ORPHE Bingo

Organism

All manner of life; biotic; living things

Ecosystem

A distinct living community in a particular environment. Included are biotic and abiotic factors.

Population

All members of the same species occupying a given area at the same time.

Climate

The weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.

Rachel Carson

American scientist, marine biologist, and writer known, among other things, for bringing attention to the dangerous impacts pesticides had on ecological systems.

Biodiversity

Overall, the richness of life for any set area.

Bioshphere

The regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth (or analogous parts of other planets) occupied by living organisms.

John Muir

Scottish-American naturalist and writer, influenced by the transcendentalist philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau. This person dropped out of college at the University of Wisconsin. An advocate of pure, unpeopled wilderness, this person was deeply connected to Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and was a founder of the Sierra Club.

Predator

A consumer that depends on other consumers for sustenance.

Holistic

An approach to a topic that comprehends the parts of something as intimately interconnected and only understandable in the context of the whole.

Biotic Potential

The maximum number of possible offspring under optimal conditions.

Working against this biotic potential is environmental resistance which combines all biotic and abiotic factors which may limit the population.

Producer

Autotrophs. Usually a diverse variety of green plants that convert sun energy and chemicals through photosynthesis to produce oxygen and sugars.

Biophilia

A hypothesis that humans have a weak inherent predisposition to affiliate with other forms of life.

Herbivore

Primary consumers which eat autotrophs/plants/producers.

Anthropocentric

A worldview that places humans at the center; seeing humans as the priority.

Regarding humankind as the central or most important element of existence, especially as opposed to God or animals.

Community

Populations of all different species occupying and interacting in a particular place.

Biotic

Living elements of ecosystems.

Recreation Resource Suitability

A measure of the potential desirability of land and/or water for outdoor recreation.

Suitability involves four basic components of economic efficiency, social equity, community acceptability, and administrative capability.

Recreation Resource Capability

A measure of the feasibility of allowing a range of specified resource uses on an area of land, reflecting both the likely productivity and resilience of the site.

Capability considerations for terrestrial and aquatic resources direct attention to biophysical attributes such as the size of the area, geological composition, vegetative composition, climate, and water depth.

Biome

A biological region, characterized by particular climate, soil, plants, and animals, regardless of where it occurs on earth. Examples: mountains, forests, deserts, estuaries, savanna, etc.

Omnivore

Heterotrophs/Consumers which eat both plants and animals. May be secondary or tertiary consumers.

Greenway

A linear open space.

Abiotic

The non-living components of ecosystems. May be physical or chemical properties.

Food Chain

Initial pathway of consumptive relationships in an ecosystem.

Decomposer

Organisms that feed on detritus or dead organic material and waste.

Human Ecology

The interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationships between humans and the natural, social, and built environments

Stewardship

The exercise of moral and ethical values toward the environment. The act of “taking care of.”

Limiting Factor

Any biotic or abiotic aspect of an ecosystem that asserts control on the viability and or survival of an organism.

Something present in an environment that controls a process, particularly the growth, abundance, or distribution of a population or organisms in an ecosystem

Ecology

The study of how organisms interact with one another and with their abiotic and biotic environment. Includes factors such as sunlight, temperature, moisture, vital nutrients, and all other physical and chemical influences to which organisms are exposed.

Preservation

An occurrence of improvement by virtue of preventing loss or injury or other change.

An approach to resource or land management that prevents loss, injury, or change to ecosystem processes.

Biocentric

A worldview or belief that the rights and needs of humans are not more important than those of other living things.

Nutrient Cycling

An ecosystem process pertaining to the pathways of the chemical elements organisms need to live, grow, and reproduce.

Leave No Trace

An approach to outdoor recreation behavior, initially sponsored by federal land management agencies, teaching visitors to have minimal impact on the protected areas.

Food Web

An intricate pattern of consumptive relationships within an ecosystem.

Ethics

Theories of moral values. The branch of philosophy concerned with right and wrong.

Weather

The state of the atmosphere at a place and time as regards heat, dryness, sunshine, wind, rain, etc.

Succession

The observed process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. The gradual replacement of one ecosystem by another.

Wilderness

An uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region.

“In contrast with those areas where man [sic] and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man [sic], where man [sic] himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

Antiquities Act

A 1906 law that gives the President the authority to set aside for protection "...historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States..."

Carrying Capacity

The natural limit of a population set by resources in a particular ecosystem. The population of a species that an ecosystem can support indefinitely.

Species

Groups of organisms which resemble one another in appearance, behavior, chemistry, and in the genes they contain. Under natural conditions they can breed with one another and produce live, fertile offspring.

Conservation

An approach to resource management which advocates the wise or sustainable use of those resources. Often, this approach recognizes and advocates multiple uses of resources, some extractive.

Carnivore

Heterotroph. An organism which eats animals. If a secondary consumer, they feed on herbivores. If a tertiary consumer, the feed on other carnivores.

Carnivory is the classic form of predation.

Aldo Leopold

An American forester, wildlife manager, and writer who was one of the first to recognize land as a community that humans are part of rather than conqurer of. Advocate of the nation’s first designated wilderness area. Author of “the land ethic.”

Aesthetics

A theory of beauty. The branch of philosophy that addresses that which is considered beautiful.

Land Ethic

An important philosophical statement that includes the following: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

Niche

The ecological role and space that an organism fills within an ecosystem.

Gifford Pinchot

The first chief forester in the United States. An advocate of a management scheme emphasizing the controlled, profitable use of forests and other natural resources so they would be of maximum benefit to humans.