A Natural Systems Glossary

A NATURAL SYSTEMS GLOSSARY A Glossary of Environmental, Biological, Zoological, Botanical, Ecological, Biogeographical, Evolutionary, Taxonomic, Hydrologic, Geographic, Geomorphologic, Geophysical and Meteorological Terms March 2006 (last revised May 2008) INTRODUCTION This glossary is the outgrowth of the InkaNatura guide training workshop held at Sandoval Lake Lodge and the Heath River Wildlife Center in southeastern Peru and adjacent Bolivia in January and February 2006. It began with the list of approximately 300 vocabulary words and terms generated during the workshop as well as many additional words and terms generated during the January and February 2008 guide training workshop held at Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge and Manu Wildlife Center in southeastern Peru. While originally intended for the use of the InkaNatura guides, it has expanded into a reasonably comprehensive glossary in excess of 2700 terms and useful throughout North and South America. This version of the glossary should only be considered a draft. It has been compiled from many books and online sources. Some entries I wrote myself but the vast majority were cut and pasted from the many online and printed sources. In future versions the definitions will be edited down, but in this version, in the interest of time, for a large number of the entries several definitions from multiple sources have been included. Throughout the glossary, words and terms in boldface type indicate other entries in the glossary. GLOSSARY abdomen - The part of the body that generally contains the intestines; also called the belly; in organisms, such as insects and spiders, is the last body section…In entomology, the part of an insect’s body that contains the digestive system and the organs of reproduction. aberrant - Departing from the normal or usual. abiotic - Non-living components of the environment. … Non-living, containing no living organisms. Abiotic influences on plants include temperature and rainfall. The opposite of biotic. 1 abiotic selection pressure - A selection pressure exerted by climate (seasonal stresses, drought, rainfall, temperature, etc.) or physical disturbance (fire, hurricane, earthquake, flood, erosion, etc.) or soil (nutrient shortage or imbalance) (See: selection pressure) ablation - Surface snow and ice loss from a glacier or covering of ice or snow. abscisic acid - In botany, a growth-inhibiting hormone. abscission zone - A layer of cells at the base of a leaf petiole, flower, or fruit stalk, the weakening of which causes the organ to separate from the plant. abscission - The controlled separation of leaves, flowers, and fruit from plants. absorption - The passage of water and nutrients through cell membranes instead of by direct ingestion. Also refers to how objects convert the solar radiation they receive into heat. abundance - Number per unit area. abyssal plain - The ocean floor beyond the continental shelf. accelerated erosion - Erosion that is much more rapid than natural erosion, or geologic erosion, and occurring primarily as a result of the influence of the activities of people or, in some cases, of animals or natural catastrophes that expose bare surfaces, for example, fires. (See: erosion) accidental - In biogeography, used to describe a rare record of an animal outside its normal geographic distribution caused by unknown circumstances. (See: vagrant) acclimation - Adjustment to environmental change by an individual. The physiological adjustment or increased tolerance shown by an individual organism to environmental change…. A reversible physical change in an adapting organism in response to environmental pressures. (See: adaptation) acclimatization - Adaptation to a different climate. accretion - The accumulation of marine sediments at the edges of a continent, building up in some cases into entire coastal mountain ranges acid - A substance with a pH less than 7 due to prevalent hydrogen ions. Acids tend to be sour and corrosive. The human stomach contains hydrochloric acid with a pH of 1; battery acid is stronger, but not by much. Contrast with basic. acid deposition - A comprehensive term for the various ways acidic compounds precipitate from the atmosphere and deposit onto surfaces… A complex chemical and atmospheric phenomenon that occurs when emissions of sulfur and nitrogen compounds 2 and other substances are transformed by chemical processes in the atmosphere, often far from the original sources, and then deposited on earth in either wet or dry form…. The transfer of acids or acid-forming substances from the atmosphere to the Earth's surface. Referred to as wet deposition when the transfer occurs through precipitation (rain, snow, fog); and dry deposition when the transfer occurs through other processes such as absorption and impaction. acid rain - Rain containing acids that form when sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, or similar industrial gas emissions combine with water… Cloud or rain droplets combine with gaseous pollutants, such as oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, to make falling rain or snow acidic….Rain that has become more acidic than normal (a pH below 5.0) as certain oxides present as airborne pollutants are absorbed by the water droplets… Rain that has become acidic after contact with certain atmospheric gases (primarily sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides)…. Cloud or rain droplets combine with gaseous pollutants, such as oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, to make falling rain or snow acidic…. Precipitation containing harmful amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids formed primarily by nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned. .. Rainfall with a pH level of 7.0 or less. Long-term effects of acid rain are linked to adverse effects on aquatic organisms and plant life in areas with poor neutralizing (buffering) capacity, which can eventually lead to the "death" of a lake or similar body of water. Acid rain is also implicated in the death of many species of trees, e.g. Red Spruce, Sugar Maples, Paper Birch, Green Ash and other species in the northeastern United States. …Precipitation with a pH less than 5.6 that forms in the atmosphere when certain pollutants mix with water vapor…. Water that falls to or condenses on the Earth's surface as rain, drizzle, snow, sleet, hail, dew, frost, or fog with a pH of less than 5.6. … Precipitation heavy with nitric and sulfuric acid. Most of it is generated by sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide (air pollution). Its pH is less than 5.6. Results include fish and plant deaths, corrosion, groundwater pollution, and soil erosion. Its long-term effects are unknown….Acids form when certain atmospheric gases (primarily carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides) come in contact with water in the atmosphere or on the ground and are chemically converted to acidic substances. Oxidants play a major role in several of these acid-forming processes. Carbon dioxide dissolved in rain is converted to a weak acid (carbonic acid). Other gases, primarily oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, are converted to strong acids (sulfuric and nitric acids). Although rain is naturally slightly acidic because of carbon dioxide, natural emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides, and certain organic acids, human activities can make it much more acidic. Occasional pH readings of well below 2.4 (the acidity of vinegar) have been reported in industrialized areas. The principal natural phenomena that contribute acid-producing gases to the atmosphere are emissions from volcanoes and from biological processes that occur on the land, in wetlands, and in the oceans. The effects of acidic deposits have been detected in glacial ice thousands of years old in remote parts of the globe. Principal human sources are industrial and power-generating plants and transportation vehicles. The gases may be carried hundreds of miles in the atmosphere before they are converted to acids and deposited. Since the industrial revolution, emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides to the 3 atmosphere have increased. Industrial and energy-generating facilities that burn fossil fuels, primarily coal, are the principal sources of increased sulfur oxides. These sources, plus the transportation sector, are the major originators of increased nitrogen oxides. The problem of acid rain not only has increased with population and industrial growth, it has become more widespread. The use of tall smokestacks to reduce local pollution has contributed to the spread of acid rain by releasing gases into regional atmospheric circulation. The same remote glaciers that provide evidence of natural variability in acid deposition show, in their more recently formed layers, the increased deposition caused by human activity during the past half century. (See: acid deposition) acidic - Having a pH under 7….Of or referring to acid. acre - A measure of area equivalent to 43,560 square feet. One acre equals 4047 square meters or 0.4047 hectares. (See: hectare) acre-foot - The amount of water it would take to cover an acre of land to a depth of one foot: 325,851 gallons of water. The standard measure of agricultural irrigation. actinomorphic flower - A flower possessing radial symmetry; any cut through the center divides the flower into two equal parts. Actinomycetales - Formerly classified as fungi because of their filaments, the Actinomycetales include many types of soil bacteria. They produce antibiotics, enzymes, and vitamins, although a few are harmful to humans. active pursuit - A method of hunting practiced by birds such

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