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Ch.4 ecology
Ecosystems and communities
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Day-to-day condition of Earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place | Weather |
Year-after-year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a particular region | Climate |
Natural situation in which heat is retained in Earth's atmosphere by carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other gases | Greenhouse effect |
Cold areas where sun's rays strike Earth at a very low angle; located around North and South poles | Polar zones |
Between polar zone and tropics | Temperate zones |
Near the equator, between 23.5 degrees North and South latitudes | Tropical zones |
Biological influences on organisms within an ecosystem | Biotic factors |
Physical, or nonliving, factors that shape ecosystems | Abiotic factors |
The full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those conditions | Niche |
Any necessity of life | Resource |
Ecological rule that states that no two species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time | Competitive exclusion principle |
An interaction in which one organism captures and feeds on another organism | Predation |
Any relationship in which two species live closely together | Symbiosis |
Both species benefit from the relationship | Mutualism |
One member of the association benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed | Commensalism |
One organism lives on or inside another organism and harms it | Parasitism |
Series of predictable changes that occurs in a community over time | Ecological succession |
Succession that occurs on surfaces where no soil exists | Primary succession |
First species to populate the area | Pioneer species |
When a disturbance is over, community interactions tend to restore the ecosystem to its original condition | Secondary succession |
Ability to survive and reproduce under conditions that differ from their optimal conditions | Tolerance |
Climate in a small area that differs from the climate around it | Microclimate |
Dense covering of tropical rain forests | Canopy |
A second layer of shorter trees and vines | Understory |
A tree that sheds its leaves during a particular season each year | Deciduous |
A tree that produces seed-bearing cones and most have leaves shaped like needles | Coniferous |
A material formed from decaying leaves and other organic matter that makes soil fertile | Humus |
Biome in which the winters are cold but summers are mild enough to allow the ground to thaw | Taiga |
A layer of permanently frozen subsoil | Permafrost |
A general term for the tiny, free-floating organisms that live in both freshwater and saltwater environments | Plankton |
Unicellular algae | Phytoplankton |
Planktonic animals | Zooplankton |
An ecosystem in which water either covers the soil or is present at or near the surface of the soil for at least part of the year | Wetland |
Wetlands formed where rivers meet the sea | Estuaries |
Made up of tiny pieces of organic material that provide food for organisms at the base of the estuary's food web | Detritus |
Temperate-zone estuaries dominated by salt-tolerant grasses above the low-tide line, and by seagrasses under water | Salt marshes |
Coastal wetlands that are widespread across tropical regions | Mangrove swamps |
Well-lit upper layer of the oceans | Photic zone |
Permanently dark layer of the oceans below the photic zone | Aphotic zone |
Prominent horizontal banding of organisms that live in a particular habitat | Zonation |
Marine zone that extends from the lowtide mark to the end of the continental shelf | Coastal ocean |
Coastal ocean community named for its dominant organism - kelp, a giant brown alga | Kelp forests |
Diverse and productive environment named for the coral animals that make up its primary structure | Coral reefs |
Organisms that live attached to or near the ocean floor | Benthos |