- Industry: Government
- Number of terms: 30456
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce
A process of sexual reproduction whereby two cells come in contact and exchange genetic material. In prokaryotes and unicellular agae, the transfer is a one-way process. The union of two bacterial cells, during which chromosomal material is transferred from the donor to the recipient cell. Conjugation in protozoans is a two-way process, genetic material is passed between each conjugant.
Industry:Natural environment
A statistical measure of central tendency. The number that appears most in a sequence of numbers. A list of numbers can have more than one mode.
Industry:Natural environment
Having its origin, or produced within the organism or one of its parts.
Industry:Natural environment
Oxygen atoms that have the same atomic number (protons) but different mass numbers (and different numbers of neutrons). The two stable isotopes of oxygen are 16O and 18O.
Industry:Natural environment
The effective part of an action or object that triggers a highly stereotyped innate behaviour (or fixed action pattern) in an animal by means of a hypothetical neural pathway called the innate releasing mechanism (IRM).
Industry:Natural environment
The portion of the intertidal zone that is covered and uncovered by water each day.
Industry:Natural environment
The time required for one-half of the total amount of a particular substance in a biological system to be consumed or broken down by biological processes when the rate of removal is approximately exponential. Toxic chemicals with a long biological half-life will tend to accumulate in the body and are more likely to be harmful. A substance with a short biological half-life may still accumulate if a portion of it it becomes tightly bound to bone or other tissues, even if most of it is quickly eliminated from the body.
Industry:Natural environment
The most remote of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and the northern-most coral atoll in the world, located at the extreme northwest end of the Hawaiian archipelago. The atoll has almost 80,000 acres of coral reef habitat with 28 species of stony corals so far documented. Kure Atoll is an important pupping and resting area for Hawaiian Monk seals. The island is also a nesting area for smany species of sea birds, and a wintering area for a variety of migratory bird species from North America and Asia.
Industry:Natural environment
