Ecology

Ecology

Industry: Biology

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Ecology

Gross primary production

Biology; Ecology

The total amount of energy and nutrients transformed by plants into biomass or chemical energy (roughly 1-3% efficiency for photosynthesis and. 2% for the ecosphere as a whole).

Antheridium

Biology; Ecology

The organ that produces antherozoids--male gametes (sperm cells)--in algae, bryophytes (mosses, liverworts), and pteridophytes (club mosses, ferns, horsetails). See Archegonium.

Seed-saving

Biology; Ecology

Collecting seeds (those passed down in families are called heirlooms), a practise that preserves the precious genetic diversity now threatened by agricultural seed monopolies.

Rotation cycle

Biology; Ecology

The time interval between the cutting and recutting of a stand of trees. In the U. S. , the average rotation cycle has bowed to economic pressure by falling from 120 years to 40.

Neoteny

Biology; Ecology

Retention of juvenile characteristics in an adult, as in the axolotl salamander near Mexico City; under certain environmental conditions it never fully matures. See Progenesis.

Glucose

Biology; Ecology

A simple six-carbon sugar produced by photosynthesis. An energy source for both plants and animals; it breaks down from ingested carbohydrates. Cellulose and chitin contain it.

Consumerism

Biology; Ecology

The mass delusion, supplemented by expensive advertising, that using up as many products as possible as quickly as possible will somehow not cave in the biosphere. See Dieback.