ecology 3 Flashcards
The process by which water travels in a sequence from the air to Earth and returns to the atmosphere, driven by solar radiation and involving evaporation, precipitation, infiltration, and runoff.
Water Cycle (Hydrologic Cycle)
Provides energy for the evaporation of water, driving the water cycle.
Solar Radiation
Water vapor in the atmosphere falls to the Earth’s surface in various forms, initiating the water cycle.
Precipitation
The process where water is intercepted by vegetation, dead organic matter, or urban structures before reaching the soil, evaporating back into the atmosphere.
Interception
The process of water moving into the ground. The rate depends on soil type, slope, vegetation, and precipitation intensity.
Infiltration
Water that flows across the ground’s surface when soil is saturated, often concentrating into channels.
Surface Runoff (Overland Flow)
Water that seeps down to an impervious layer of rock or clay and is stored underground. It eventually flows into springs and streams.
Groundwater
The process of water returning to the atmosphere from the surface of water bodies, soil, and vegetation.
Evaporation
The evaporation of water from the internal surfaces of plant leaves, stems, and other living parts.
Transpiration
The total evaporation from the surfaces of the ground and vegetation, combining surface evaporation and transpiration.
Evapotranspiration
Exchanges of water between reservoirs (oceans, rivers, groundwater) in the water cycle.
Fluxes
A small but critical component of the water cycle with only 13 km³ of water, replaced on average every nine days (turnover time).
Atmospheric Reservoir
The time it takes for the water in a reservoir to be replaced, calculated by dividing the size of the reservoir by the rate of output.
Turnover Time
Includes various reservoirs (oceans, ice caps, glaciers, groundwater) and fluxes (exchanges of water between reservoirs).
Global Water Cycle
Bodies of water on Earth, including oceans (97%), ice caps/glaciers (2%), and groundwater (0.3%).
Water Reservoirs
The structure of water molecules connected by hydrogen bonds, creating an open, tetrahedral shape.
Lattice Arrangement
The property of water molecules to stick together due to hydrogen bonding, resisting external forces
Cohesion
The force that acts on the surface of water due to cohesion, allowing small objects and organisms to float or move across it.
Surface tension
A measure of the force necessary to separate water molecules, which creates resistance to objects moving through the liquid.
viscosity
The upward force exerted on a body submerged in water if its density is less than the water it displaces. Aquatic organisms benefit from near-neutral buoyancy.
buoyancy
The amount of light reflected from water depends on the angle of incidence. Lower angles result in more light being reflected, varying diurnally and seasonally.
Light Reflection
A chemical process in which organisms produce light, an adaptation common in deep-sea species.
: Bioluminescence
The region of
the vertical depth profile where the temperature declines most
rapidly is called the
thermocline.
the upper layer of warm, well-mixed, less dense water above the thermocline.
Epilimnion
the deeper layer of cold, denser water below the thermocline.
hypolimnion
when cooler surface water sinks and mixes with warmer, deeper water, circulating nutrients throughout the water column.
Turnover
a homogeneous mixture of two or more substances
solution
the dissolving agent
solvent
the substance dissolved
solute
A solution in which water is the solvent
aqueous solution
refers to water molecules having a positive charge on one side (hydrogen atoms) and a negative charge on the other side (oxygen atom), allowing them to attract other charged molecules.
permanent dipole
measured in practical salinity units (psu), represented as ‰ and expressed as grams of chlorine per kilogram of water.
salinity
the general tendency of molecules to move from a region of high concentration to one of lower concentration.
Diffusion
the process where warm surface currents move northward and southward, bringing up deep, cold, oxygenated waters from below.
upwelling
result from the gravitational pulls of the Sun and the Moon
tides
The two bulges caused by the Moon occur at the same time on opposite sides of Earth on an imaginary line extending from the Moon through the center of Earth.
Lunar Tides
The Sun also causes two tides on opposite sides of Earth; solar tides are partially masked by lunar tides due to the Sun’s weaker gravitational pull.
Solar tides
Occur when the Moon is full or new; Earth, Moon, and Sun are nearly in line, leading to exceptionally large high tides with maximum rise and fall.
Spring Tides
Occur when the Moon is at either quarter; the pull is at right angles to the Sun’s pull, resulting in exceptionally small differences between high and low tides.
neap tides
The area between high and low tide lines undergoes dramatic shifts in environmental conditions with daily patterns of inundation and exposure.
Intertidal Zone
The place where freshwater mixes with saltwater; temperatures fluctuate considerably both daily and seasonally.
Estuary
Occurs when a surface wedge of seawater moves upstream more rapidly than the bottom water, leading to unstable salinity and inverted density.
Tidal Overmixing
In the Northern Hemisphere, outward-flowing freshwater and inward-flowing seawater are deflected to the right due to Earth’s rotation, affecting salinity distribution.
Coriolis Effect
