Ecology

Ecology

Contributors in Ecology

Ecology

Originally a Darwinian hypothesis twisted around by philosopher Herbert Spencer to justify any desired might-makes-right form of social injustice as natural and inevitable. Very often "fittest" means ...

Respiration

Biology; Ecology

The conveyance of oxygen to cells and tissues as carbon dioxide and water are given off. In cells, the conversion of food (e.g., glucose) into energy. In most organisms, respiration releases the ...

Acid

Biology; Ecology

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 ...

Pangaea

Biology; Ecology

The 300-million-year-old supercontinent that plate tectonics split 200 million years ago into what have become the current arrangements of continents. There seem to have been at least two other ...

Oceanic plate

Biology; Ecology

A mobile chunk of primarily basaltic lithosphere floating on the asthenosphere below it. The plates are about 75 kilometres thick. Volcanism at the mid-ocean ridges produced them 700 million years ...

Overdrafting

Biology; Ecology

Taking more water from a well or aquifer than it can recharge. Results: a falling water table, subsidence (this is what made diking in Holland necessary), encroachment from nearby bodies of ...

Abrasion

Biology; Ecology

The wearing away of rock surfaces by small particles moved by air or water. Abrasiveness also seems to be the one quality currently shared by most political appointees and prominent heads of state. ...