Calving Grounds: An place or area where caribou give birth to their babies.
Camouflage: The way in which an animal hides itself from an enemy, changing its body shape or colour to blend into its surroundings.
Canopy: The layer formed by the leaves and branches of a forest’s tallest trees.
Caption: Words used to describe a picture or drawing, like in a comic strip.
Carbon: A chemical element that is found in all plants and animals. Carbon is found in fossil fuels - coal, oil and natural gas. When fossil fuels are burned the carbon is released into the air and can join with oxygen to make carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
Carbon dioxide: A colourless, odorless, tasteless gas that is produced when animals exhale and when fuels burn, and is used by plants to make food. Carbon dioxide is a "Greenhouse Gas." See Fossil Fuel and Greenhouse Gas(es).
Carbon Sequestration : The capture or
long-term storage of carbon in forests/soils/oceans, preventing it from
collecting in the atmosphere as CO2
Carrion: Dead and decaying animal matter.
Carnivore: An animal that eats other animals and is nourished by the plants and smaller creatures these animals have eaten.
Certified: Means that the food has been grown according to strict standards
(e.g. no pesticides), verified by an independent organization."
Chlorophyll: A green substance that enables the leaves of plants to use solar energy, carbon dioxide, water and organic nutrients from the soil to make the sugars and starches they use as food.
Climate: The pattern of weather in a region year round.
Climate Change: When climate is different from its past. The Earth's climate could be changing really fast because of human activities. See Climate.
Commensalism: A relationship in which one species derives food or shelter from another species without seriously harming that organism or providing any benefits in return.
Commodity: Something of value that can be bought or sold, usually a product or raw material (lumber, wheat, coffee, metals, etc.).
Community: All the plants and animals
in a particular habitat that are bound together by food chains and other
interactions.
Competition: When two or more organisms
have the potential for using the same resource.
Composting: The process of turning organic wastes into a nutrient-rich mixture that can be used to condition soil and feed plants.
Coniferous Forest: A forest filled mostly with coniferous trees, like Pine, Spruce and Fir. See Coniferous Tree.
Coniferous Tree: Generally, a tree that grows its seeds in cones or cone-like structures. Sometimes called an evergreen tree or a needle-leaf tree or a softwood tree. Example Pine, Spruce and Fir.
Conservation: The use of natural resources in a way that assures their continuing availability to future generations; the wise and intelligent use or protection of natural resources.
COSEWIC: (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada) is a group of experts that assesses and designates which wild species are in some danger of disappearing from Canada.
Crop: The yield from plants in a single growing season; same as "produce."