Snowy Plover Glossary of Terms

Biosphere: The part of the earth's crust, waters, and atmosphere that supports life. The ecosystem comprising the entire earth and the living organisms that inhabit it.

Breed: To produce (offspring); procreate; engender.

Brood: A number of young produced or hatched at one time; a family of offspring or young.

Camouflaged: Concealment by some means that alters or obscures the appearance: Drab plumage provides the bird with camouflage against predators.

Clutch: A hatch of eggs; the number of eggs produced or incubated at one time.

Community: An assemblage of interacting populations occupying a given area. A number of species living in a given area.

Disturbance: The act of disturbing something or someone; setting something in motion.

Ecosystem: A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment. A number of communities, made up of various species, functioning as a unit.

Endangered Species: A species at risk of extinction because of human activity, changes in climate, changes in predator-prey ratios, etc., especially when officially designated as such by a governmental agency such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Environment: Ecology. The air, water, minerals, organisms, and all other external factors surrounding and affecting a given organism at any time.

Exclosures: An area of land enclosed by a barrier, such as a fence, to protect vegetation and/or animals and prevent grazing by animals or predation on another animal.

Fauna: Animals, especially the animals of a particular region or period, considered as a group.

Fledgling: A young bird that has recently acquired its flight feathers.

Flora: Plants, as distinguished from fauna, especially of a particular region or period, considered as a group.

Flush: To rouse and cause to start up or fly off; to fly out or start up suddenly.

Habitat: The area or environment where an organism or ecological community normally lives or occurs: a marine habitat.

Habitat Fencing: A seasonal exclosure surrounding protected plover habitat.

Habitat Loss: When normal habitat has been changed in physical dimensions, usually by human disturbance i.e. construction and/or invasion of non-native species.

Hatch: To bring forth (young) from the egg.

Incubate: To sit upon (eggs) for the purpose of hatching.

Individuals: A distinct, indivisible entity; a single thing, being, instance, or item. A single animal or plant as distinguished from a species, community, or group. A member of a collection or set; a specimen.

Inventory and Monitoring: To collect, organize, and make available natural resource data and to contribute to the Service’s institutional knowledge by facilitating the transformation of data into information through analysis, synthesis, and modeling.

Management: The person or persons who control or direct a business or other enterprise.

Mortality: The rate of failure or loss of a group.

Population: All the individuals of one species in a given area.

Predator: Zoology. Any organism that exists by preying upon other organisms.

Recreation: A human pastime, diversion, exercise, or other resource affording relaxation and enjoyment.

Restoration: A return of something to a former, original, normal, or unimpaired condition.

Species: A class of individuals having some common characteristics or qualities; distinct sort or kind. Biology. The major subdivision of a genus or subgenus, regarded as the basic category of biological classification, composed of related individuals that resemble one another, are able to breed among themselves, but are not able to breed with members of another species.

Threatened Species: A species likely, in the near future, to become an endangered species within all or much of its range.

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