- calcicole
- A plant with a preference for calcareous substrate
- calcifuge
- A plant not normally growing on calcareous substrate
- carotenoid
- Yellow plant pigment
- cave ice
- Ice formed in a closed or open cave
- CEC (cation-exchange capacity)
- The total amount of exchangeable cations that a particular material or soil can adsorb at a given pH
- chronosequence
- Sequence of related soils that differ in their degree of profile development because of differences in their age. Chronosequences can be found in evolving landscapes such as those produced by deglaciation, volcanic activity, wind deposits or sedimentation.
- competition
- Mutually negative interaction between two species or two individuals. Here, the partners tend to occupy the same portion of space and/or to use the same resources such as nutrients, water, or light. The result of competition is a mutual reduction of performance of the partners involved and it may lead to the death of the weaker partner, a process called "competitive exclusion".
- conduction
- To transmit or convey heat or energy
- congestion
- An excessive fullness of the blood vessels
- continuous permafrost
- Permafrost occurring everywhere beneath the exposed land surface throughout a geographic region with the exception of widely scattered sites, such as newly deposited unconsolidated sediments, where the climate has just begun to impose its influence on the thermal regime of the ground, causing the development of continuous permafrost
- convective
- The process of heat transfer between a solid surface and a moving liquid or gas
- convergence
- Independent development of similar characters in two or more organisms that are not closely related, presumably in response to similar selective pressures
- craton
- That part of a continent that is stable and forms the central mass of the continent. It is often of Precambrian age.
- cretaceous
- Geological period lasting from about 145 million to about 65 million years ago; youngest period of the Mesozoic era
- crevasse
- Open fissure in the glacier surface
- crevice
- A narrow opening resulting from a split or crack (as in a cliff)
- cryosphere
- The perennially frozen regions of the planet, including land-ice, sea-ice, permanent snow cover and permafrost. Another definition suggests it is the frozen water part of the hydrosphere (all the water on Earth) and includes continental and sea ice.
- cryptogam
- A general name for a group of lower plants and plant-like organisms that lack flowers and reproduce by spores (crypto-gam means "hidden marriage"). The group includes cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, lichens, bryophytes and ferns.
- cushion plant
- Low growing mat formed by tightly massed individuals of the same species of plant. Generally associated with tundra or high alpine communities
- cuticula
- The hydrophobic (water repellent) outermost layer of the epidermis (the outermost plant cell layer) of above ground plant tissue
- cyanobacteria
- Procaryonts which are able to fix N2 (often called blue-green algae)
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