An ontology for describing organismal habitats (especially focused on microbes)
MEO: Metagenome/Microbes Environmental Ontology
Saliva is a slightly alkaline secretion of water, mucin, protein, salts, and often a starch-splitting enzyme (as ptyalin) that is secreted into the mouth by salivary glands, lubricates ingested food, and often begins the breakdown of starches.
A sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite.
A habitat that is in or on a body of water containing medium to high concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids (>=0.5 grams dissolved salts per litre).
A large expanse of saline water usually connected with an ocean.
High temperature water ejected from hydrothermal vents and laden with dissolved metals and minerals as a result of percolation through crustal rocks.
An opague white dairy product produced by the mammary glands of female mammals.
A long and narrow upland with steep sides.
A habitat that is in or on a living plant. Here plant denotes an individual of a species that is a sub-taxon of NCBITaxon:33090 (viridiplantae).
A peatland dominated by species of the Bryophyte Sphagnum.
Anthrosols comprise soils that have been modified profoundly through human activities, such as addition of organic materials or household wastes, irrigation and cultivation.
Fields of ice, formed in regions of perennial frost.
A collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function.
A habitat that is on or at the boundary of the surface of the Earth.
A habitat that is in or on a living thing.
A prominent or distinctive aspect, quality, or characteristic of environments occurring on or along marine benthic environments.
Sediment characterised by a temperature of 45-75 degrees Celsius and low to no oxygen content. Often impacted by hydrothermal fluid flows.
A habitat that is in or on a living animal. Here animal denotes an individual of a species that is a sub-taxon of NCBITaxon:33208.
Continuous saline-water bodies that surround the continents and fill the Earth's great depressions.
Aragonite structures produced by living organisms, found in shallow, marine waters with little nutrients in the water.
A substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human being for nutrition or pleasure.
A step-like feature between higher and lower ground: a relatively flat or gently inclined shelf of earth, backed and fronted by steep slopes or manmade detaining walls.
Excreta are bodily fluids consisting of waste matter, such as sweat or feces, discharged from the body.
Urine is a liquid excreta containing water and waste products made by the kidneys, stored in the bladder, and leaves the body through the urethra.
Water that has been adversely affected in quality by anthropogenic influence.
Any material within 2 m from the Earth's surface that is in contact with the atmosphere, with the exclusion of living organisms, areas with continuous ice not covered by other material, and water bodies deeper than 2 m.
Material derived from a microbial mat, a multi-layered sheet of micro-organisms, mainly bacteria and archaea. Microbial mats create a wide range of internal chemical environments.
The narrow region of soil that is directly influenced by root secretions and associated soil microorganisms.
A lake of whose water contains low concentrations of salts.
Wastewater that is contaminated with feces or urine.
A reserve of land, usually, but not always declared and owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution. National parks are a protected area of IUCN category II.
The cultivation of aquatic produce such as aquatic plants, fish and other aquatic animals.
An opening of the sea into the land, or of a lake into its shore.
A biome expressed by strips or ridges of rocks, sand, or coral that rises to or near the surface of a body of marine water.
A mass of the mineral material of the crust of the Earth.
A lake whose water contains a considerable concentration of dissolved salts.
The mixture of gases (roughly (by molar content/volume: 78% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, trace amounts of other gases, and a variable amount (average around 1%) of water vapor) that surrounds the planet Earth.
Material derived from a biofilm, an aggregate of microorganisms in which cells adhere to each other and/or to a surface. These adherent cells are frequently embedded within a self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS). Biofilm EPS, which is also referred to as slime, is a polymeric conglomeration generally composed of extracellular DNA, proteins, and polysaccharides in various configurations.
A body of water or other liquid of considerable size contained on a body of land.
Feces is an excreta consisting of waste products expelled from an animal's digestive tract through the anus (or cloaca) during defecation.
A habitat that is below the surface of the earth.
The residual semi-solid material left from domestic or industrial processes, or wastewater treatment processes.
The separation between neighbouring drainage basins (catchments). In hilly country, the divide lies along topographical peaks and ridges, but in flat country or on a high plateau (especially where the ground is marshy) the divide may be invisible - just a more or less notional line on the ground on either side of which falling raindrops will start a journey to different rivers, and even to different sides of a country or continent.
A watershed such that water falling on one side of the line eventually travels to one ocean or body of water, and water on the other side travels to another, generally on the opposite side of the continent.
A liquid or semi-liquid mixture of water and some combination of soil, silt, and clay.
Expressions of the estuarine biome occur at wide lower courses of a rivers where they flows into a sea. Estuaries experience tidal flows and their water is a changing mixture of fresh and salt.
A region of general uniform slope, comparatively level, and of considerable extent.
A feature associated with a volcano, an opening, or rupture, in the Earth's surface or crust, which allows hot, molten rock, ash and gases to escape from deep below the surface.
An area with a high density of trees. A small forest may be called a wood.
Mucus is a bodily fluid consisting of a slippery secretion of the lining of the mucous membranes in the body. It is a viscous colloid containing antiseptic enzymes (such as lysozyme) and immunoglobulins. Mucus is produced by goblet cells in the mucous membranes that cover the surfaces of the membranes. It is made up of mucins and inorganic salts suspended in water.
Environmental material characteristic of, pertaining to, or derived from living organisms.
A hydrographic feature characterized by the dominance of snow or ice.
