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Biology > Chapter 4- Ecosystems and Communities > Flashcards

Chapter 4- Ecosystems and Communities Flashcards

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1
Q

What is weather?

A

the day-to-day condition of Earth’s atmosphere at a particular time and place

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2
Q

What is climate?

A

average, year-to-year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a particular region

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3
Q

What are the factors of climate?

A
  • trapping of heat by atmosphere
  • latitude
  • transport of heat by winds and ocean currents
  • amount of precipitation
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4
Q

What are some of the greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere?

A

carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor

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5
Q

What is the greenhouse effect?

A

heat retained by layer of greenhouse gases so that temperatures on Earth remain within a range suitable for life

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6
Q

Why does Earth have three main climate zones?

A

because of differences in latitude and angle of heating

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7
Q

What are the 3 main climate zones of Earth?

A

polar, temperate, and tropical

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8
Q

What are the polar zones?

A

cold areas where the sun’s ray strike Earth at a very low angle; located in areas around in the North and South poles (66.5-90 degrees N&S latitude)

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9
Q

What are the temperate zones?

A

sit between the polar zones and the tropics; more affected by changing angle of the sun over the course of a year; climate changes depending on season

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10
Q

What are the tropical zones?

A

neat the equator; receives direct sunlight year round so climate almost always warm; 23.5 N-23.5 S degree latitudes

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11
Q

What 2 factors determine the survival and growth of an organism and the productivity of the ecosystem in which the organism lives?

A

Biotic and abiotic factors

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12
Q

What can powerfully affect an ecosystem?

A

Community interactions such as competition, predation, and various forms of symbiosis

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13
Q

Why do ecosystems constantly change?

A

In response to natural and human disturbances

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14
Q

As an ecosystem changes, what happens to older inhabitants?

A

They gradually die out

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15
Q

What are biotic factors?

A

Biological influences on organisms within an ecosystem

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16
Q

What are abiotic factors?

A

Physical, or nonliving, factors that shape ecosystems

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17
Q

What is a habitat?

A

The area where an organism lives

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18
Q

What is a niche?

A

The full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those conditions.

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19
Q

What is a resource?

A

any necessity of life such as water, nutrients, light, food, or space

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20
Q

What does the competitive exclusion principle state?

A

no 2 species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time

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21
Q

What is predation?

A

an interaction in which one organism captures and feeds on another organism

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22
Q

What is symbiosis?

A

any relationship in which two species live closely together; there are 3 types: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism

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23
Q

What happens in mutualism?

A

both species benefit from the relationship; a type of symbiosis

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24
Q

What happens in commensalism?

A

one member of the association benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed; a type of symbiosis

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25
Q

What happens in parasitism?

A

one organism lives on or inside another organism and harms it; type of symbiosis

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26
Q

What is ecological succession?

A

series of predictable changes that occurs in a community over time

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27
Q

What is primary succession?

A

succession that occurs on surfaces where no soil exists

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28
Q

What are pioneer species?

A

first species to populate an area

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29
Q

What is secondary succession?

A

when an ecosystem recovers itself to its normal conditions after a disturbance like fires or human disturbances

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30
Q

What is a biome?

A

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

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31
Q

What is an organism’s tolerance?

A

their ability to survive and reproduce under conditions that differ from their optimal conditions

32
Q

What is microclimate?

A

the climate in a small area that differs from the climate around it

33
Q

Which biome contains the most species than all the other biomes combined?

A

tropical rain forest

34
Q

What biome is hot and wet year-round and has thin, nutrient-poor soils?

A

tropical rain forest

35
Q

Which biome grows in places where rainfall is highly seasonal rather than year-round?

A

tropical dry forest

36
Q

Which biome is generally warm year-round, alternates wet and dry seasons and its rich soil is subject to erosion?

A

tropical dry forest

37
Q

What is a deciduous tree?

A

a tree that sheds its leaves during a particular season each year

38
Q

What is another name for tropical savannas?

