Oceans
The amount of salt dissolved in water
The percentage of pore spaces in rock
What is porosity?
The average weather conditions in an area over a long period of time
What is climate?
The law that sates that matter is not created or destroyed, only changed in form
What is the Law of Conservation of Matter?
A group of organisms that can reproduce and produce fertile offspring
The major source of salt in the ocean
What is the chemical weathering of rocks?
The groundwater zone that contains rock where all pore spaces are filled with water
The two main factors that are used to classify a region's climate
What are temperature and precipitation?
The three main biogeochemical cycles
What are the water cycle, carbon cycle, and the nitrogen cycle?
A group of interacting individuals of the same species in a specific area
What is a population?
An area of rapid temperature change as water increases in depth
What is the thermocline?
A layer of saturated, porous rock that acts as a natural underground storage for grounwater
What is an aquifer?
The main factor used to classify a biome
What is plant life?
Something that releases more carbon dioxide that it absorbs
What is a carbon source?
The maximum population size an ecosystem can sustain
What is carrying capacity?
Large circular patterns of surface currents
What are gyres?
A large land area that contributes water to a river
What is a river basin?
The most biodiverse biome
What is the tropical rainforest?
The process that turns N2 gas into a form of usable nitrogen
What is nitrogen fixation?
Organisms that make their own food
What are autotrophs?
The rising of cold, nutrient-rich water from the bottom of the ocean
What is upwelling?
The primary force that drives the flow of rivers and streams
What is gravity?
Permanently frozen subsoil in the tundra
What is permafrost?
The phase of the water cycle where water soaks into the soil
What is infiltration?
Concentration of pollutants increasing in organisms higher up in the food chain
What is biomagnification?