Ecology

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17/8/2021
María Daniela Portillo Ortiz
Flashcards by María Daniela Portillo Ortiz, updated more than 1 year ago
María Daniela Portillo Ortiz
Created by María Daniela Portillo Ortiz over 3 years ago
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Resource summary

Question Answer
aphotic zone The aphotic zone is the portion of a lake or ocean where there is little or no sunlight.
biodiversity The variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and can encompass the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life.
biome A biome is a large community of vegetation and wildlife adapted to a specific climate. The five major types of biomes are aquatic, grassland, forest, desert, and tundra.
chaparral An ecological community consisting of drought-resistant evergreen shrubs and small trees that are adapted to long, hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters.
chemosynthesis Chemosynthesis occurs in bacteria and other organisms and involves the use of energy released by inorganic chemical reactions to produce food. All chemosynthetic organisms use energy released by chemical reactions to make a sugar, but different species use different pathways.
climate The long term patterns of temperature, humidity, wind, and others in an area.
coral reef Large underwater structures composed of the skeletons of colonial marine invertebrates called coral.
desert A barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life.
desertification Land degradation in typically dry areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities.
estuary A partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean.
eutrophic lake A eutrophic condition is a term describing a situation where of a water body has lost so much of its dissolved oxygen that normal aquatic life begins to die off.
grassland Large open areas of grass.
gyre A large system of rotating ocean currents.
hydrothermal vent community A fissure on the seafloor from which geothermally heated water discharges.
kelp forest Underwater ecosystems formed in shallow water by the dense growth of several different species known as kelps.
intertidal zone An ecosystem found on marine shorelines, where a multitude of organisms living on the shore survive changes between high and low tides.
limnetic zone The open and well-lit area of a freestanding body of freshwater, such as a lake or pond.
littoral zone The near shore area where sunlight penetrates all the way to the sediment and allows aquatic plants to grow.
nearshore zone Where waves steepen and break, and then re-form in their passage to the beach, where they break for the last time and surge up the foreshore.
northern coniferous forest Vegetation composed primarily of cone-bearing needle-leaved or scale-leaved evergreen trees, found in areas that have long winters and moderate to high annual precipitation.
oligotrophic lake Lakes that are unproductive: net primary production is only between 50 and 100 milligrams of carbon per square metre per day, nutrients are in poor supply, and secondary production is depressed.
open ocean The area of the ocean outside of coastal areas.
ozone hole A severe depletion of ozone in a region of the ozone layer, particularly over Antarctica and over the Arctic.
ozone layer A thin part of the Earth's atmosphere that absorbs almost all of the sun's harmful ultraviolet light.
permafrost A permanently frozen layer below Earth's surface.
photic zone Surface layer of the ocean that receives sunlight
phytoplankton Microscopic organisms that live in watery environments, both salty and fresh.
plankton Small organisms that drift, float, or weakly swimming in aquatic habitats.
profundal zone The bottom and deepwater area of freshwater ecosystems that lies beyond the depth of effective light penetration.
rain shadow A patch of land that has been forced to become a desert because mountain ranges blocked all plant-growing, rainy weather.
savanna Vegetation type that grows under hot, seasonally dry climatic conditions and is characterized by an open tree canopy above a continuous tall grass understory.
temperate deciduous forest A variety of temperate forest 'dominated' by trees that lose their leaves each year.
temperate rain forest Are dominated by evergreen vegetation. These forests grow in regions where year-round rainfall is high and steady and frost is rare.
tropical deciduous forest Tropical deciduous forests occur in regions with heavy rainfall for part of the year followed by a marked dry season.
tropical rainforest An area of tall, mostly evergreen trees and a high amount of rainfall.
tropical scrub forest A biome that makes up the arid land.
tundra The coldest of all the biomes.
upwelling A process in which currents bring deep, cold water to the surface of the ocean.
wetlands Areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season.
zooplankton Small floating or weakly swimming organisms that drift with water currents and, with phytoplankton, make up the planktonic food supply upon which almost all oceanic organisms are ultimately dependent.
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