Chapter 4 Study Guide Flashcards
What does weather mean?
Day-to-day condition of Earth’s atmosphere in a particular place and time.
What is climate?
Year-to-year condition of temperature and precipitation in a particular region.
What is the Greenhouse Effect?
The natural situation where heat is retained by layers of greenhouse gasses.
What happens because the Earth is rotated on its axis?
Solar radiation varies throughout the year.
Where is the sun at the equator?
Overhead all year long.
What are Earth’s three main climate zones?
Polar, Temperate, and Tropical.
What is the polar zone?
A cold area that receives radiation at low angles.
What is the temperate zone?
An area where the climate ranges from hot to cold, depending on the season.
What is the tropical zone?
An area that receives direct or nearly direct radiation year-round, meaning the climate is always warm.
What drives Earth’s ocean and wind currents?
Unequal heating of Earth’s surface.
What do currents transport?
Heat.
Why does wind form?
Warm air rises and cold air sinks.
Why do ocean currents form?
Cold water near the poles sinks while warm water near the equator rises.
What can surface water be moved by?
Wind.
By transporting heat energy within the biosphere, what does the ocean do?
Moderates heat.
What interferes with air movement?
Land masses.
What is an example of a land mass that interferes with air movement?
Mountains.
What do mountain ranges do?
Cause moist air to form, which can eventually form rain on one side of the mountain, leaving the other side a desert.
What are rain shadows?
An area with a dry climate on the far side of the mountain.
How are rain shadows formed?
When mountain ranges form moist air and then form rain on the near side of the mountain.
What are biotic factors?
Living factors.
What are abiotic factors?
Non-living factors.
What is a habitat?
An area where an organism lives.
What is a niche?
The role of a species in an ecosystem.
What does a niche include?
What the organism eats
What eats the organism
Where it lives
How it reproduces
When it is active
What is a fundamental niche?
The entire range of resource opportunities an organism is able to occupy.
What is a realized niche?
The part of the fundamental niche that the organism actually occupies.
What is competitive exclusion?
When a whole species is wiped due to competition.
Can species compete without competitive exclusion?
No.
What do humans do?
Compete. Humans are wired to compete.
What is coevolution?
Evolutionary adjustments between interacting members of a community.
What is symbiosis?
Close, long-term association between interacting members of a community.
What is predation?
The act of one organism killing another organism.
What adaptations do predators have?
Adaptations for hunting.
What adaptations do prey have?
Defensive adaptations.
What is parasitism?
Symbiosis but one species is benefited, and the other is harmed.
What do you call a parasite inside the body?
Endoparasite.
What do you call a parasite outside the body?
Ectoparasite.
What is mutualism?
Symbiosis but each species is benefited.
What is commensalism?
Symbiosis but one species is benefited and the other is neither benefited nor harmed.
What is competition?
Two species competing for the same limited resource.
What can limited resources in competition be?
Food, nesting sites, space, light, mineral nutrients, water, reproductive mates, etc.
How does predation lower competition?
By keeping the number of competitors low.
What is biodiversity?
The variety of living organisms present in a community.
What does more biodiversity lead to?
More productivity and more stability.
What is succession?
The progression of species replacement.
What is primary succession?
Succession that occurs in places where soil has never been.
What is secondary succession?
Succession that occurs in places where soil has been.
Where can succession occur?
Anywhere.
What does the climate affect in an ecosystem?
What organisms can live there.
What are the eleven most important terrestrial biomes?
Tropical Rain Forest
Tropical Dry Forest
Tropical Savanna
Temperate Grassland
Desert
Temperate Woodland and Shrubland
Temperate Forest
Coniferous Forest
Boreal Forest
Tundra
Mountains and Ice caps
What is another name for Boreal Forest?
Taiga.
What is another name for Temperate Woodland and Shrubland?
Chaparral.
