Dictionary of Biochemistry
By Students’ Academy
Copyright@2011Students’ Academy
Smashwords Edition
Chapter 1
A
Ablation
Ablation refers to the processes of melting, evaporation, wind erosion, and breaking off of ice masses, that removes snow or ice from a glacier or snowfield.
Ablation also means the amount of snow or ice which has been removed.
Abscission
Abscission refers to shedding of leaves, flowers, fruits, or seeds, etc. by plants.
Absorption Coefficient
Absorption Coefficient refers to a measure of the rate of decrease in the intensity of electromagnetic radiation (as light) as it passes through a given substance.
Acclimation
Acclimation is also called Acclimatization. It refers to the change that occurs in an organism to allow it to tolerate a new environment.
Accumulation
Accumulation refers to snowfall, condensation, avalanching, snow transport by wind, and freezing of liquid water, , floating ice, or snow cover, or other such processes.
Acidity Profile
Acidity Profile is defined as the acid concentration in ice core layers as a function of depth as determined from electrical measurements.
Adaptation
Adaptation refers to the adjustment of an organism or population to a new or altered environment through genetic changes brought about by natural selection.
Adiabatic Process
Adiabatic Process refers to any process that occurs without gain or loss of heat
Adiabatic Warming
Adiabatic Warming refers to a process which occurs without gain or loss of heat.
Advection
Advection refers to the horizontal transfer of heat or other atmospheric properties
Advection can also be defined in detail as the horizontal large-scale movement of air that causes changes in temperature or other physical properties. In oceanography, advection is the horizontal or vertical flow of sea water as a current.
Aerosol
Aerosol refers to a cloud of solid or liquid particles in a gas
Agglomeration
Agglomeration refers to the process by which precipitation particles grow larger by collision or contact with cloud particles or other precipitation particles.
Agung
Agung is an active volcano 10,380 ft (3,141 m) high in Bali, Indonesia. This volcano last erupted in 1964.
Airborne Fraction
Airborne Fraction refers to the portion of CO2 released from all energy consumption and land use activities that remains in the atmosphere as opposed to the amounts absorbed by plants and oceans.
Airborne Particulates
Airborne Particulates refer to the total amount of suspended matter found in the atmosphere as solid pieces or liquid droplets. Windblown dust, emissions from industrial processes, smoke from the burning of wood and coal, and the exhaust of motor vehicles, etc. are airborne particulates.
Airmass
Airmass refers to a large body of air with uniform characteristics horizontally
Albedo
Albedo refers to the fraction of the total solar radiation incident on a body that is reflected by it.
Alfisols
Alfisols can be defined as an order of soils with a medium-to-high base supply, horizons of clay accumulation, and gray-brown surface horizons.
Algae
The rootless plants which grow in sunlit waters in relative proportion to the amounts of nutrients available are Algae. fish and small aquatic animals eat these plants.
Algal Blooms
Algal Blooms refer to sudden spurts of algal growth that can indicate potentially hazardous changes in local water chemistry.
Alkalinity
Alkalinity refers to PH values above 7.
Altithermal Period
Altithermal Period is also called the hypsithermal period.
Altithermal Period refers to the period of high temperature, particularly the one from 8000 to 4000 B.P. (before the present era), which was apparently warmer in summers, as compared with the present, and with the precipitation zones shifted poleward.
Anadromous
Anadromous refers to the fish that spend their adult lives in the sea but swim upriver to freshwater spawning grounds to reproduce.
Analog
While studying climate and environment, Analog generally refers to a large-scale weather pattern of the past that is similar to a current situation in its essential characteristics.
Antarctic Ice Sheet
See ice sheet.
Anthropogenic
In the field of Biochemistry refers to man-made. It is generally used in the context of emissions that are produced as the result of human activities.
In other branches of knowledge, Anthropogenic refers to the study of the origins and development of human beings
Anticyclone
Anticyclone refers to an atmospheric high-pressure closed circulation with clockwise rotation in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, and undefined at the Equator.
Aragonite
Aragonite is a mineral species of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) with a crystal structure different from that of vaterite and calcite, which are the other two forms of CaCO3.
Arctic Haze
Arctic Haze is a technical term which generally refers to the persistent winter diffuse layer in the Arctic atmosphere whose origin may be related to long-range transport of midlatitude continental man-made pollutants.
Atmosphere
Atmosphere or An is the standard unit of pressure representing the pressure exerted by a 29.92-in. column of mercury at sea level at 45 degrees latitude and equal to 1000 g/cm2.
Atmosphere
Atmosphere generally refers to the envelope of air surrounding the Earth and bound to it by the Earth's gravitational attraction. Studies of the chemical properties, dynamic motions, and physical processes of this system constitute the field of meteorology.
