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DSST Env.Sci. Chp. 4
vocab. for DSST Env.Sci. from Environmental Science by Karen Arms
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| benthic zone | bottom of a body of water; inhabited by decomposers, insect larvae, and clams |
| biomes | regions that have distinctive climates and organisms and that contain many separate but similar ecosystems |
| canopy | in a forest, the covering of tall trees whose intertwining branches absorb a great amount of sunlight and shade the area beneath |
| chaparral | coastal biome with a Mediterranean climate and low-lying vegetation |
| climatogram | graph that shows monthly variations in temperature and precipitation |
| coral reef | limestone islands in the sea built by coral animals |
| desert | biome that receives less than 10 in. of precipitation a year |
| drought-resistance | characteristic of a plant that allows it to survive in areas of light or sporadic rainfall |
| estivating | practice of lying dormant underground during the summer |
| eutrophication | process that increases the amounts of nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus, in a marine or aquatic ecosystem |
| littoral zone | the shallow-water area near the shores of lakes and ponds where sunlight reaches the bottom |
| marsh | land covered with water; contains nonwoody plants |
| pampas | large, treeless plains of Argentina and other parts of South America |
| permafrost | permanently frozen soil a few inches below the active soil in tundra biomes |
| prairie | large area of level or slightly rolling grasslands |
| rhizome | creeping stem that lies below the soil but that differs from a root in having leaves and shoots and producing roots from its undersurface |
| savanna | tropical grassland biome with a short rainy season |
| specialists | organisms that are adapted to exploit a particular resource to avoid competition |
| steppe | large, grassy plains area with few trees in southeast Europe and Asia |
| swamp | land covered with water; contains woody plants or shrubs |
| taiga | biome dominated by conifers and characterized by harsh winters; occurs just below the Arctic Circle; also called northern coniferous forest |
| temperate deciduous forest | forest in an area of extreme seasonal variation in which trees drop their leaves each fall |
| temperate grassland | biome occurring in semiarid interiors of continents; examples are the prairies of North America, the steppes of Russia and Ukraine, and the pampas of South America |
| temperate rain forest | cool, humid biome where tree branches are draped with mosses, tree trunks are covered with lichens, and the forest floor is covered with ferns |
| tropical rain forest | warm, wet biome that occurs in a belt around the Earth near the equator and that contains the greatest diversity of organisms on Earth |
| tropical savanna | plain or grassland characterized by scattered trees |
| tundra | biome without trees, where grasses and tough shrubs grow in the frozen soil; extends from the Arctic Circle to the North Pole |
| understory | shrubs and plants that grow beneath the main canopy of a forest |
| wetland | area of land covered by water for at least part of the year |
| rhizoids | rootlike structures of mosses and ferns that attach them to rocks and substratum |
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