Ch. 6 Key Terms

Question 1

biome

Answer 1

a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g. forest or tundra.

Question 2

climate

Answer 2

the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.

Question 3

latitude

Answer 3

the angular distance of a place north or south of the earth’s equator, or of a celestial object north or south of the celestial equator, usually expressed in degrees and minutes.

Question 4

altitude

Answer 4

the height of anything above a given planetary reference plane, especially above sea level on earth.

Question 5

tropical rainforest

Answer 5

a tropical woodland with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches (254 centimeters) and marked by lofty broad-leaved evergreen trees forming a continuous canopy.

Question 6

emergent layer

Answer 6

the top foliage layer in a forest where the trees extend above surrounding trees.

Question 7

canopy

Answer 7

in forest ecology, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms.

Question 8

epiphyte

Answer 8

a plant that grows on another plant but is not parasitic, such as the numerous ferns, bromeliads, air plants, and orchids growing on tree trunks in tropical rainforests.

Question 9

understory

Answer 9

a layer of vegetation beneath the main canopy of a forest.

Question 10

temperate rainforest

Answer 10

temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rainfall.

Question 11

temperate deciduous forest

Answer 11

temperate deciduous or temperate broad-leaf forests are a variety of temperate forest ‘dominated’ by trees that lose their leaves each year.

Question 12

taiga

Answer 12

a moist subarctic forest dominated by conifers (such as spruce and fir) that begins where the tundra ends.

Question 13

savanna

Answer 13

a savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close.

Question 14

temperate grassland

Answer 14

temperate grasslands are characterized as having grasses as the dominant vegetation.

Question 15

chaparral

Answer 15

chaparral is defined as a plant community consisting of evergreen, sclerophyllous shrubs adapted to a mediterranean-type climate (cooper, 1922).

Question 16

desert

Answer 16

a non-technical definition is that deserts are those parts of the earth’s surface that have insufficient vegetation cover to support a human population.

Question 17

tundra

Answer 17

a vast, flat, treeless arctic region of europe, asia, and north america in which the subsoil is permanently frozen.

Question 18

permafrost

Answer 18

a thick subsurface layer of soil that remains frozen throughout the year, occurring chiefly in polar regions.