Abiotic Factors
The amount of dissolved salt in water.
What is salinity?*
Small, free-floating organisms that include phytoplankton and zooplankton.
What is plankton?*
Freshwater salinity ranges between these values.
What is 0–0.5 ppt?*
A partially enclosed body of water where rivers meet the sea.
What is an estuary?*
The zone is alternately exposed and submerged due to tides.
What is the intertidal zone?*
This abiotic factor is highest in cold, turbulent water.
What is dissolved oxygen?*
Large, independent swimmers like fish, turtles, and whales.
What are nekton?*
The warm, shallow, sunlit zone near shore in a lake or pond.
What is the littoral zone?*
The landform created at a river’s mouth by deposited sediment.
What is a delta?*
The type of tide with the greatest tidal range, occurring during new and full moons.
What are spring tides?*
The measure of water cloudiness due to soil runoff or algae bloom.
What is turbidity?*
Bottom-dwelling organisms with little to no movement.
What are benthos?*
Lakes with low nutrient levels and clear water.
What are oligotrophic lakes?*
These forests contain trees with roots that filter salt and protect coasts from waves.
What are mangrove forests?*
Ecosystems built on coral polyps’ calcium carbonate skeletons.
What are coral reefs?*
This abiotic factor decreases as water depth increases.
What is the availability of sunlight?*
Organisms that break down dead material and recycle nutrients.
What are decomposers?*
The part of a river where dissolved oxygen is highest and nutrients are lowest.
What are the headwaters?*
Wetlands dominated by grasses, often found in tidal flats.
What are salt marshes?*
Deep-sea organisms that produce light through chemical reactions.
What is bioluminescence?*
Ocean water has a pH of about 8.1 due to this ion.
What are carbonate ions?*
Identify one abiotic factor that influences plankton abundance.
What is availability of sunlight (or dissolved oxygen, nutrients, etc.)?*
Name two adaptations of wetland plants.
What are floating tissues, carnivorous traps, or emergent tissues with air spaces?*
How much wave energy can mangrove forests dissipate?
What is up to 90%?*
The process by which organisms at hydrothermal vents make food using chemicals.
What is chemosynthesis?*