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Species:
a group of organisms that resemble one another and includes subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants, and any distinct population segment of any species of vertebrate, fish, or wildlife that interbreeds when mature.
Endangered species:
those species threatened with extinction throughout all, or a significant portion, of their range. Species can be listed as endangered or threatened for a number of reasons, including disease or predation. Natural or human factors affecting chances for survival: over utilization for commercial, scientific, or recreational purposes, or current or threatened destruction of habitat or range.
Threatened species: species slated to become endangered in the future.
Candidate species:
species that are being considered for listing as endangered or threatened, but for which not enough information has yet been collected to warrant listing.
Proposed species:
species that have been proposed for listing as endangered or threatened but for which no final ruling by the Department of the Interior has been made.
Biodiversity: the variety of life forms that have developed on earth.
Biosphere:
the part of the earth's environment in which living organisms are found and with which they interact to produce a steady-state system, effectively a whole-planet ecosystem.
Community: a group of interacting plants and animals inhabiting a particular area.
Critical habitat:
the habitat necessary for an endangered or threatened species to survive and recover. a technical designation used by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Ecology:
the study of the inter-relationship among organisms and between organisms and between all aspects, living and nonliving, of their environment.
Ecosystem:
a discrete unit that consists of living and nonliving parts, interacting to form a stable system.
Ecosystem management:
a management process that rather than considering natural resources only as commodities (such as timber or fuel) for human use, focuses instead on the ecosystem processes of population (plants, animals) community (a grouping of different organisms living together), and biogeochemical interactions to maintain the condition and function of a site as a whole.
Extirpation: the complete extermination of all individuals of a group in a given area.
Habitat: the living place of a species or community characterized by its physical or biotic properties.
Take:
as used in the Endangered Species Act, refers to the harming, hunting, capturing, or killing of endangered or threatened species. Harming includes altering the habitat to the point that it kills or injures endangered or threatened species through the impairment of its breeding, reproductive, and feeding behaviors.
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Sources: Michael Allaby, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ecology [Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1994], 51, 187; Endangered Species Act of 1973, 16 US. C.A. SS 1531-1544; National Research Council, Science and the Endangered Species Act [Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995],
106.
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