biota

(redirected from BIOTAS)
Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Encyclopedia.

bi·o·ta

(bī-ō′tə)

The living organisms of a region or habitat: soil biota; the biota of Australia.

[New Latin, from Greek biotē, way of life, from bios, life; see g^wei- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

biota

(baɪˈəʊtə)

(Biology) the plant and animal life of a particular region or period

[C20: from New Latin, from Greek biotē way of life, from bios life]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bi•o•ta

(baɪˈoʊ tə)

n.

the animals, plants, fungi, etc., of a region or period.

[1901; < Greek biotḗ life, akin to bíos; see bio-]

biota

the animal or plant life of a particular region.

See also: Animals, Plants

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun

biota - all the plant and animal life of a particular region

biology

aggregation, collection, accumulation, assemblage - several things grouped together or considered as a whole

fauna, zoology - all the animal life in a particular region or period; "the fauna of China"; "the zoology of the Pliocene epoch"

botany, flora, vegetation - all the plant life in a particular region or period; "Pleistocene vegetation"; "the flora of southern California"; "the botany of China"

Mentioned in ?

References in periodicals archive ?

University of California at Davis evolutionary biologist Geerat Vermeij concluded in a 1991 Science article: "Invasion usually results in the enrichment of biotas [the total flora and fauna] of continents and oceans." In layman's terms, introducing species tends to raise the total number of species living in a given ecosystem, not decrease it.

BIO INVADERS!

The many interesting photographs and illustrations of fossils, and beautiful colour reconstructions of ancient biotas, enhance the visualisation of Australia's faunas and floras from deep time.

Australia's fossil heritage: a catalogue of important Australian fossil sites

"Just like reef corallines, algae flora reflects the cooling of the Mediterranean and its isolation from the Indian Ocean, and only a few tropical biotas existed in the Messinian era.