Shifting Grounds
This rigid outer layer of the Earth is broken into tectonic plates that float on the asthenosphere.
What is the Lithosphere
This is the term for the number of individuals per unit area.
What is Population Density
This marine biome is found where freshwater rivers meet the salty ocean, creating nutrient-rich waters.
What is an Estuary
This phenomenon causes moving air and water to turn right in the Northern Hemisphere and left in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Coriolis Effect
This type of ecosystem acts as a natural sponge, absorbing floodwaters and filtering pollutants from water.
What is a wetland
The process where one tectonic plate is forced beneath another at a convergent boundary is called this.
What is subduction
This describes how population growth rates change as a country becomes industrialized.
What is the Demographic Transition Model
This zone of the ocean receives enough sunlight for photosynthesis and supports the majority of marine life.
What is the Photic Zone
These large-scale wind patterns are responsible for moving weather systems across the globe and are caused by uneven heating of the Earth's surface.
What are convection cells or Hadley cells
According to the theory of island biogeography, larger islands closer to the mainland have more of this compared to smaller, isolated islands.
These underwater mountain ranges are formed at divergent boundaries where two plates move apart.
What is a Mid-Ocean Ridge
This term describes the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime in a given population.
What is Total Fertility Rate
This colorful marine ecosystem is highly sensitive to ocean temperature increases
What are Coral Reefs
This global "conveyor belt" is driven by differences in water temperature and salinity, moving heat and nutrients around the world's oceans.
What is Thermohaline Circulation
An increase in atmospheric concentrations of this greenhouse gas, largely from burning fossil fuels, is the primary driver of global climate change.
What is carbon dioxide
The intense geological activity around the edges of the Pacific Plate, known for its earthquakes and volcanoes, is called this.
What is the Ring of Fire
This "rule" estimates the doubling time of a population
What is the Rule of 70
The ocean absorbs this greenhouse gas, leading to a decrease in pH and making it harder for organisms to form calcium carbonate shells.
What is CO2 (carbon dioxide)
This irregular climate event weakens the trade winds, leading to warmer ocean temperatures in the Pacific and dramatic global weather changes.
What is El Nino
This fossil fuel is distributed unevenly across the globe, with the largest proven reserves found in the Middle East.
What is petroleum (oil)
At a divergent boundary between two continental plates, this geological feature often forms as the land stretches and sinks.
What is a Rift Valley
This concept refers to the number of people that can be supported by the resources of a particular environment without degrading it.
What is Carrying Capacity
Increasing ocean temperatures and acidification threaten the survival of these tiny organisms at the base of the marine food web, which build calcium carbonate shells.
What are plankton (or more specifically zooplankton)
During La Niña, upwelling increases along the western coast of South America. What effect does this have on marine ecosystems there?
What is increased nutrient availability and boosted fish populations
Rising sea levels caused by global climate change threaten to reduce island habitat size. According to island biogeography theory, this would most likely cause what to happen to species diversity?
What is decrease species diversity