Abiotic
Not biotic (see biotic below).

Acidic Deposition
The process by which acids are deposited in rain, snow, etc., called "wet deposition", and in "dry deposition", when particles such as fly ash, sulphates and nitrates, and gases such as sulphur dioxide and nitric oxide are deposited on, or adsorbed onto, surfaces. The dry particles or gases can be converted into acids after deposition or absorption when they contact water (Canada, House of Commons 1981).

Algal Periphyton Assemblages

Allochthonous

Anthropogenic
Scientists have a word we use to distinguish changes that people have introduced to the environment from processes which are natural -- anthropogenic. Consider the very fine particles of dust or smoke suspended in the atmosphere which we call aerosols. If we are talking about aerosols originating from, say, industrial pollution, we would call them anthropogenic aerosols. This indicates how they are different from aerosols originating in dust storms, volcanoes or natural burning.

Archaic People
Individuals that lived during the archaic period (ca. 8000 - 1000 B.C.). This period was divided up into early, middle, and late. The Archaic period was characterized by great climatic changes. Until the stabilization of what we now have as modern climate (about 5,000 years ago), the archaic period began with cold and wet weather (after the Ice Age) and later,  dry and warm weather. The climate changes allowed different plants and animals to thrive and, as the large Ice Age animals became scarce and disappeared, people adapted to these changes in order to survive. Early Archaic peoples tended to occupy brief, transitory camps widely scattered along floodplain levees and terraces. They lived in a series of small hunter-gatherer bands and were constantly on the move. Each band usually had a base camp or series of such repeatedly used settlements close to diverse food resources like game and wild vegetable foods. The base camp itself was used by several households, living separately in shelters scattered along a river terrace. Early Archaic peoples turned from big-game hunting to the exploitation of forest mammals like the white-tailed deer as well as to nuts and plant foods. They usually subsisted on a diet of white-tailed deer, supplemented with black bear and other mammals like elk, fox, opossum, raccoon, squirrel, and rabbit

Areal Extent

Aquatic Ecologist
An individual that studies the ecological traits of aquatic systems.

Aquatic Ecosystem
A dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit within water.

Aquatic Research at Coweeta LTER
Aquatic research at Coweeta is facilitated by the detailed characterization of hydrologic regimes in small (3 ha) to large (760 ha) watersheds, some of which have been monitored since 1934. These catchments provide one of the longest continuous hydrologic records in the world. Aquatic research has investigated the influences of water chemistry, decomposition, organic detritus dynamics, and stream bed morphology on the relationship of stream primary and secondary productivity, trophic levels, micro- and macro-arthropod populations, and fish abundance and diversity.

Basal Area
The cross section area of the stem or stems of a plant or of all plants in a stand, generally expressed as square units per unit area. Tree basal is used to determine percent stocking. For shrubs and herbs it is used to determine phytomass. Grasses, forbs, and shrubs usually measured at or less then 1 inch above soil level. Trees - the cross section area of a tree stem in square feet commonly measured at breast height (4.5' above ground) and inclusive of bark, usually computed by using d.b.h. or tallied through the use of basal area factor angle gauge.

Baseline

Bedload

Benthic

Biodiversity
Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the term for the variety of life and the natural processes of which living things are a part. This includes the living organisms and the genetic differences between them and the communities in which they occur. The concept of biodiversity represents the ways that life is organized and interacts on our planet. These interactions can take place on scales ranging from the smallest, at the chromosome level, to organisms, ecosystems, and even to entire landscapes.

Biomass
A general term for living material – plants, animals, fungi, bacteria

Biota

Biotic
Pertaining to any aspect of life, especially to characteristics of entire populations or ecosystems.

Budburst

Canopy Trees
The trees that make up the highest layer of leaf cover in a forest.

Carbon Storage
Carbon storage can take place above ground and below ground. Trees store carbon above ground, while carbon enters the soil through trees below ground. It is more difficult to measure below ground storage of carbon then above ground storage. Factors including soil and water quality, the climate and types of trees will determine if more carbon can be stored above ground or below ground. Soil disturbance is also a strong factor in the loss of carbon into the atmosphere (Carbon flux- when carbon is released from where it is stored. Each year about 8 billion metric tons of carbon is released into the atmosphere through deforestation and the use of fossil fuels. The majority of this carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere by plants or the ocean, but a significant portion remains airborne.

