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Chlorophyll Green pigment used by plants to absorb energy from sunlight to
generate the energy necessary for plants to fix carbon via photosynthesis.
Ciliate A single-celled protozoan characterized by hair-like organelles called
cilia. Ciliates are typically found in water.
Citizen science The collection and analysis of data by members of the general
public, frequently led by and generally in collaboration with professional scientists. Crowdsourcing is a form of citizen science in which datasets are built
continuously through the contribution of groups of citizen scientists.
Clade A branch of a phylogenetic tree composed of an ancestor and all of its
descendants. Also known as lineage. Or a group of taxa containing all the
descendants of a single ancestor.
Classification/image classification A statistical procedure to identify different
classes of objects or features in an image. It can be unsupervised (based on the variance in the data) or supervised (based on the characteristics of the training data).
Classifier (i.e., in species detection) A set of rules or a mathematical function
that uses pixel data to assign or predict class membership. Also known as a classification model.
Close-range remote sensing Remote sensing using sensors installed on (or integrated into) platforms at a close distance from the target being measured. See
also “proximal remote sensing” and “near-surface remote sensing.”
Cluster A predefined set of points for sampling.
Coefficient of variation The ratio of the standard deviation to the mean, sometimes used as a measure of spectral diversity.
Collinearity A situation in which variables are highly correlated to each other.
Colonizers New arrivals that successfully establish in a community.
Community A set of interacting or potentially interacting species within a spatial
area defined by the investigator.
Community assembly The processes by which species from a regional species
pool arrive in and populate local neighborhoods and form ecological assemblages, shaping their composition and diversity. Important processes include
dispersal, colonization and establishment, sorting based on the biotic and abiotic
environment, environmental filtering, species interactions—such as competition,
facilitation, predation, pest and pathogen dynamics, etc.— diversification, gene
flow, reproduction, and others.
Community ecology The branch of ecology that focuses on the interaction of
species and the mechanisms that influence assembly of species into natural
communities.
Complementarity in the context of species or organismal interactions within ecological communities, refers to the positive effects attributable to mixing of organisms
or species that differ; the extent to which two or more biological entities fit together
minimizing overlap in resource use; related to niche or resource partitioning.
Conditional autoregressive (CAR) model A category of spatial regression models derived from standard linear regression models yet incorporating additional
terms that describe the spatial autocorrelation of the data in the form of specified
error structure.
Glossary
Chlorophyll Green pigment used by plants to absorb energy from sunlight to
generate the energy necessary for plants to fix carbon via photosynthesis.
Ciliate A single-celled protozoan characterized by hair-like organelles called
cilia. Ciliates are typically found in water.
Citizen science The collection and analysis of data by members of the general
public, frequently led by and generally in collaboration with professional scientists. Crowdsourcing is a form of citizen science in which datasets are built
continuously through the contribution of groups of citizen scientists.
Clade A branch of a phylogenetic tree composed of an ancestor and all of its
descendants. Also known as lineage. Or a group of taxa containing all the
descendants of a single ancestor.
Classification/image classification A statistical procedure to identify different
classes of objects or features in an image. It can be unsupervised (based on the variance in the data) or supervised (based on the characteristics of the training data).
Classifier (i.e., in species detection) A set of rules or a mathematical function
that uses pixel data to assign or predict class membership. Also known as a classification model.
Close-range remote sensing Remote sensing using sensors installed on (or integrated into) platforms at a close distance from the target being measured. See
also “proximal remote sensing” and “near-surface remote sensing.”
Cluster A predefined set of points for sampling.
Coefficient of variation The ratio of the standard deviation to the mean, sometimes used as a measure of spectral diversity.
Collinearity A situation in which variables are highly correlated to each other.
Colonizers New arrivals that successfully establish in a community.
Community A set of interacting or potentially interacting species within a spatial
area defined by the investigator.
Community assembly The processes by which species from a regional species
pool arrive in and populate local neighborhoods and form ecological assemblages, shaping their composition and diversity. Important processes include
dispersal, colonization and establishment, sorting based on the biotic and abiotic
environment, environmental filtering, species interactions—such as competition,
facilitation, predation, pest and pathogen dynamics, etc.— diversification, gene
flow, reproduction, and others.
Community ecology The branch of ecology that focuses on the interaction of
species and the mechanisms that influence assembly of species into natural
communities.
Complementarity in the context of species or organismal interactions within ecological communities, refers to the positive effects attributable to mixing of organisms
or species that differ; the extent to which two or more biological entities fit together
minimizing overlap in resource use; related to niche or resource partitioning.
Conditional autoregressive (CAR) model A category of spatial regression models derived from standard linear regression models yet incorporating additional
terms that describe the spatial autocorrelation of the data in the form of specified
error structure.
Glossary