Ch. 54 Flashcards
What are the interactions among living things?
Biotic interactions
What are the reactions between organisms and their nonliving environment?
Abiotic interactions
Environmental science is the application of ______ to the real world
Ecology
What is the type of ecology where organisms are physiologically adapted to their environment and the environment impacts species distribution?
Physiological ecology
What is the type of ecology where individual behavior contributes to the survival and reproductive success?
Behavioral ecology
What kind of ecology studies the factors affecting population density, size and growth?
Population ecology
Population ecology specifically looks at which population relationships
Predation, competition, parasitism
What type of ecology studies how populations of species interact and form functional communities?
Community ecology
What type of ecology focuses on the flow of energy and cycling of chemical elements among the organisms and the physical environment?
Ecosystem ecology
What is the prevailing weather pattern in a region called?
Climate
What are the day to day conditions of an environment that frequently change?
Weather
Are the sun rays strong at the equator or the north pole?
Equator because it is a shorter surface area for the solar rays and closer to the sun
What are determined by temperature differences and wind patterns?
Biomes
The earth spins on a _____
Tilt on it’s axis
Increasing elevation leads to a decrease in air pressure, what is this called?
Adiabatic cooling
As warm moist air flows up a mountain, it cools releasing precipitation, the other side of the mountain is dry with less precipitation, what is this called?
Rain shadow
The sea ________ coastal and island temperatures due waters high specific heat
Moderates
The rotation of the earth and wind create ocean currents which can ____ climate
Modify
A regional habitat type that has a distinct groupings of plants and animals is called a ____
Biome
Biomes are classified according to what?
- Temperature
- Annual precipitation
- Vegetation
What are the major land biomes to know?
- Tropical rain forest
- Tropical deciduous forest
- Temperate rain forest
- Temperate deciduous forests
- Temperate coniferous forest (taiga)
- Temperate grassland (savanna)
- Temperate grasslands (prairie)
- Hot desert
- Cold desert
- Tundra
- Mountain ranges
In aquatic habitats, what is the upper layer, warmed by the sun and mixed well with wind called?
Epilimnion
In aquatic habitats what is the transition zone where temperature declines rapidly
Thermocline
In aquatic habitats what is the cool layer deep below the surface with low light and limited warmth, photosynthesis does not occur and oxygen is very low?
Hypolimnion
Aquatic environments are distinguished by what features?
- Salinity
- Oxygen content
- Depth
- Current strength
- Availability of light
What are the aquatic biomes to know?
- Intertidal zone
- Coral reefs
- Open ocean
- Lentic habitats (standing water)
- Lotic habitats (running water)
What is the study of geographic distribution of extinct and living species?
Biogeography
What continents have similar biomes but different flora and fauna?
South America, Africa, and Australia
What is the concept where there was a slow movement of earths surface plates long ago?
Continental drift
What is the proof for continental drift among South America, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica all being connected?
- Triassic reptile fossils
- Fossil ferns
- Abundant temperate fossils in Antarctica
Alfred Russel Wallace saw that plants and animals were often restricted to certain geographic areas, what were the six major biogeographic divisions he came up with?
- Nearctic (North America)
- Palearctic (Russia and Europe)
- Neotropical (South America)
- Ethiopian (Africa)
- Oriental (Asian islands, India, China)
- Australian
What are the major biogeographic barriers?
- Oceans around continents
- Himalayas
- Sahara Desert