∂13 C
Virtually every life form on earth takes in isotopes of carbon, including 14C and 13C, for growth and food. The relative amount of carbon isotopes in the cells differs with each plant and animal because of a process called fractionation. Isotopic fractionation occurs when the absorption of one isotope is favoured over another, often because of the energy differences between isotopes. For instance, during photosynthesis the isotope 12C is preferred over 14C. This leaves the plant cells with less 14C for each atom of 12C than in the atmosphere. When this occurs, we say the plant tissue is depleted in 14C and enriched in 12C. ∂13C indicates the difference between the sample's 13C/12C ratio and that of a standard. When the value is negative, it means that the isotope 13C is depleted compared to the standard. The more negative it is, the more fractionation has occurred.

Cation
An atom or group of atoms with a positive charge.

Community Ecology
A community is defined as an association of interacting populations, usually defined by the nature of their associations or the habitat they use. Community ecology is the study of the processes of these interacting populations.

Deadfall Traps

Defoliation

Depsides

Detrius

DRG (Digital Raster Graphic)
Commonly used in GIS and mapping applications, DRG's are simply digital versions of USGS topographic maps.  Obtainable at a variety of resolutions, DRG's contain contour information, locations of roads, towns, cities, forests, water (lakes, rivers, wetlands), as well as many other features that one might expect to find on a map.

Early Successional
The earliest stage of development in a ecosystem. An example: vegetative habitat where early successional is seen as old fields, brushy shrubby type plants, with species that are shade intolerant.

Ecosystem
A dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit. This definition does not specify any particular spatial unit or scale. Thus, the term "ecosystem" does not, necessarily, correspond to the terms "biome" or "ecological zone", but can refer to any functioning unit at any scale. Indeed, the scale of analysis and action should be determined by the problem being addressed. It could, for example, be a grain of soil, a pond, a forest, a biome or the entire biosphere. In the words of Eugene Odum "the grandfather of ecology" an ecosystem is a unit of biological organization interacting with the physical environment such that the flow of energy and mass leads to a characteristic trophic structure and material cycles.

Elevational Gradient

Endemism

Environmental Driving Variables
Environmental organisms, processes, or entities that are responsible for immediate changes in the environment (e.g., local climate, soil and water nutrient levels, disturbance dynamics).

Environmental Heterogeneity
On the simplest level, heterogeneity can be defined as "with parts that are different". Environmental heterogeneity is resource patchiness.

Extirpation
The act of destroying or exterminating.

Fish Shocking or Electrofishing
In order to count all types of fish in a portion of a stream without missing too many researchers use an electro-shocker.  This is the technique of passing electric current through the water to attract and stun fish, thus facilitating their capture. Electro-fishing is commonly done on foot using a backpack-shocking device.

Flavonoids

Foliar Phenolics

Funnel Traps

Gap Study
Gap studies attempt to evaluate the effects of gaps in canopies created as the result of natural events and human intervention.  Forest succession in canopy gaps is evaluated at Coweeta LTER.  We are currently measuring microclimatic variables, N mineralization, and seedling physiology in the gaps that complement long-term studies of seed rain and seedling demography for assessing recruitment.

Gause, George Francis 
Gause's Principal: In competition between species that seek the same ecological niche, one species survives while the other expires under a given set of environmental conditions.

GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are information management systems tied to geographic data.  Various types of data sets, such as hydrology, road networks, urban mapping, land cover, and demographic data can contain hundreds of pieces of information about a specific feature...all tied together geographically to provide spatial context.

Habitat
The place or type of environment in which an organism or biological population normally lives or occurs.

Herbivores
 Organisms that consume only plant matter.

Impermeable Layer
A layer of solid material, such as rock or clay, which does not allow water to pass through.  Coweeta is an ideal place to study hydrologic processes, due to the underlying bedrock in the area.

Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI)
A method of looking at the quality of water and stream habitat using biotic inventories. Usually, the total number of organisms and the number of different species present are determined. Then these numbers are applied to an index, or scale, that lists organisms according to their sensitivity to pollution.

Insect Frass

Invertebrates
There are two basic groups of higher animals. You've got your vertebrates and your INVERTEBRATES. While both have become quite advanced through the process of evolution, there is one fundamental difference. Invertebrates do not have backbones. Both groups are in the Kingdom Animalia, but their bodies are organized differently. Some major groups of invertebrates include: Protozoans - Very primitive, simple animals like amoebas; Some of the Metazoa - Porifera (sponges), jellyfish, corals, tapeworms, flukes, insects, arachnids, crustaceans, mollusks, echinoderms, etc.

Limnology
The sciences of freshwater. The word is derived from "limne" (pool, marsh) and refers to the study of the ecology of inland waters. It is the study of the relationships between the physical (ie. rocks or soils), chemical (ie. ph of the water) and biotic (ie. living things such as plants) components in the fresh water biotic communities. Limnology is a very broad field of study, encompassing the sciences of biology, chemistry, geology, and physics as they are applied to fresh water.

Litterbag

LTER (Long Term Ecological Network) 
The National Science Foundation established the LTER program in 1980 to support research on long-term ecological phenomena in the United States.  The Coweeta LTER and the Georgia Coastal Ecosystem LTER have the distinction of being the only two sites in the network whose technology centers are housed in the same location (The University of Georgia).

The mission of the LTER Network:

• Understanding ecological phenomena over long temporal and large spatial scales
• Creating a legacy of well-designed and documented long-term experiments and observations for future generations
• Conducting major synthetic and theoretical efforts
• Providing information for the identification and solution of ecological problems

To learn more, visit the LTER Network Web Server...

Macroinvertebrates
 Large organism without a spinal column. Insects, crayfish, and worms are examples of macroinvertebrates.

Macrofauna

Macroscopic
Designating a size scale very much larger than that of atoms and molecules.

Mean
The mean of a collection of numbers is otherwise known as an average. This is computed by adding the collection of numbers up and dividing by the total numbers in the collection (eg. 3+4+2=9, then because there was 3 numbers in the collection, you divide the sum by 3. 9 divided by 3 = 3. Three is the mean.

Mesic

Metadata 
Metadata is a component of data which describes the data. It is "data about data." Metadata describes the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of data.  Without proper documentation a data set is incomplete.

Why Is Metadata a Vital Component of a Data Set?  Documenting data is critical to preserving its usefulness throughout time. This documentation, or metadata, serves several functions. For instance, metadata records important information on how the data were collected and/or processed. Metadata is frequently utilized as a record in search systems so that users can locate data sets of interest. In the future, analytic tools will assess metadata to determine whether one data set can be properly compared or processed with another.

Metapopulation Dynamics
Populations of many species occupy patches of high quality habitat and use the neighboring habitat only for movement from one patch to another. These species exist in a number of populations that are either isolated from one another or have limited exchange of individuals. Such a collection of interacting populations of the same species is called a metapopulation. Each distinct population in a metapopulation may be referred to as a subpopulation, a local population, or simply as a population.

National Science Foundation 
Long-Term Ecological Research is a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology (DEB Web Server).  A major force in the United States' commitment to research, the National Science Foundation's mission and history may be of interest.  The National Science Foundation Web Server...

A program sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) supports fundamental research on the origins, functions, relationships, interactions, and evolutionary history of populations, species, communities, and ecosystems. Scientific emphases include biodiversity, molecular genetic and genomic evolution, mesoscale ecology, conservation biology, global change, and restoration ecology.

Organic Matter

Oribatid
Arthropods can be found in all temperate forest ecosystems in leaf litter. 95% of these are normally mites and colembollas. Oribatid mites are the most abundant group with the highest numbers found in forested ecosystems. Examples of a few other soil invertebrates are springtails, mites, fly larvae, beetles, ants, and spiders. Oribatid mites are the most numerically abundant group in most forested ecosystems and often compromise about 50% of the total microarthropod fauna.

