Biomes Flashcards
What two factors influence life in a biome?
Temperature and precipitation
What is an area with its own unique geography and climate?
Biome
How are latitude and average temperature related?
Inversely
How are altitude and average temperature related?
Inversely
What two climate effects are typically observed in biomes near large bodies of water?
Greater precipitation, more stable temperatures
What is a combined precipitation and temperature graph for a certain biome?
Climate graph
What is the process by which a plant or animal community successfully gives way to another until a stable climax is reached?
Succession
Where does primary succession occurs?
In essentially lifeless areas
When does secondary succession occur?
After a disturbance that reduced the population of the initial inhabitants
What is the dissolved salt content in water?
Salinity
What is a measure for water clarity?
Turbidity
What are free floating or weakly swimming organisms?
Plankton
What’s the difference between phytoplankton and zooplankton?
Phytoplankton are producers and zooplankton are consumers
What are strong swimming organisms or consumers?
Nekton
What are bottom dwellers?
Benthos
What type of ecosystem contains standing water?
Lentic
What type of ecosystem contains running water?
Lotic
What is the zone of a freshwater lake near the shore that contains shallow sunlit waters?
Littoral zone
What is the zone of freshwater lakes where the water is sunlit, but further away from the shore?
Limnetic zone
What is the area near the bottom of the lake that is inhabited mostly by decomposers feeding from detritus from above?
Benthic zone
What is a lake low in nutrients?
Oligotrophic
What is a lake containing greater concentrations of nutrients?
Eutrophic
What is a narrow channel of water that often begins in mountainous areas where water moved rapidly across rocks and down waterfalls?
Stream
What are nonpermanent bodies of freshwater?
Inland wetlands
What is a wetland without trees?
Marsh
What is a wetland with trees?
Swamp
What is a wetland characterized by plants that produce an acidic secretion that slows down decomposition?
Bog
What is a coastal wetland regularly flooded by tides and dominated by herbs, grasses, and shrubs (no trees)?
Salt marsh
What is a wetland with narrow-leaved plants that make it look like an underwater grassland?
Sea grass bed
What is a wetland with trees that have evolved to survive in high-salt, low-oxygen water?
Mangrove forest
Corals polyps build hard skeletons made of what?
Calcium carbonate
What is a ridge of rock in the sea formed by the growth and deposit of coral?
Coral reef
What is the depth to which light penetrates?
Photic zone
What is the dark zone beneath the photic zone?
Aphotic zone
