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Long Term Ecological Research Network

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Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology

Glossary

Biodiversity:

Variation of life at all levels of biological organization.

Disturbance:

A relatively discrete event in time and space that alters populations, communities, and ecosystems, including their attendant processes.

Ecology:

The study of the relationship of organisms or groups of organisms to their environment.

Ecosystem dynamics:

The observed changes in the characteristics of an ecosystem over time.

Ecosystem:

The organisms living in a particular area in combination with the physical elements of the environment in which they live.

Episodic:

Limited in duration or temporary.

Invisible present:

Relating to an observation whose importance cannot be evaluated for lack of context.

Scale:

Refers to differences in the spatial or temporal extent of a set of observations or measurements.

Synthesis:

The creation of new knowledge by combining observations from diverse sources.

Transformative research:

Scientific investigations whose results lead to radical changes in...

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Waide, R.B., Thomas, M.O. (2018). Long Term Ecological Research Network. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_749-3

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