Glossary

In science, people need a type of literacy and vocabulary that allows efficient and accurate communication. A word used commonly in a social context can assume quite a specific meaning in a scientific context.

bush — a green plant that grows foliage close to the ground and has a number of woody stems.

biodiversity — the number and variety of living things in the world or the area being studied.

community — a collection of all living things (plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms) existing together in a particular area.

distribution and abundance — refers to the pattern and numbers of living things identified.

ecosystem — the living things in a particular habitat as well as the physical environment in which they live.

environment — the sum of the living and non-living surroundings of an individual living thing.

environmental gradient — this occurs where there is a change in environmental conditions between two points.

exoskeleton — an outside covering that protects the soft bodies of some invertebrates.

gene — a unit of heredity carried, along with many others, on deoxyribose nucleic acid in any living thing. Generally, genes for the same feature vary between individuals in a healthy, robust population.

grasses — a group of plants that are monocotyledons (have long narrow leaves with veins that run parallel to their length). They are usually herbs. Some are larger and woody like bamboo. Leaf bases wrap around the stem of the grass. Flowers are called inflorescences and have many florets with powdery anthers.

hardwood — the wood of trees that produce their seeds in flowers.

invertebrate — an animal that does not have an internal skeleton. It may be soft-bodied like a worm or have an exoskeleton like a crab.

population — a group of individual living things that can interbreed.

quadrat — a square measuring area used to sample living things in a given site. Quadrats can vary in size. In the methodology used by the Smithsonian Institution's Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity Program, a quadrat is 20 metres by 20 metres.

sampling — the process of taking a small part of something to identify it and provide information about the whole.

softwood — the wood of pine trees and their relatives (or the trees that produce their seeds in cones).

species — the basic lower unit of classification. Biological species refers to individuals capable of interbreeding.

sustainability — meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future communities to meet their needs. This involves taking account of the costs to the environment and depletion of natural resources.

transect — a straight line across the landscape area along which a study of distribution and abundance of species is made.

tree — plant with a single woody stem and a leafy canopy, usually well off the ground.

vertebrate — an animal with an internal skeleton, either bony or cartilaginous.

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