Land Biomes
What is a biome?
a region of earth where the climate determines the types of plants that live there.
What is an abiotic factor?
the non living things in an environment
What is the law of conservation of energy?
The law that states that energy cannot be created or destroyed.
What are similarities of primary succession and secondary succession?
Answers vary; Both are a series of changes in an ecosystem
What are three ways that human activities impact ocean ecosystems?
Pollution, oil spills, over fishing, coastal development, seawall construction, etc
What is a tundra?
has low average temperatures and very little precipitation
What are freshwater ecosystems?
ecosystems that are found in lakes, ponds, wetlands, rivers and streams
Energy enters most ecosystems as ____________, which some prodecers use to make food.
sunlight
What is secondary succession?
The type of succession that could successfully occur without pioneer species.
What is the difference between weather and climate?
Weather is the condition of the atmosphere at a specific place and time. Climate is the average weather conditions in an area, including temperature and precipitation.
What is taiga?
also called the boreal forest
What is a wetland?
An area of land that is saturated, or soaked, with water for at least part of the year.
The role of _________________________, such as bacteria and fungi, break down solid waste products and dead organsisms, returning matter to the physical environment.
decomposers
What is biodiversity?
The number and variety of species that are present in an area.
Different areas of Earth's surface are heated differently. Ecologists call these area _____, _____, and ______ zones.
Polar, temperate, and tropical zones
What are the 6 major land biomes?
Tundra, taiga, desert, grassland, temperate forest, tropical forest
What is an estuary?
A partially enclosed body of water formed where a river flows into an ocean.
What is nitrogen fixation?
The process used by bacteria in soil to change nitrogen gas into forms that plants can use.
What is a pioneer species?
The first organsim to live in an uninhabited area
Name two limiting factors as depth increases in the benthic zone.
Sunlight and temperature
How are ecosystems different from biomes?
Ecosystems are smaller areas within biomes that include communities of organsisms and their non living environment
What is the abyssal zone?
this zone of the ocean has the coldest , darkest conditions.
True or false?
Even though matter and energy enter and leave an ecosystem, they are never destroyed.
True!
True or False?
The changes in an ecosystem that change suddenly due to catastrophic natural disturbances is called eutrophication.
False!
It is the process in which organic matter and nutrients slowly build up in a body of water.
Secondary succession usually only occurs after primary succession has reached its __________ __________.
climax community