A body of water, usually of smaller size than a lake.
A long and narrow sea inlet with high steeply sloped walled sides. A fjord is a landform created during a period of glaciation.
A sheet of saline water separated from the open sea by sand or shingle banks. The sheet of water between an offshore reef, especially of coral and mainland. The sheet of water within a ring or horseshoe shaped atoll.
An area that is inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.
The ocean biome comprises major bodies of saline water, principal components of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) deep. Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand (ppt) (3.5%), and nearly all seawater has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt.
Sediment is an environmental substance comprised of any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow and which eventually is deposited as a layer of solid particles on the bedor bottom of a body of water or other liquid.
A habitat that is in or on a sea or ocean containing high concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids (typically >35 grams dissolved salts per litre).
A quality inhering in a bearer by virtue of the bearer's independence on oxygen.
An area in which grasses (Graminae) are a significant component of the vegetation.
Linear body of water flowing on the Earth's surface.
The liquid produced when water percolates through any permeable material. It can contain either dissolved or suspended material, or usually both.
Root nodules occur on the roots of plants that associate with symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
A multi-layered sheet of micro-organisms, mainly bacteria and archaea. Microbial mats grow at interfaces between different types of material, mostly on submerged or moist surfaces but a few survive in deserts.
An environmental feature that is, or can be, contained and is predominantly composed of one or a few types of stuff.
Place or area with clustered or scattered buildings and a permanent human population.
A semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea.
An area of water bordered by land on three sides.
The exit or point of discharge of a stream into another stream, lake or sea.
A quality inhering in a bearer by virtue of the bearer's dependence on oxygen.
A biome that applies to the freshwater realm.
related to organism (e.g., symbiosis, parasitism)
Soil at or below the freezing point of water (0C or 32F) for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground material.
A biome that applies to the terrestrial realm.
A group of hydrous aluminium phyllosilicate (phyllosilicates being a subgroup of silicate minerals) minerals (see clay minerals), that are typically less than 2micrometres in diameter. Clay consists of a variety of phyllosilicate minerals rich in silicon and aluminium oxides and hydroxides which include variable amounts of structural water.
A habitat that is in or on a body of water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids (<0.5 grams dissolved salts per litre).
A narrow channel of water that connects two larger bodies of water, and thus lies between two land masses.
A prominent or distinctive aspect, quality, or characteristic of a marine biome.
A bounded area of land, or water, usually in its natural or semi-natural (landscaped) state and set aside for some purpose, usually to do with recreation or conservation.
A spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally-heated groundwater from the Earth's crust.
A tract of crop or grazing land, as well as the group of buildings with and often surrounding a farmhouse, including barns, sheds, and other outbuildings, used for agricultural production.
A habitat that is in or on an environmental feature or material derived from human activity.
Blood is a bodily fluid composed of blood plasma and blood cells suspended within the plasma that circulates around the organism's body. Blood performs may important functions including the supplying of oxygen and nutrients, removal of waste, circulation of white blood cells, detection of antibodes, coagulation, transportation of antibodies and the regulation of pH and body temperature.
A natural bodily fluid or secretion such as blood, semen, saliva, blood plasma, intracellular and interstitial fluids.
A liquid produced from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid.
A point where groundwater or steam flows out of the ground, and is thus where the aquifer surface meets the ground surface or where there is a fissure.
Ice crystals commonly found growing on young sea ice and thin lake ice in cold, calm conditions.
A fissure in the Earths's surface from which geothermally heated water issues.
An aquatic biome that comprises systems of open-ocean and unprotected coastal habitats, characterized by exposure to wave action, tidal fluctuation, and ocean currents as well as systems that largely resemble these. Water in the marine biome is generally within the salinity range of seawater: 30 to 38 ppt.
A ridge of rocks, lying near the surface of the sea, which may be visible at low tide, but is usually covered by water.
The physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks.
A wetland associated with the part of the land adjoining or near a sea or ocean.
A wetland, featuring grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants (possibly with low-growing woody plants) in a context of shallow water.
An area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a seacoast and separated from the interior by other features.
A complex aggregation of microorganisms marked by the excretion of a protective and adhesive matrix; usually adhering to a substratum.
Coastal water is a marine water body bordering a coast.
A prominent or distinctive aspect, quality, or characteristic pertaining to or derived from living organisms.
A habitat that is in or on a living insect. Here insect denotes an individual of a species that is a sub-taxon of NCBITaxon:50557.
The marine coral reef biome comprises constructional wave-resistant entities which are primarily built by corals and are often cemented together. The growth of these structures is aided by zooxanthellae, algae that are symbiotic with the reef-building corals.
Suffering from a reduced supply of oxygen.
A Korean dish made of vegetables, such as cabbage or radishes, that are salted, seasoned, and stored in sealed containers to undergo lactic acid fermentation.
Marine sediment is a sediment that accumulates in the flat or very gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basin floor. The three main types of marine sediment, also known as pelagic sediment, are siliceous oozes, calcareous oozes, and red clays.
Natural freshwater surface streams of considerable volume and a permanent or seasonal flow, moving in a definite channel toward a sea, lake, or another river; any large streams, or ones larger than brooks or creeks, such as the trunk stream and larger branches of a drainage system.
Charcoal that is used to nutritionally supplement soil.
Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrubland biome