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Ch. 4 Vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Weather | day to day condition of Earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place. |
| Climate | Year after year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a particular region. |
| Greenhouse Effect | Natural situation in which heat is retained by this layer of greenhouse gases. |
| Polar Zone | Cold areas where the sun's rays strike Earth at a very low angle. |
| Temperate Zones | Sit between the polar zones and the tropics. |
| Tropical Zone | Is near the equator, between 23.5 North and 23.5 South latitudes. |
| Biotic Factors | Biological influences on organisms within an ecosystem |
| Abiotic Factors | The climate of an area includes abiotic factors such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity. |
| Habitat | Area where an organism lives. |
| Niche | The full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those conditions. |
| Resource | Refers to any necessity of life, such as water, nutrients, light, food, or space. |
| Competitive Exclusion Principle | That no two species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time. |
| Predation | Interaction in which one organism captures and feeds on another organism. |
| Symbiosis | Relationship in which two species live closely together. |
| Mutualism | Both species benefit from the relationship. |
| Commensalism | One member of the association benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed. |
| Parasitism | One organism lives on or inside another organism and harms it. |
| Ecological Succession | Series of predictable changes that occurs in a community over time. |
| Primary Succession | Succession that occurs on surfaces where no soil exists. |
| Pioneer Species | First species to populate the area. |
| Secondary Succession | a disturbance of some kind changes an existing community without removing soil. |
| Biome | Is a complex of terrestrial communities that covers a large area and is characterized by certain soil and climate conditions and particular assemblages of plants and animals. |
| Tolerance | Plants and animals also exhibit variations or ability to survive and reproduce under conditions that differ from their optimal conditions. |
| Microclimate | Climate in a small area that differs from the climate around it. |
| Canopy | Leafy tops of tall trees extending from 50 - 80 meters above the forest floor form a dense covering. |
| Understory | Shade below the canopy a second layer of shorter trees and vines. |
| Deciduous | A tree that sheds its leaves during a particular season each year. |
| Coniferous | Trees or conifers produce seed bearing cones and most have leaves shaped like needles. |
| Humus | Soils of temperate forests are often rich a material formed from decaying leaves and other organic matter that makes soil fertile. |
| Taiga | Biomes are called boreal forests. |
| Permafrost | a layer of permanently frozen subsoil. |
| Plankton | Is a general term for the freshwater and saltwater environments. |
| Phytoplankton | single celled algae are supported by nutrients in the water and form the base of many aquatic food webs. |
| Zooplankton | Feed on the Phytoplankton |
| Wetland | is 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. |
| estuaries | Wetlands formed where rivers meet the sea. |
| Detritus | Made up of tiny pieces of organic material that provide food for organisms at the base of the estuary's food web. |
| Salt Marshes | Are temperate zone estuaries dominated by salt tolerant grasses above the low tide line and by seagrasses under water. |
| Mangrove Swamps | Are coastal wetlands that are widespread across tropical regions including southern Florida and Hawaii. |
| Photic zone | Photosynthesis is limited to this well lit upper layer. |
| Aphotic zone | Which is permanently dark. |
| Zonation | Is the prominent horizontal banding of organisms that live in a particular habitat. |
| Coastal Ocean | Extends from the low tide mark to the outer edge of the continental shelf the relatively shallow border that surrounds the continents. |
| Kelp Forests | Dominant organism a giant brown alga that can grow at extraordinary rates. |
| Coral Reefs | For the coral animals whose hard calcium carbonate skeletons make up their primary structure. |
| Benthos | Organisms that live near the bottom. |
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