmented legs and three physique elements: a head, thorax and stomach. There are a whole lot of hundreds of bugs, which embody bees, beetles, flies and moths.
litter: Materials that lies round within the open, having been discarded or left to fall the place it might. (in biology) Decaying leaves and different plant matter on the floor of a forest flooring. (in zoology) A bunch of younger animals born on the similar time to the identical mom.
mammal: A warm-blooded animal distinguished by the possession of hair or fur, the secretion of milk by females for feeding their younger, and (sometimes) the bearing of dwell younger.
marine: Having to do with the ocean world or setting.
marine biologist: A scientist who research creatures that dwell in ocean water, from micro organism and shellfish to kelp and whales.
microbe: Quick for microorganism. A residing factor that’s too small to see with the unaided eye, together with micro organism, some fungi and plenty of different organisms akin to amoebas. Most encompass a single cell.
New South Wales: One of many Jap states that make up Australia. Dwelling to some 8 million folks, it’s the oldest, largest and most city of these states. Situated within the east-central and southeastern a part of the nation, most of its residents dwell in or close to the state capital of Sydney.
nitrogen: A colorless, odorless and nonreactive gaseous aspect that kinds about 78 % of Earth’s ambiance. Its scientific image is N. Nitrogen is launched within the type of nitrogen oxides as fossil fuels burn. It is available in two steady kinds. Each have 14 protons within the nucleus. However one has 14 neutrons in that nucleus; the opposite has 15. For that distinction, they’re identified, respectively, as nitrogen-14 and nitrogen-15 (or 14N and 15N).
nutrient: A vitamin, mineral, fats, carbohydrate or protein {that a} plant, animal or different organism requires as a part of its meals in an effort to survive.
natural: (in chemistry) An adjective that signifies one thing is carbon-containing; additionally a time period that pertains to the fundamental chemical substances that make up residing organisms. (in agriculture) Farm merchandise grown with out the usage of non-natural and doubtlessly poisonous chemical substances, akin to pesticides.
organism: Any residing factor, from elephants and vegetation to micro organism and different kinds of single-celled life.
photosynthesis: (verb: photosynthesize) The method by which inexperienced vegetation and another organisms use daylight to supply meals from carbon dioxide and water.
phytoplankton: Generally known as microalgae, these are microscopic vegetation and plant-like organisms that dwell within the ocean. Most float and reside in areas the place daylight filters down. Very similar to land-based vegetation, these organisms include chlorophyll. In addition they require daylight to dwell and develop. Phytoplankton function a base of the oceanic meals net.
planet: A big celestial object that orbits a star however not like a star doesn’t generate any seen mild.
platypus: Generally generally known as the duckbill, this shy Australian egg-laying mammal (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) has a streamlined physique and flat invoice. Its waterproof fur permits it to comfortably navigate in rivers and different waterways, the place it feeds on invertebrate animals that dwell within the sediment. It makes use of electrical indicators given off by the muscle tissues of its prey to seek out its meals. Males have a spur on the inside facet of every ankle releases venom to be used of their protection.
poaching: (in ecology) To illegally hunt and take a wild animal or plant. Individuals who do that are known as poachers.
predation: A time period utilized in biology and ecology to explain a organic interplay the place one organism (the predator) hunts and kills one other (the prey) for meals.
prey: (n.) Animal species eaten by others. (v.) To assault and eat one other species.
protein: A compound constituted of a number of lengthy chains of amino acids. Proteins are an important a part of all residing organisms. They kind the idea of residing cells, muscle and tissues; in addition they do the work inside cells. Antibodies, hemoglobin and enzymes are all examples of proteins. Medicines continuously work by latching onto proteins.
vary: The complete extent or distribution of one thing. As an example, a plant or animal’s vary is the realm over which it naturally exists. (in math or for measurements) The extent to which values can range (akin to the best to lowest temperatures). Additionally, the space inside which one thing will be reached or perceived.
resilient: (n. resilience) To have the ability to get better pretty shortly from obstacles or tough situations. (in supplies) The power of one thing to spring again or get better to its authentic form after bending or in any other case contorting the fabric.
danger: The prospect or mathematical probability that some dangerous factor would possibly occur. As an example, publicity to radiation poses a danger of most cancers. Or the hazard — or peril — itself. (As an example: Amongst most cancers dangers that the folks confronted have been radiation and ingesting water tainted with arsenic.)
sea: An ocean (or area that’s a part of an ocean). Not like lakes and streams, seawater — or ocean water — is salty.
shrub: A perennial plant that grows in a usually low, bushy kind.
silica: A mineral, also referred to as silicon dioxide, containing silicon and oxygen atoms. It’s a fundamental constructing block of a lot of the rocky materials on Earth and of some building supplies, together with glass.
slope: (in geology) The steeply pitched facet of a cliff, hill or mountain. (in arithmetic) The diploma to which some line rises or falls from a strictly horizontal course. A line that seems to rise because it strikes to the best has a constructive slope. One which seems to fall as runs to the best has a unfavourable slope. Vertical traces have neither. Their slope is described as undefined.
species: A bunch of comparable organisms able to producing offspring that may survive and reproduce.
sperm whale: A species of monumental whale with small eyes and a small jaw in a squarish head that takes up 40 % of its physique. Their our bodies can span 13 to 18 meters (43 to 60 ft), with grownup males being on the larger finish of that vary. These are the deepest diving of marine mammals, reaching depths of 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) or extra. They will keep under the water for as much as an hour at a time seeking meals, principally big squids.
tannin: A reddish and bitter plant chemical used to tan leather-based. Tannins are additionally a pure pesticide. Pesticides kill vermin, akin to rats, bugs and lice.
style: One of many fundamental properties the physique makes use of to sense its setting, particularly meals, utilizing receptors (style buds) on the tongue (and another organs).
termite: An ant-like insect that lives in colonies, constructing nests underground, in bushes or in human buildings (like homes and residence buildings). Most feed on wooden.
terrain: The land in a specific space and no matter covers it. The time period would possibly confer with something from a clean, flat and dry panorama to a mountainous area lined with boulders, bogs and forest cowl.
tissue: Manufactured from cells, it’s any of the distinct kinds of supplies that make up animals, vegetation or fungi. Cells inside a tissue work as a unit to carry out a specific perform in residing organisms. Completely different organs of the human physique, as an illustration, typically are constituted of many various kinds of tissues.
vegetation: Leafy, inexperienced vegetation. The time period refers back to the collective group of vegetation in some space. Sometimes these don’t embody tall bushes, however as a substitute vegetation which might be shrub peak or shorter.
whale: A typical, however pretty imprecise, time period for a category of huge mammals that lives within the ocean. This group contains dolphins and porpoises.
wooden: A porous and fibrous structural tissue discovered within the stems and roots of bushes, shrubs and different woody vegetation.
