Glossary: biodiversity champions

All of the following terms appear in the videos or article for this tutorial on biodiversity champions. The terms are arranged here in alphabetical order, and nouns are given in just their singular form unless the plural of the term is unusual.

baseline: the measurement or calculation of something that will serve as the basis for future comparison; scientific baseline data are collected to document something such as the number of species in an area or the size of a forest at a certain point in time so that similar data collection can be done in the future and the results compared to the baseline to see what, if any, changes have occurred

bioblitz: intensive surveying effort in a short amount of time to attempt to document all the types of organisms living in a selected area; often involves the help of citizen scientists working with scientists

biodiversity: the variety of life on Earth or some specified geographic area of the planet; the diversity of life occurs at the genetic level, at the species level, at the ecosystem level, and in evolutionary lineages

citizen science: a form of public participation in scientific research in which members of the public help collect and analyze data to help scientists answer research questions on different projects; a citizen scientist is a person who participates in a citizen science project

climate change: the global or regional change in average temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among other atmospheric conditions, that occurs over several decades or longer

conservation: in a biological context, the management of natural resources to help ensure their long-term sustainability

ecosystem: the community of different species in a particular geographic area and all of their interactions with each other and the physical environment; ecosystems are also called ecological networks

ecosystem function: the processes that occur within an ecosystem that are related to species interactions, energy flow and the cycling of materials

ecosystem services: the ways in which intact ecosystems benefit humans; these services can be direct, indirect or related to aesthetic and ethical values

education: the process of learning by acquiring new knowledge, skills or behaviors; may be under the guidance of others or self-taught; any experience that affects the way a person thinks, feels or acts is educational

environment: an area or habitat; includes living and non-living components

expedition: a journey or voyage undertaken for a specific purpose; much of our knowledge about Earth’s biodiversity is the result of biological expeditions

habitat: a general term for the type of environment in which an organism lives

hotspot: a general term for a place where something important is going on, such as a biodiversity hotspot that has unique and threatened species; a geologic hotspot where volcanoes are active; or a Wi-Fi hotspot where you can get online

introduced species: a species that is transferred intentionally or accidentally by human activities from its native habitat to one in which it does not occur naturally; also known as an exotic species

meta-analysis: a statistical or scientific method of contrasting and combining results from two or more, even hundreds of, different scientific studies to identify larger patterns among the different study results; it is essentially conducting research on previous research results

metaphor: describing an object or event by comparing it to something that is unrelated

natural resource: a component of the environment such as wood, coal, fish or fresh water that can be used by organisms; the term most often refers to resources that are used by humans

observation: the action or process of looking closely at something; the data or information that results from that process

ocean acidification: a decrease in the average pH of the ocean (i.e., an increase in the ocean’s acidity) due to the dissolving of atmospheric carbon dioxide in seawater, which in turn drives chemical reactions that produce acid

organism: a living or formerly living thing

policy: an action plan proposed and implemented by a government, business, group or individual; designed to achieve some specific outcome, policies can be enacted at an individual, local, regional, national, or international level

regulation: a set of mandates, rules or laws designed to control specific types of behavior in specific circumstances;  they have the power of some authority behind them

remote sensing: obtaining information about environments, geographic areas or organisms through machines such as satellites or remote-controlled cameras without humans coming in contact with the area or organisms

research: in general terms, to study or investigate something; in scientific terms, the way science is done, to answer a specific question and with careful attention to the methods used

science: both a body of knowledge and a process for obtaining that knowledge of the natural and physical world through observation and experiment; there are many specialized subsets of science such as biology, chemistry, physics, or geology

species: a distinct type of organism

sustainability: in general terms, the long-term effective functioning of some system, such as a financial plan or business model; in ecological terms, maintaining healthy, functioning ecosystems and utilizing resources in a way that promotes fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of future as well as present generations

symbiosis: a long-term relationship or interaction between individuals from two different species; the symbiotic relationship has a positive, negative or neutral impact on the participants