Stage 3 Flashcards
Climate
The average conditions over long episodes of time.
Weather
The day to day conditions of Earth’s atmosphere
Climates are defined by
Year after year patterns of temperate and precipitation.
Microclimate
Environmental conditions within a small area that differs significantly from the climate of the surrounding area.
Factors that shape climate
Solar energy trapped in the atmosphere, latitude, and the transport of heat by wind and ocean currents
What determines Earth’s average temperature
The balance between the hear that stays in the biosphere and the heat lost to space.
Greenhouse effect
Phenomenon in which greenhouse gases alow visible light to enter but also trap the heat.
Climate zones
Tropical, temperate, and polar. They are create due to the unequal distribution of sun’s heat on earth’s surface.
Temperate and polar zones receive different amounts of sunlight at different times of the year because
the earth’s axis is tilted.
the unequal distribution of sun’s heat on earth’s surface creates
Wind and water currents that transport heat and moisture.
Upwelling
Process in which water rises in warmer regions.
Tolerance
Ability to survive and reproduce under a range of environmental circumstances
Why does an organism experiences stress
Because the environmental conditions extend beyond their optimum range, so more energy is needed to maintain homeostasis and it has less energy for growth and reproduction.
Habitat
Generals place where an organism lives.
Niche
Describes what the organism does and how it interacts with the abiotic and biotic factors in the environment. The range of physical and biological conditions in which a species lives and the way the species obtains what it needs to survive and reproduce.
Resource
Any necessity of life.
Competition occurs when
When organisms attempt to use the same limited ecological resource in the same place at the same time
Intraspecific competition
Among members of the same species.
Interspecific competition
Between members of the different species.
Competitive exclusion principle
Stage that no two species can occupy the same niche in exactly the same habitat at the exactly the same time.
By causing species to divide resources, competition helps to…
Determine the number and kinds of species in a community and the niche that each species occupies
Species usually ___________ resources.
Divide
Predation
When one animal (predator) captures and feeds on another animal (prey). It can affect the size of the prey population in a community and determine the places prey can live and feed.
Herbivory
One animal (herbivore) feeds on producers (plants). It can affect the size and distribution of plant populations in a community and determine the places in which certain plants can survive and grow.
Keystone species
Species in which changes in their population cause dramatic changes in the structure of a community.
Symbiosis
Living together
Three main classes of symbiotic relationships.
Mutualism, parasitism and commensalism.
Mutualism
Kind of relationship between species in which both benefit.
Parasitism
Relationship in which one organism lives inside or on another organism and harms it (the parasite benefits while the host is harmed).
Commensalism
Relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed.
Biomes
Described in terms of abiotic factors, like climate and soil type, and biotic factors, like animal and plant life.
Mayor biomes
Tropical rain forest, tropical dry forest, tropical grassland/savanna/shrubland, desert, temperate grassland, temperate woodland and shrubland, temperate forest, northwestern coniferous forest, boreal forest/ taiga and tundra.
Climatic diagram
Graph in which the seasonal pattern of temperature and precipitation of a biome is summarized.
Biomes
Described in terms of abiotic factors, like climate and soil type, and biotic factors, like animal and plant life.
Mayor biomes
Tropical rain forest, tropical dry forest, tropical grassland/savanna/shrubland, desert, temperate grassland, temperate woodland and shrubland, temperate forest, northwestern coniferous forest, boreal forest/ taiga and tundra.
Climatic diagram
Graph in which the seasonal pattern of temperature and precipitation of a biome is summarized.
Canopy
Dense leafy covering from 50 to 80 meters above the forest floor.
Understory
Layer formed under the shade of the canopy by shorter trees and vines.
Deciduous plants
Plants that sheds their leaves during a particular season.
Estivation
Long periods of inactivity that animals use to reduce their need for water. It takes place during dry seasons.
Chaparral
Communities that are more shrubland than forest.
Coniferous trees or conifers
Produce seed-bearing cones and have leaves shaped like needles coated with waxy substances that help reduce water loss.
Humus
Material formed decaying leaves and other organic matter.
Permafrost
Layer of permanently frozen subsoil
Why are mountain ranges and polar idea caps not usually classified into biomes
because they are not easily defined in the of typical community of plants and animals.
Factors that primary affect aquatic organisms
Water’s depth, temperature and amount of dissolved nutrients.
Photic zone
The sunlit region near the surface in which photosynthesis can occur
Phytoplankton
Photosynthetic algae.
Zooplankton
Tiny free-floating animals.
Aphotic zone
The dar zone below the photic zone in which photosynthesis cannot occur.
Benthos
Organism that live on or in rocks and sediments on the bottoms of lakes, streams and oceans.
Benthic zone
Zone in which the benthos live
Freshwater ecosystem categories
Rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, freshwater wetlands and estuaries.
Rivers and streams
Originate from underground water sources in mountains or hills.
Lakes and ponds
Food webs are based on plankton and algae. Water circulates between the surface and the benthos during at least some seasons to distribute heat, oxygen and nutrients.
Wetland
An ecosystem in which water either covers the soil or is present at or near the surface for at least part of the year. They are often nutrient-rich and highly productive, they also serve as breeding grounds for many organisms.
Environment functions of wetlands
Purify water by filtration, prevent flooding by absorbing large amounts Of water and slowly releasing it.
Three main types of freshwater wetlands
bogs, marshes and swamps.
Estuary
Special kind of wetland formed when a river meets the sea. They are affected by the rise and fall of ocean tides. They have a lot of commercial value since they can support a really big quantity of biomass.
Estuaries serve as
Spawning and nursery grounds for many ecologically an commercially important fish and shellfish species (bluefish, stripe bass, shrimp and crabs):
Division of the ocean based in depth and distance from the shore.
Intertidal zone, coastal ocean and open ocean.
Intertidal zone
Organisms are submerged in seawater during high tide and exposed to air and sunlight at low tide (subjected to regular and extreme changed in temperature)
Coastal ocean
Extends firm the low tide mark to the outer edge of the continental shelf (the relatively shallow border that surrounds the continents. Water is brightly lit and is often supplied with nutrients by freshwater runoff. Highly productive. Kelp forest and coral reefs.
Open ocean
Begins at the edge of the on continental shelf. Divided into two sones according to light penetration: open ocean photic zone and open ocean aphotic zone
Open ocean photic zone
Low nutrient levels and supports only the smallest species of phytoplankton.
Open ocean aphotic zone
Food webs are based on chemosynthetic organisms or on organisms that fall from the photic zone.
Benthic environment
It is supported by chemosynthetic primary producers near superheated water boils in the ocean floor.
Types of estuaries
Salt marshes and mangrove swamps
Salt marshes
Temperate estuaries that are characterized by salt tolerant grasses above the low tide line and seagrasses bellow water.
Mangrove swamps
Tropical estuaries characterized by several species of salt-tolerant trees (collectively called mangroves).
