Cycles
Humans disrupt this cycle by releasing fossil fuels into the atmosphere through combustion.
What is the carbon cycle?
A rank in the feeding hierarchy of a food chain
What is a trophic level?
'Climate' is defined as the long-term average of this phenomenon.
What is weather?
Name two of the three defining characteristics of terrestrial biomes.
What are temperature, precipitation, and vegetation?
Name two of the three defining characteristics of aquatic biomes.
What are salinity, temperature, and depth?
This biogeochemical cycles summarizes how liquid, gaseous and solid forms of water flows through the environment
What is the hydro-logic or water cycle?
Gross Primary Productivity - Respiration = _________
What is Net Primary Productivity?
A climate diagram represents these two statistics on a month-by-month basis.
What are temperature and precipitation?
This biome is found near the equator, has hot temperatures, and a lot of precipitation.
What is the rainforest biome?
This marine biome is the most diverse aquatic biome on the planet, despite having low levels of nutrients.
What is the coral reef?
Conversions between different forms of nitrogen are accomplished by this type of organism.
What are bacteria?
Interconnected system of food chains.
What is a food web?
The 'growing season' occurs when temperatures are above this benchmark.
What is freezing (0 degrees Celsius)?
The climate of the woodland/shrubland biome is often described as this, referring to the sea around which much of the biome is located.
What is Mediterranean?
These biomes are the most productive on the planet, due to having both ample sunlight and abundant water.
What are wetlands (marshes, estuaries...)?
What is the phosphorus cycle?
This occurs when there is a drastic change of one part of the food web which ripples through the rest of the web
What is a trophic cascade?
This term refers to the reflection of solar radiation from light-colored ground, such as ice and snow.
What is albedo?
The dominant forms of vegetation in the tundra include these plants, which have little to no roots and draw their moisture from the air.
What is moss or lichen? [not the same but either is correct]
This type of lake has very low nutrients and is often clear blue in color.
What is an oligotrophic lake?
What is acid rain?
Explain why there are fewer tertiary consumers or apex predators in an ecosystem, compared to herbivores and plants.
They obtain a little energy from the food they consume so they require more food (10% rule).
This band of heavy precipitation is found between the Hadley cells, and moves north and south throughout the year, creating monsoons.
What is the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ)?
This biome has acidic soil with poor nutrient levels due to the waxy coating of the needles produced by its trees
What is the taiga or boreal forest?
This 'zone' refers to the bed of an ocean, lake, or river.
What is the benthic zone?