The Nature of Ecology
___________ refers to non-living physical and chemical elements in an ecosystem or environment.
Abiotic
Systematic patterns of water movement are known as?
Currents
What is completely absent in the profundal zone?
Light
The smallest particle occurring in soil and that have high water retention are called what?
Clay
Compared to a hermit crab being an example of epifauna what is an oligochaete an example of?
Infauna
A major ecosystem service provided by ______ ______ is that they serve as vital natural barriers that protect coastlines from storms while simultaneously acting as nurseries for a quarter of all marine life.
Coral reefs
This biome type is defined solely based on the lack of precipitation and can be found in either hot or cold regions globally.
Deserts
The ___________ is the basic unit of ecology because it is the unit on which natural selection acts.
Individual
Precipitation tends to be greater on the windward slope of a mountain range than the leeward slope, resulting in ________effect
rainshadow
The energy driving the global water cycle is provided by ______ _______
Solar energy
Leaf area index (LAI) is the total leaf surface area intercepting light. In a temperate deciduous forest the LAI is likely highest in the ________
Summer
Mangrove forests are found primarily in the ______?
Tropics
The dominant autotrophs of open water ecosystems are
Precipitation
_______ is the last category in the hierarchal structure of ecology, encompassing all biomes.
Biosphere
In the Northern Hemisphere objects in motion will have a clockwise veering while in the Southern Hemisphere they will have a counter-clockwise veering due to the spin of the earth. What is this effect called?
Coriolis
______ colored light is filtered out first in aquatic environments.
Red
Available water capacity, defined as the field capacity - the wilting point, is lowest in the _______ soil textures.
Coarse/Sandy
This zonation is driven by how frequently and how long water covers sediments/soils.
Horizontal zonation
The most important feature driving adaptive differences among aquatic ecosystems is?
Salinity
The greatest diversity of plant and animal life occurs in _______.
Tropical rainforests
A _________ allows Ecologists to make predictions about how nature works using a set of explicit assumptions.
Model
Forests absorb more solar radiation and thus have a lower ______ compared to grasslands or tundra.
Albedo
A stream is an example of which type of system?
Lotic
_________ _________ _________ is a basic measure of soil quality and increases with higher clay and organic matter content
Cation Exchange Capacity
What kind of marsh habitat are found mostly in temperate latitudes?
Salt marshes
In a Lotic system, you are most likely to find shredders nearer slower moving headwater due to the availability of coarse organic matter while ________ are more likely to be found downstream
Grazers
In contrast to polar deserts, the coldest regions of the world, _______, is classified by vegetation covering nearly all of the land with relatively low diversity of different species.
Tundra
"Since all models are wrong, the scientist cannot obtain a 'correct' one by excessive elaboration. On the contrary, ... he should seek an economical description of natural phenomena." - _____________
George Box
In the context of Milankovitch Cycles, __________ refers to the slow, cyclical change in the shape of Earth's orbit around the Sun over time due to the interaction of gravitational forces of Jupiter and Saturn
Eccentricity
When lakes are stratified the upper layer of warm low density water is called the ________.
Epilimnion
_________ is the term for sediment transport processes which describes material moving down a slope.
Colluvium
This Lentic zone can be classified as being near the shore and having emergent, floating, and attached vegetation
Littoral
___________ is the process where a body of water becomes overly enriched with nutrients, stimulating excessive algae growth. This growth blocks sunlight and, when the algae die and decompose, depletes the water's oxygen, often killing fish and other marine life.
Eutrophication
This biome is often found on the west edge of continents and are known for their evolved dependence on fire.
Chaparral