Climate
The average yearly temperature and precipitation conditions in a particular region
What is climate?
The physical or nonliving factors in an ecosystem
What are abiotic factors?
A complex of terrestrial communities that covers a large area and is characterized by certain soil and climate conditions
What is a biome?
Small, free-floating organisms that live in both freshwater and saltwater environments
What is plankton?
Any relationship in which two species live closely together
What is symbiosis?
The daily condition of Earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place
What is weather?
The full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those conditions
What is niche?
The ability for plants and animals to survive and reproduce under conditions that differ from their optimal conditions
What is tolerance?
An ecosystem in which water either covers the soil or is present at or near the surface of the soil for at least part of the year
What is wetland?
The climate in a small area that differs from the area around it
What is microclimate?
The natural situation in which heat is retained by a layer of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere
What is greenhouse effect?
The three main symbiotic relationships in nature
What is mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism?
The biome that is home to more species than all other biomes combined
What is tropical rain forest?
The two main types of freshwater ecosystems
What are flowing-water and standing-water ecosystems?
The well-lit upper surface layer of the ocean
What is photic zone?
The three different climate zones that Earth has
What are polar, temperate, and tropical zones?
A fundamental rule of ecology stating that no two species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time.
What is competitive exclusion principle?
The main characteristic of tundras
What is permafrost?
The four determining factors of aquatic ecosystems
What is depth, flow, temperature, and chemistry?
Organisms that live at or near the bottom of the ocean
What is benthos?
The two ways heat is transferred throughout the biosphere
The series of changes that occur in a community over time
What is ecological succession?
Name 5 of the major biomes
What are tropical rain forest, tropical dry forest, tropical savanna, desert, temperate grassland, temperate woodland and shrubland, temperate forest, northwestern coniferous forest, boreal forest, and tundra? (answers may vary)
The three main zones of depth the ocean is divided into
What are intertidal zone, coastal ocean, and open ocean?
The prominent horizontal banding of organisms that live in a particular habitat
What is zonation?