Glossary

A Christian church founded on the teachings and life of Jesus Christ and characterized by sacramental worship, multiple traditions of spiritual practice, and organized in a loose federation of patriarchies according primacy of honor to the patriarch of Constantinople.

The sonar-like system used by dolphins, bats, and other animals to detect and locate objects by emitting usually high-pitched sounds that reflect off the object and return to the animal's ears or other sensory receptors.

A branch of science concerned with the interrelationship of organisms and their environments.

Natural processes by which the environment produces services and resources such as clean water and air, crops, timber, fisheries, pollination of native and agricultural plants, oxygen production, carbon dioxide uptake, decomposition of dead matter, soil stabilization, etc.

The ratio of energy output to energy input.

A naturally occurring phenomenon that involves fluctuating ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific. The pattern generally fluctuates between two states: warmer than normal central and eastern equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures (El Niño) and cooler than normal central and eastern equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures (La Niña).

The entire range of electromagnetic waves (waves that contain an electric field and a magnetic field and carry energy and travel at the speed of light) from low to high frequency.

A homogeneous chemical substance made of the same type of atoms, each of which has the same number of protons in its nucleus. Each element has particular properties, and atoms of different elements combine to form the molecules that make up and drive chemical and biological interactions.

A species of plant, animal or fungi that is native to a specific region or environment and not occurring naturally anywhere else.

The ability to bring about changes or to do work.

English

The natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity.

Sustainable treatment of the natural world and fair treatment of all human beings in acquiring the goods of the earth necessary for life.

The use of natural resources without compromising the ability of the resource to remain healthy and able to support its role in ecosystem structure and function and meet the reasonable needs of future human generations.

Erosion is the act in which soil and rock is worn away, often by water, wind, or ice. These forces carry the rocks and soil down a gravity gradient to low points in the landscape where they are ultimately deposited.

An estuary is a body of water formed where freshwater from rivers and streams flows into the ocean, mixing with the seawater. Estuaries and the lands surrounding them are places of transition from land to sea, and from freshwater to saltwater.

Moral criteria in the form of principles, goals, and virtues used to evaluate the rightness, goodness, or virtuous quality of human action.

The study and practice of actions that contribute to the well-being of persons, human society, and the natural world.

Any of various single-celled or multicellular organisms of the domain Eukaryota, characterized by cells that contain a distinct membrane-bound nucleus and by the occurrence of DNA transcription inside the nucleus and protein synthesis in the cytoplasm, in contrast to prokaryotes.

A process by which pollution from such sources as sewage effluent or leachate from fertilized fields causes a lake, pond, or fen to become overrich in organic and mineral nutrients, so that algae and cyanobacteria grow rapidly and deplete the oxygen supply.

Reduction in temperature resulting from the evaporation of a liquid, which removes latent heat from the surface from which evaporation takes place.

The process through which populations of organisms change in genetic characteristics over time, often resulting in adaptation to a given set of environmental conditions.

A scientific procedure undertaken to make a discovery, test a hypothesis, or demonstrate a known fact.

Factors of economic production whose costs are not reflected in the market price of goods and services.