Atmospheric Turbulence
Irregularities occurring in the velocity of the wind flow are commonly called Atmospheric Turbulence.
Atmospheric Window
Atmospheric Window points to a spectral region between 8.5 and 11.0 microns where the atmosphere is essentially transparent to longwave radiation.
Autotrophic
Autotrophic is an organism that produces food from inorganic substances.
Chapter 2
B
Baroclinic Model
Baroclinic Model represents the atmospheric circulation that, in contrast with barotropic models, does not constrain constant-pressure surfaces to coincide with constant-density surfaces.
Basal Sliding
Basal Sliding refers to the movement or speed of movement of a glacier on its bed.
Bathymetry
Bathymetry is the science of measuring ocean depths to determine the topography of the sea floor.
Benthic Organism
Benthic Organism refers to the form of aquatic plant or animal life that is found on or near the bottom of a stream, lake, or ocean.
Benthic Region
Benthic Region refers to the bottom layer of a body of water.
Biogeochemical Cycle
Biogeochemical Cycle refers to the chemical interactions among the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere.
Biological Productivity
Biological Productivity is the total amount of organic matter, carbon, or energy content that is accumulated during a given time period.
Biomass
Biomass means the total dry organic matter or stored energy content of living organisms that is present at a specific time in a defined unit.
Biosphere
Biosphere refers to the regions of the surface and atmosphere of the Earth (or other planet) where living organisms exist.
Biosphere also refers to an artificial enclosed ecosystem, typically in a large sealed building.
Biota
Biota refers to the animal and plant (fauna and flora) life of a given area.
Bitumen
Bitumen is a dark naturally occurring solid or semisolid substances composed mainly of a mixture of hydrocarbons with little oxygen, nitrogen, or sulfur.
Buffer Factor
Scientifically described, Buffer Factor is the ratio of the instantaneous fractional change in the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) exerted by seawater to the fractional change in total CO2 dissolved in the ocean waters. The buffer factor relates the partial pressure of CO2 in the ocean to the total ocean CO2 concentration at constant temperature, alkalinity and salinity.
Chapter 3
C
C3 Plants
The plants like soybean, wheat, and cotton, etc. whose carbon- fixation products have three carbon atoms per molecule are referred to as C3 Plants.
C4 Plants
The plants like maize and sorghum, etc. whose carbon fixation products have four carbon atoms per molecule are called C4 Plants.
Calcrete
Calcrete is a kind of gravel and sand conglomerate cemented by calcium carbonate.
Caliche
Caliche is also called hardpan; an opaque, reddish-brown-to-white calcareous material, which occurs in layers near the surface of stony soils in arid and semiarid areas.
Calvin Cycle
Calvin Cycle refers to the incorporation of CO2 into glucose by enzymatic reactions.
CAM Plants
The plants like cactus and other succulents, etc. which temporarily separate the processes of carbon dioxide uptake and fixation when grown under arid conditions are called CAM Plants.
Canopy
Canopy refers to the branches and leaves of woody plants that are formed some distance above the ground.
Carbon-Based Resources
Carbon Based Resources are recoverable fossil fuel (coal, gas, crude oils, oil shale, and tar sands) and biomass that can be used in fuel production and consumption.
Carbon Budget
Carbon Budget refers to the balance of the exchanges (incomes and losses) of carbon between the carbon reservoirs or between one specific loop (e.g., atmosphere - biosphere) of the carbon cycle. An examination of the carbon budget of a pool or reservoir can provide information about whether the pool or reservoir is functioning as a source or sink for CO2.
Carbon Cycle
Carbon Cycle refers to the organic circulation of carbon from the atmosphere into organisms and back again.
Carbon Density
Carbon Density is defined as the amount of carbon per unit area for a given ecosystem or vegetation type, based on climatic conditions, topography, vegetative-cover type and amount, soils, and maturity of the vegetative stands.
Carbon Dioxide Fertilization
Carbon Dioxide Fertilization refers to the enhancement of plant growth or of the net primary production by CO2 enrichment that could occur in natural or agricultural systems as a result of an increase in the atmospheric concentration of CO2.
Carbon Dioxide Reference Gas
Carbon Dioxide Reference Gas is a mixture of a known quantity of CO2-in air or CO2-in-N2 used to calibrate carbon dioxide analyzers.
Carbon Flux
Carbon Flux refers to the rate of exchange of carbon between pools (reservoirs).
Carbon Isotope Ratio
Carbon Isotope Ration is the ratio of carbon-12 to either of the other, less common, carbon isotopes, carbon- 13 or carbon-14.
Carbon Pool
Carbon Pool means a reservoir containing carbon as a principal element in the geochemical cycle.