Biology key terms

The variety of living organisms.

A fuel made from recently living biological material, such as a crop.

A fuel mixture produced by anaerobic decay of biological waste; it contains methane that can be burned.

The use of a living organism, such as a predator or parasite, to reduce the number of a pest species.

The classification of an individual as biologically male or female in the simplified GCSE model, based on inherited sex chromosomes and the resulting development of reproductive structures.

A valve made from animal or human tissue that is used to replace a faulty heart valve.

The mass of living material in an organism or group of organisms.

The percentage of the biomass available at one trophic level that becomes biomass at the next trophic level.

The use of living organisms or biological processes to make useful products.

A living component of an ecosystem, such as a plant, animal or microorganism.

The living parts of an ecosystem, including plants, animals and microorganisms.

A living factor that can affect organisms in an ecosystem, such as food availability, predators, pathogens or competition.

Walking on two legs.

A muscular organ that stores urine before it leaves the body.

A trial in which the participant does not know whether they receive the medicine or the comparison treatment.

A selectively permeable boundary formed by the brain's capillaries that restricts the movement of many substances from the blood into brain tissue.

A solid plug formed when blood cells become trapped in a fibrin mesh.

The process that forms a solid plug at a damaged blood vessel.

The amount of glucose dissolved in a given volume of blood.

The concentration of glucose, a sugar used by cells in respiration, in the blood.

The force exerted by circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels.

A type of white blood cell involved in the specific immune response; B-lymphocytes produce antibodies and form memory lymphocytes.

A cell forming the tissues and organs of an organism, rather than a reproductive cell such as an egg or sperm cell.

A measure relating a person's mass in kilograms to the square of their height in metres.

The production of flowers as a plant attempts to reproduce before it dies, sometimes in response to conditions such as cold or lack of water.

A layer of relatively still air next to a leaf, in which water vapour can accumulate.

A cup-shaped structure at the start of a nephron that collects liquid filtered from the glomerulus.