Ozone
O3, a triatomic form of oxygen; a pungent, unstable blue gas that in the upper atmosphere forms a protective layer against excess ultraviolet radiation, and is also an ingredient of photochemical smog in the lower atmosphere; it is used in purification of drinking water and as an oxidizing agent.

Paleo
The earliest time period from 8000 to 12,000 years ago and beyond.

Paleoecology
Paleoecology is the science of reconstructing past environments using fossil materials of plants, animals, or other indicators of past environments.

Park, Thomas
Waste accumulation and other stress factors can limit population growth.. Classic experiments by R. N. Chapman and by Thomas Park on flour beetles (Tribolium confusum) proved that environmental stresses can limit population density. Park demonstrated that male flour beetles release the pheromone ethylquinone when another beetle interrupts them during mating. Park showed that the presence of ethylquinone inhibits egg laying by flour beetles.  

Pathogens
Any virus, microorganism, or other substance that causes disease; an infecting agent.

Phenolics

Phenology

Pleistocene
The most recent ice age whose time period spanned from 1.8 million to 11,000 years ago. This is the time in earth’s history that humans evolved and spread throughout most of the world. Pleistocene fossils are often abundant, well-preserved, and can be dated very precisely. These fossils allow scientists to determine dramatic shifts in climates and temperatures. For more information and graphics on ice ages: http://www.hartwick.edu/geology/work/VFT-so-far/glaciers/glacier1.html

Predator
An animal that kills other animals for food or any organism that kills and consumes other organisms.

Premature Senescence
A productive form of aging leading to organ/plant death. Plants age productively; as tissues senesce they produce enzymes necessary to recycle "expensive" materials and reroute the subunits to areas for use by active growth elsewhere, in the next season, or by the next generation. Premature senescence is when the plant or organ ages when it is suppose to. An example is the vegetable and fruit industry is interested in extending the post-harvest shelf life of produce in the market.  This job is difficult, because any chemical treatments used to prevent senescence must be safe for human consumption. Apples are harvested before natural senescence, are cooled immediately to slow respiration, and the storage chamber air is passed continuously through charcoal to absorb any ethylene produced by a ripening apple. Because ethylene is the starting hormone signal, one ripening apple will cause those around it to also ripen. One bad apple spoils the whole barrel .

Productivity
The rate of output per unit of input.

Reference Experiments
Or called "control". A unit that is representative of the true state of the ecosystem or what is being tested.

Regionalization Research at Coweeta LTER
Socioeconomic research in our southern Appalachian regionalization study area has quantified both the past (1950s) and current land use patterns for selected study areas. These Geographic Information System (GIS) layers are the bases for both anthropological and economic studies to determine the causes and consequences of observed land use patterns and changes over time. In addition, our socioeconomic studies are predicting land use patterns for the year 2030, which will provide likely future scenarios depicting the consequences of present patterns of population growth and land use change. Current trends indicate that the largest land use shift is from marginal agricultural land back to successional forested areas, but increased home construction is causing the forested areas to become more fragmented.

Riparian Research at Coweeta LTER
The exchange of water, sediment, carbon, and nutrients between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems is regulated by riparian zones. More than 73 km of upland streams exist in the 2185 ha of forest at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory. Therefore, riparian zones constitute a large proportion of the landscape. Most riparian zones in these forested areas are dominated by Rhododendron maximum, an evergreen shrub. This keystone species (i.e., it has a greater role than its coverage would suggest) is slow growing, but has increased in coverage since fire suppression began in the 1920s. To determine the effect of Rhododendron in riparian areas, soilwater, groundwater, nutrients, and litter fluxes are being quantified in areas where Rhododendron has been  removed, and compared to untreated control areas during a multi-year study.

Riparian Zone
Riparian zones are areas of transition between aquatic and upland ecosystems. These aquatic environments may be streams, rivers, bogs, or lakes. Coweeta research focuses on the riparian zones between streams and upland forest.  The word riparian is derived from the Latin word ripa, which means bank. 

Rule-Based Model