Adaptation

A structure or method which allows an animal or plant to survive in a particular environment. For example, a light tan colouring is an adaptation which allows tiger beetles to blend in with the sand and avoid predators.

Blowout

An area of open sand where the grasses and other plants are no longer holding the sand in place. The wind blows out the sand and forms a bowl-shaped hole.

Carnivore

An animal which eats other animals; a meat-eater.

COSEWIC

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada is the agency that evaluates the situation of rare species and decides if they are at risk. If so, the species may be designated Endangered, Threatened, or Special Concern.

Crustacean

Small, hard-shelled aquatic animals, such as shrimp.

Designated species

A species which has been judged at-risk by COSEWIC, and placed on the Endangered, Threatened, or Special Concern list (Schedule 1 of the federal Species at Risk Act, SARA). Listing under SARA as threatened or endangered requires that a recovery plan be developed for the species.

Disjunct

Having a population that is in a separate, disconnected location from the main range of the species.

Ecosystem

A web of living things plus all the factors that make up the environment where they live. For example, the dune ecosystem includes the dune plants and animals (insects, snakes, etc.) plus the amount of rainfall, the wind conditions, the amount of sunlight, the heat or cold, the closeness of the lake, etc.

Endangered

A species at risk of imminent extinction or extirpation.

Endemic

An animal or plant with a very restricted range, limited to only one area or kind of habitat.

Extinct

A species that no longer exists.

Extirpated

A species that no longer exists in the wild in a certain location but may be found elsewhere. For example, Pitcher's Thistle is extirpated from Southern Lake Huron.

Grasslands

Ecosystems or vegetation that have grasses as the most common plants.

Habitat 

A place and all the features that make up the life needs of a particular species. For example, the loose sand of the dune grasslands are the habitat of the Beach Tiger Beetle.

Management

The ideas and plans which direct people on how to protect the dunes. For example, keeping ATVs off the dune vegetation is a good management practice.

Protection

To make sure that a species or natural area remains in its original or present natural state. Protection usually means the activities which harm ecosystems cannot happen. For example, in most protected areas, buildings cannot be built on the dunes. Protection can happen in lots of ways: through making parks, through legal agreements, through laws and enforcement, and more. It can start by people talking to other people and making them aware of how special a place or a species is.

Recovery

Maintaining existing populations and ecosystems and restoring to their natural state those that are damaged.

Regulated species

A species which has been been formally regulated as Endangered under the provincial Endangered Species Act (ESA). Currently only Endangered Species are regulated under this Act. To become regulated, a consultation process must be held.

Special Concern

A species that is particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events but which is not endangered or threatened.

Species

One kind of plant or animal—a basic unit of biological classification; a group of individuals that resemble one another and can interbreed.

Species-At-Risk

A plant or animal species in serious danger of losing important populations, large numbers of individuals, or locations where it occurs. All plant or animal species that are listed as endangered, threatened or special concern are considered to be “at risk”.

Threatened

Likely to become endangered if no action is taken to change things.

Vegetation

All the different types of plants found in one place and taken as a group. For example, dune vegetation usually is made up of grasses, low, creeping shrubs, and some small individual plants.

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Author of www.pitchersthistle.ca: Jarmo Jalava, 2005

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