Glossary
101 vocabulary terms to help you understand the book
Browse by Category
Biochemistry 8
Biogeography 1
Biology 6
Cell Biology 3
Complexity Science 2
Ecology 29
Abiotic Alternative Stable States Autotroph Biomass Biotic Commensalism Consumer Decomposer Detritivore Dispersal Disturbance (Ecological) Ecosystem Engineer Endemic Eutrophication Habitat Herbivory Heterotroph Hypoxia Invasive Species K-Strategist Keystone Species Niche Parasitism Predation Primary Producer r-Strategist Succession (Ecological) Symbiont Trophic
Epidemiology 2
Evolution 5
Mathematics 5
Network Science 3
Physics 2
Physiology 3
Population Dynamics 7
Statistics 3
Systems 8
Technology 3
Toxicology 2
A-Z Index
A
Abiotic Non-living physical and chemical factors in an environment. Abiotic factors incl... Aerobic Requiring or occurring in the presence of oxygen. Aerobic respiration is the mos... AI (Artificial Intelligence) Artificial Intelligence: computer systems designed to perform tasks that typical... Allele One of two or more alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and are fo... Allometric Describing growth or scaling relationships where different parts or properties c... Alternative Stable States Multiple stable configurations an ecosystem can occupy under the same environmen... Anaerobic Not requiring or occurring in the absence of oxygen. Anaerobic metabolism is les... Analogous Structures that perform similar functions but evolved independently in unrelated... API (Application Programming Interface) Application Programming Interface: a standardized way for different software sys... Asymptote A value that a function approaches but never quite reaches. In biology, often de... ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) The primary energy currency of cells. A molecule that stores and transfers energ... Autotroph An organism that produces its own food from inorganic substances, typically thro...
B
B2B (Business-to-Business) Business-to-business: companies that sell products or services to other companie... B2C (Business-to-Consumer) Business-to-consumer: companies that sell products or services directly to indiv... Bioaccumulation The gradual buildup of substances (especially toxins or pollutants) in an organi... Biomagnification The increasing concentration of a substance (especially toxins) in organisms at... Biomass The total mass of living organisms in a given area or ecosystem, typically expre... Biotic Relating to or resulting from living organisms. Biotic factors in an ecosystem i...
C
Carrying Capacity The maximum population size an environment can sustain indefinitely given availa... Cohort A group of individuals of the same age in a population, or more generally, a gro... Commensalism A relationship between two species where one benefits and the other is neither h... Consumer An organism that obtains energy by eating other organisms. Includes herbivores (... Critical Point A specific condition (temperature, pressure, or other parameter) at which a phas...
D
Decomposer Organisms, primarily bacteria and fungi, that break down dead organic matter int... Density-Dependent Factors whose effects on population growth vary with population density. Competi... Density-Independent Factors affecting populations regardless of density—typically environmental even... Detritivore Animals that feed on dead organic matter (detritus), fragmenting it and accelera... Dispersal The movement of organisms away from their place of birth to new locations where... Disturbance (Ecological) A discrete event that disrupts ecosystem structure, changing resources, substrat...
E
Ecosystem Engineer An organism that physically modifies its environment, creating or maintaining ha... Emergence The arising of novel properties or behaviors in complex systems that cannot be p... Endemic Native and restricted to a particular geographic area or ecosystem. In epidemiol... Endemic Species A species that exists naturally only in one particular geographic location and n... Enzyme A protein that catalyzes (speeds up) specific biochemical reactions without bein... Epidemic A disease outbreak affecting many individuals in a community or region at the sa... Equilibrium A state of balance where opposing forces or processes are equal, resulting in no... Eukaryote Organisms whose cells contain a membrane-bound nucleus and other membrane-bound... Eutrophication Excessive nutrient enrichment of water bodies, typically from agricultural runof... Exponential Growth Growth at a constant percentage rate, producing a J-shaped curve where larger po...
F
Facultative Optional or capable of but not requiring a particular mode of life. The opposite... Fat Tails A statistical distribution where extreme events are more common than a normal (b... Fecundity The reproductive rate of an organism—the number of offspring produced per indivi... Feedback Loop A system structure where the output of a process influences its own input. Posit... Fitness (Evolutionary) An organism's relative ability to survive and reproduce in its environment. Meas... Fractal A geometric pattern that repeats at every scale—the same basic shape appears whe...
G
H
Habitat The natural environment or physical location where an organism lives. The 'addre... Herbivory The consumption of plants or plant parts by animals. A major ecological interact... Heterotroph An organism that cannot produce its own food and must consume other organisms fo... Homeostasis The maintenance of relatively stable internal conditions despite changing extern... Homologous Structures or genes that share a common evolutionary origin, even if they have d... Hub (Network) A node in a network with significantly more connections than average. Hubs are c... Hypoxia Abnormally low oxygen levels in water or tissues. In aquatic ecosystems, hypoxic...
I
K
L
M
Metabolic Rate The rate at which an organism consumes energy, typically measured as oxygen cons... Metabolism The sum of all chemical reactions occurring within an organism to maintain life,... Mitochondria Membrane-bound organelles in eukaryotic cells that generate most of the cell's A... Modularity The degree to which a system's components can be separated and recombined—high i... Morphology The form and structure of an organism, including size, shape, color, and arrange...
N
P
Parasitism A relationship where one organism (the parasite) benefits at the expense of anot... Pareto Distribution A power law probability distribution describing the pattern where a small fracti... Pathogen A microorganism or other agent that causes disease in a host. Includes bacteria,... Phase Transition A transformation of a system from one state to another, like water freezing into... Phenotype The observable physical, physiological, or behavioral characteristics of an orga... Photosynthesis The process by which plants, algae, and some bacteria convert light energy, carb... Phylogeny The evolutionary history and relationships among species or groups of organisms.... Power Law A mathematical relationship where one quantity varies as a power of another: y =... Predation An interaction where one organism (the predator) kills and consumes another (the... Primary Producer Organisms that produce organic compounds from inorganic substances, forming the... Prokaryote Single-celled organisms lacking a membrane-bound nucleus and other membrane-boun...
R
S
SaaS (Software as a Service) Software as a Service: software accessed over the internet on a subscription bas... Scale Invariance The property where a relationship or pattern remains the same regardless of the... Scaling Law A mathematical relationship describing how a quantity changes as the size of a s... Self-Organization The spontaneous emergence of order and pattern in a system through local interac... Self-Similarity The property where a pattern or structure looks the same at different scales—zoo... Senescence The biological process of aging—the gradual deterioration of functional characte... Speciation The evolutionary process by which new species arise, typically through geographi... Species The fundamental unit of biological classification—a group of organisms capable o... Steady State A condition where system properties remain constant over time because inputs equ... Stochastic Random or probabilistic; involving chance. In biology, refers to processes whose... Substrate The molecule(s) upon which an enzyme acts. The starting material that is transfo... Succession (Ecological) The predictable sequence of species replacement in an ecosystem over time follow... Symbiont An organism living in close physical association with another organism (the host...
T
Taxon A named group of organisms at any rank in the biological classification system.... Threshold A critical point or level that, once crossed, triggers a significant change in s... Topology (Network) The arrangement and pattern of connections in a network—how nodes are linked to... Trophic Relating to feeding and nutrition. Describes the position of organisms in a food...