ALGAE - Single-celled organisms that produce their own food.
ARBOREAL - Of trees; in the trees.
BARONS - People with great wealth, power, and influence in a specified sphere of activity, for example, oil barons.
BIOLOGIST - One who studies biology, the science of living organisms and life processes.
BIOMASS - The total dry weight of all living organisms in a specified area.
BIOME - A community of living organisms within a single ecological region.
BIRDS OF PREY - A bird that hunts or preys on other animals and birds, a raptor.
BROMELIADS - Tropical plants in the pineapple family that often grow on the trunks and branches of trees, housing a tank of water or natural reservoir, within a rosette of leaves.
BUTTRESSES - Woody flanges or wings that spread out from the bases of some tall tropical forest trees. These buttresses spread the great weight of the tree over a larger area. Otherwise, the shallow-rooted trees might blow down easily.
CAMOUFLAGE - Skin coloring and special body parts are used as camouflage by creatures to help them blend in with their surroundings and remain hidden from predators or prey.
CANOPY - The layer of a forest formed by the crowns of tall trees. In a tropical rain forest, the canopy is made up of flat-crowned trees that are often about 65-100 feet tall. These crowns are closely interlaced by woody climbers.
CARNIVORE - A flesh-eating animal or plant.
CHICO MENDES - A rubber tapper whose heroic demonstrations, with union support, were successful against cattle rancherís attempts to destroy the forest. His murder by cattle ranchers made him a martyr and strengthened the ethic of the Brazilian people.
CLANDESTINE - Concealed or kept secret.
CLIMATOLOGIST - One who studies climatology, the meteorological study of climate.
CONNECTION - Cheap supplies of beef bought from central America by the United States for hamburgers and frankfurters contributes to the clearing of the rainforest for cattle pasture.
CONSOLIDATE - To make strong, to strengthen; to combine.
CULTIVATORS - People who plant crops and tend fields.
CULTURE - A way of life devised by people for getting along with the environment and each other.
DECAY - To rot, decompose.
DECOMPOSER - Any organism that feeds by breaking down organic matter, for example, fungi.
DEFECATE - To get rid of wastes from the body.
DEFORESTATION - The destruction of a forest by such activities as slash and burn agriculture, cattle ranching and timber harvesting.
DISLOCATION - To remove or force people from their homes or territory and place them in a new area.
DRIP TIPS - Leaves come to a point allowing water to drip off.
DROUGHT - A period of extreme dryness caused by the lack of rain.
DUNG - Solid animal waste.
ECOLOGIST - One who studies ecology, the science of the relationships between organisms and their environments.
ECOSYSTEM - A community of interdependent organisms within a specific environment. An ecosystem includes the atmosphere, the forest and plant cover, the animals, and the land and water in which the organisms grow. Each part of the ecosystem is dependent on the others.
EMERGENT - A tree that grows taller than the canopy trees around it. Emergents have umbrella-shaped crowns and slender trunks and may be 200 feet tall.
ENTREPRENEUR - A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture.
ENVIRONMENT - The physical features of the world around us.
EPIPHYTE - A plant that grows on other plants without taking nourishment from its host. The roots of many epiphytes can absorb moisture directly from the air. Examples are mosses, ferns, orchids, bromeliads.
ETHONOBOTANY - The study of how people use plants.
EXTINCTION - The process of an entire species dying out.
FAMINE - A wide-reaching shortage of food, severe hunger, starvation.
FORAGE - To look for food.
FUTURIST - One who studies or forecasts potential developments, as in science and technology, using current conditions or trends as a starting point.
GERMINATION - The beginning of growth, sprouting.
GYMNOSPERM - Member of an ancient, even primitive, group of plants of which the seeds are not enclosed in an ovary; the term literally means "naked seed."
HUMIDITY - The amount of water or water vapor in the air.
HECTARE - A unit of measurement for area in the metric system.
HERBIVORE - A plant eating animal or plant.
HUNTER-GATHERERS - People who get most or all of the food they need by hunting and by gathering wild plants from the natural environment.
INDIGENOUS - Occurring naturally in a certain area. "Indigenous people" are the tribal peoples who lived in an area before Europeans arrived.
INVERTEBRATE - An animal without an internal skeleton or backbone.
LARVA - A stage in the life cycle of insects which looks different in appearance the adult form.
LEACH OUT - Drain out as liquid percolates through.
MAMMAL - A warm-blooded vertebrate that has hair, gives birth to live babies, and breast-feeds its young.
MIMICRY - Copying or imitating the actions or appearance of another species in order to scare away enemies or attract pollinators.
NECTARE - A sweet liquid secreted by flowers and gathered by bees for making honey.
NEW WORLD - The Americas and Oceania.
NICHE - The ecological role of a species, such as producer, consumer, decomposer, and scavenger. Niche may also mean the physical space occupied by a species.
NOCTURNAL - To be active during the night.
NUTRIENTS - Nourishing ingredient in a food or soil.
OMNIVORE - A plant or animal that eats both plants and animals.
PARASITE - A plant or animal that lives on or in another plant or animal with-out benefiting the host and usually harming it.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS - The process by which plants use sunlight to manufacture their own food from carbon dioxide and water.
PLAGUE - A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease.
PLANTAIN - A banana plant with greenish fruit that is edible after cooking.
POLLINATE - To fertilize flowers by transferring pollen from one flower to itself or to another flower. Insects, animals, water and wind may all be pollinators.
POPULATION - The total number of a certain species living in a particular area at a given time.
PREDATOR - A plant or animal that kills and eats other plants or animals.
PREHENSILE - Adapted for seizing or holding by wrapping around an object.
PREY - A plant or animal that is killed and eaten by another organism.
PRODUCER - An organism that produces organic matter by photosynthesis.
RESOURCES - An available supply that can be drawn upon when needed; assets.
ROOST - A place where birds nest or sleep; to sleep or rest on a branch or support.
SELECTIVE LOGGING - Only certain trees are removed, other trees are left standing. The opposite of clear cutting.
SLASH AND BURN - A farming method in which trees are felled and are used for houses and canoes. Burning removes the under brush and enriches the soil for planting.
SOIL NUTRIENT - Mineral substance found in the soil that is used by plants for growth: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium; rain forest soils are notably lacking in many of these.
SPECIES - A collection of plants or animals having certain common characteristics and the ability to interbreed and reproduce.
SPECULATORS - Those who buy or sell a commodity, with an element of risk, on the chance of profit.
STAMEN - The pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower.
STIGMA - The part of the flower on which pollen is deposited during pollination.
SUBSISTENCE FARMERS - Farmers who plant just enough to live on, not to make a profit by selling a crop.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - Development that uses natural resources in an efficient way and without destroying the basis of their productivity. Sustainable development allows natural resources to regenerate.
TERRESTRIAL - Living on or near the ground.
THIRD WORLD - Underdeveloped or developing countries.
TOXIC - Poisonous.
TRANSMIGRANT - Agricultural worker (and his family) officially encouraged by the government to move into a forested area, clear it, and farm it.
TROPICAL RAINFOREST - An evergreen forest located at low elevations in regions between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Tropical rainforests are characterized by abundant rainfall and a very warm, humid climate year-round.
TYCOONS - Wealthy and powerful businessmen.
UNDERSTORY - The forest layer beneath the canopy that includes small trees, young canopy trees, shrubs, and herbs.
VERTEBRATE - An animal with an internal skeleton, a backbone. Amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles are vertebrates.
WARNING COLORATION - Special coloring used to announce to a predator that the organism is toxic, or harmful.
