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KEY TERMS

23 November, 2015 - 11:42

biodiversityhotspot

a concept originated by Norman Myers to describe a geographical region with a large number of endemic species and a large percentage of degraded habitat

biodiversity

the variety of a biological system, typically conceived as the number of species, but also applying to genes, biochemistry, and ecosystems

bushmeat

a wild-caught animal used as food (typically mammals, birds, and reptiles); usually referring to hunting in the tropics of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Americas

bushmeat

the variety of metabolic compounds in an ecosystem

chemicaldiversity

a disease of amphibians caused by the fungus Batrachochytriumdendrobatidis;

chytridiomycosis

thought to be a major cause of the global amphibian decline

ecosystemdiversity

the variety of ecosystems

endemicspecies

a species native to one place

exoticspecies

(also, invasive species) a species that has been introduced to an ecosystem in which it did not evolve

extinctionrate

the number of species becoming extinct over time, sometimes defined as extinctions per million species–years to make numbers manageable (E/MSY)

extinction

the disappearance of a species from Earth; local extinction is the disappearance of a species from a region

geneticdiversity

the variety of genes and alleles in a species or other taxonomic group or ecosystem; the term can refer to allelic diversity or genome-wide diversity

habitatheterogeneity

the number of ecological niches

secondaryplantcompound

a compound produced as a byproduct of plant metabolic processes that is typically toxic, but is sequestered by the plant to defend against herbivores

species-arearelationship

the relationship between area surveyed and number of species encountered; typically measured by incrementally increasing the area of a survey and determining the cumulative numbers of species

tragedyofthe commons

an economic principle that resources held in common will inevitably be over-exploited

white-nosesyndrome

a disease of cave-hibernating bats in the eastern United States and Canada associated with the fungus Geomycesdestructans