A

grasslands

39
Q

What biome has compact soil, frequent fires set by lightning, and seasonal rainfall?

A

tropical savanna

40
Q

What biome is defined as having annual precipitation of less than 25 cm?

A

desert

41
Q

Which biome has warm to hot summers, cold winters, moderate seasonal precipitation, fertile soils and occasional fires?

A

temperate grassland

42
Q

Which biome is characterized by a semiarid climate and a mix of shrub communities and open woodlands?

A

Temperate woodland and shrubland

43
Q

What are chaparral?

A

communities that are dominated by shrubs

44
Q

What biome contains a mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees?

A

temperate forest

45
Q

What are coniferous trees?

A

conifers that produce seed-bearing cones and most have leaves shaped like needles

46
Q

What is humus?

A

a material formed from decaying leaves and other organic matter that makes soil fertile

47
Q

What biome is also known as a temperate rain forest?

A

northwestern coniferous forest

48
Q

What biome has mild temperatures, abundant precipitation during fall, winter and spring and relatively cool dry summer?

A

northwestern coniferous forest

49
Q

Which biome has dense evergreen forests of coniferous trees?

A

boreal forest

50
Q

What is another name for boreal forests?

A

Taiga

51
Q

Which biome has long, cold winters, short mild summers, moderate precipitation, high humidity and acidic nutrient-poor soils?

A

taiga or boreal forests

52
Q

What is permafrost?

A

a layer of permanently frozen subsoil

53
Q

What biome is characterized by permafrost?

A

tundra

54
Q

What biome has low precipitation, short and soggy summers, long cold dark winters, and poorly developed soils?

A

tundra

55
Q

What biome is a moose found in?

A

taiga or boreal forests

56
Q

What biome is a caribou found in?

A

tundra

57
Q

As you move up a mountain, what happens to its temperature and organisms?

A

becomes colder and precipitation increases so organisms change

58
Q

What are aquatic ecosystems determined by?

A

the depth, flow, temperature, and chemistry of the overlying water

59
Q

What are the two types of freshwater ecosystems?

A

flowing-water and standing-water

60
Q

How do marine biologists divide the ocean?

A

photic and aphotic; depth and distance from shore

61
Q

What are the 3 zones that an ocean is divided into?

A

intertidal, coastal and open

62
Q

What is plankton?

A

a general term for the tiny-free floating organisms that live in both freshwater and saltwater environments

63
Q

What is phytoplankton? What do they do?

A

unicellular algae that use nutrients in the water and are the base of many aquatic food webs

64
Q

What is a wetland?

A

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

65
Q

What are the 3 main types of freshwater wetlands?

A

bogs, marshes, and swamps

66
Q

What are estuaries?

A

wetlands formed where rivers meet the sea

67
Q

What is detritus?

A

tiny pieces of organic material that provide food for organisms at the base of the estuary’s food web

68
Q

What are salt marshes?

A

temperate-zone estuaries dominated by salt-tolerant grasses above the low-tide line, and by seagrasses under water

69
Q

What are mangrove swamps?

A

coastal wetlands that are widespread across tropical regions; dominated by salt-tolerant trees collectively called mangroves

70
Q

What is the photic zone?

A

the upper layer of the ocean where photosynthesis occurs; about 200 meters and producers live here

71
Q

What is the aphotic zone?

A

below photic zone and is permanently dark; chemosynthetic autotrophs are only producers in this zone

72
Q

What is the benthic zone?

A

covers the ocean floor

73
Q

What is zonation?

A

the prominent horizontal banding of organisms that live in a particular habitat

74
Q

What is the coastal ocean?

A

extends from the low-tide mark to the outer edge of the continental shelf; relatively shallow border that surrounds the continents

75
Q

What are kelp forests?

A

most productive coastal ocean communities; giant brown alga can grow 50 cm a day

76
Q

What are benthos?

A

organisms that live attached to or near the bottom of the ocean floor

Biology (17 decks)

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