Bioclimatology

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The study of the relationship between climate and living organisms, including how climatic factors affect ecosystems and biodiversity
2. An interdisciplinary science focusing on how atmospheric conditions interact with biological systems and impact species habitats
3. Research that examines the influence of climatic variations on the distribution, behavior, and physiology of living organisms in various environments

Etymology: Bioclimatology is a plain compound, built from two parts that each came into English from Ancient Greek. The first, "bio-", comes from the Greek "bios," meaning "life," and it appears in English as a combining form in words such as biology. The second part is "climatology," the study of climate, which itself combines the Greek "klima," meaning "slope" or "inclination," with the suffix "-logy," meaning "the study of." Put together, the word means the study of life in relation to climate. It is a modern technical coinage, formed by adding "bio-" to "climatology" in the same way that scientists have long attached "bio-" to other fields to name the study of living things within them. Its meaning is exactly what the parts suggest, with no earlier sense to trace.