Trophic levelThe trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. A food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it is from the start of the chain. A food web starts at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, can move to herbivores at level 2, carnivores at level 3 or higher, and typically finish with apex predators at level 4 or 5. The path along the chain can form either a one-way flow or a food "web".
Vegetation classificationVegetation classification is the process of classifying and mapping the vegetation over an area of the earth's surface. Vegetation classification is often performed by state based agencies as part of land use, resource and environmental management. Many different methods of vegetation classification have been used. In general, there has been a shift from structural classification used by forestry for the mapping of timber resources, to floristic community mapping for biodiversity management.
MetatranscriptomicsMetatranscriptomics is the set of techniques used to study gene expression of microbes within natural environments, i.e., the metatranscriptome. While metagenomics focuses on studying the genomic content and on identifying which microbes are present within a community, metatranscriptomics can be used to study the diversity of the active genes within such community, to quantify their expression levels and to monitor how these levels change in different conditions (e.g., physiological vs. pathological conditions in an organism).
ConiferConifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (pɪˈnɒfᵻtə,ˈpaɪnoʊfaɪtə), also known as Coniferophyta (ˌkɒnᵻfəˈrɒfᵻtə,-oʊfaɪtə) or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though a few are shrubs. Examples include cedars, Douglas-firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews.
Soil colorSoil color is often the most visually apparent property of soil. While color itself does not influence the behavior or practical use of soils, it does indicate important information about the soil organic matter content, mineralogy, moisture, and drainage. Soil can display a wide range of colors including brown, red, yellow, black, gray, white, and even blue or green, and vary dramatically across landscapes, between the various horizons of a soil profile, and even within a single clod of soil.
PhloemPhloem ('floʊ.əm, ) is the living tissue in vascular plants that transports the soluble organic compounds made during photosynthesis and known as photosynthates, in particular the sugar sucrose, to the rest of the plant. This transport process is called translocation. In trees, the phloem is the innermost layer of the bark, hence the name, derived from the Ancient Greek word φλοιός (phloiós), meaning "bark". The term was introduced by Carl Nägeli in 1858.
Theil indexThe Theil index is a statistic primarily used to measure economic inequality and other economic phenomena, though it has also been used to measure racial segregation. The Theil index TT is the same as redundancy in information theory which is the maximum possible entropy of the data minus the observed entropy. It is a special case of the generalized entropy index. It can be viewed as a measure of redundancy, lack of diversity, isolation, segregation, inequality, non-randomness, and compressibility.
