- Industry: Biology
- Number of terms: 15386
- Number of blossaries: 0
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Terrapsychology is a word coined by Craig Chalquist to describe deep, systematic, trans-empirical approaches to encountering the presence, soul, or "voice" of places and things: what the ancients knew as their resident genius loci or indwelling spirit. This perspective emerged from sustained ...
The amount of water held in a given body divided by the amount that flows into and out of it. (The oceans' residence time is roughly 40,000 years. By contrast, the average turnover time of a stream is about two weeks. )
Industry:Biology
The natural path taken by a flood-swollen river. In the U. S. , more than ten million homes are located in or near floodplains, and the Bush Administration has eased building restrictions in such locations. See Insurance.
Industry:Biology
A stretch of rapid, shallow water flow, as in a stream, broken up by bar deposits, rock, or gravel. In streams pools often alternate with riffles. Also: mining term for the slats on a sluice that catch heavy minerals.
Industry:Biology
How living things change what they do or what they are to survive in a particular environment. In this the organism is not a passive recipient of external circumstances; the relationship is interactive. See Evolution.
Industry:Biology
A species that increases or decreases the diversity of a system. Example: otters, which when hunted to extinction remove a check on the sea urchins that will eat local kelp forests on which many other species depend.
Industry:Biology
A hazard because wells left on vacated lands can channel water contaminated by pesticides and fertilizer straight down into the water table. Some states in the U. S. Offer incentives for sealing off these unused wells.
Industry:Biology
A hexagonally latticed silicon dioxide mineral. A chief component of sand and therefore sandstone. It is the second most abundant mineral after feldspar and is common in continental crust but rarer in oceanic crust.
Industry:Biology
A flowering bean or pea plant. All legumes contribute to the nitrogen, phosphorus (key to flowering and seed formation), and potassium nutrition of the crops that follow. Alfalfa is the heaviest nitrogen producer.
Industry:Biology
1. Everything is connected to everything else. 2. Everything must go somewhere. 3. Nature knows best. 4. There is no such thing as a free lunch, or everything has to go somewhere. (Barry Commoner, biologist, 1971. )
Industry:Biology
The accumulation of particles into small masses that fall out of liquid suspension, usually to settle on the bottom. Salt does this with clay particles. It can also be used to separate contaminants from wastewater.
Industry:Biology
