Chapter 4- Ecosystems and Communities

Question 1

What is weather?

Answer 1

the day-to-day condition of Earth’s atmosphere at a particular time and place

Question 2

What is climate?

Answer 2

average, year-to-year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a particular region

Question 3

What are the factors of climate?

Answer 3

• trapping of heat by atmosphere
• latitude
• transport of heat by winds and ocean currents
• amount of precipitation

Question 4

What are some of the greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere?

Answer 4

carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor

Question 5

What is the greenhouse effect?

Answer 5

heat retained by layer of greenhouse gases so that temperatures on Earth remain within a range suitable for life

Question 6

Why does Earth have three main climate zones?

Answer 6

because of differences in latitude and angle of heating

Question 7

What are the 3 main climate zones of Earth?

Answer 7

polar, temperate, and tropical

Question 8

What are the polar zones?

Answer 8

cold areas where the sun’s ray strike Earth at a very low angle; located in areas around in the North and South poles (66.5-90 degrees N&S latitude)

Question 9

What are the temperate zones?

Answer 9

sit between the polar zones and the tropics; more affected by changing angle of the sun over the course of a year; climate changes depending on season

Question 10

What are the tropical zones?

Answer 10

neat the equator; receives direct sunlight year round so climate almost always warm; 23.5 N-23.5 S degree latitudes

Question 11

What 2 factors determine the survival and growth of an organism and the productivity of the ecosystem in which the organism lives?

Answer 11

Biotic and abiotic factors

Question 12

What can powerfully affect an ecosystem?

Answer 12

Community interactions such as competition, predation, and various forms of symbiosis

Question 13

Why do ecosystems constantly change?

Answer 13

In response to natural and human disturbances

Question 14

As an ecosystem changes, what happens to older inhabitants?

Answer 14

They gradually die out

Question 15

What are biotic factors?

Answer 15

Biological influences on organisms within an ecosystem

Question 16

What are abiotic factors?

Answer 16

Physical, or nonliving, factors that shape ecosystems

Question 17

What is a habitat?

Answer 17

The area where an organism lives

Question 18

What is a niche?

Answer 18

The full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those conditions.

Question 19

What is a resource?

Answer 19

any necessity of life such as water, nutrients, light, food, or space

Question 20

What does the competitive exclusion principle state?

Answer 20

no 2 species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time

Question 21

What is predation?

Answer 21

an interaction in which one organism captures and feeds on another organism

Question 22

What is symbiosis?

Answer 22

any relationship in which two species live closely together; there are 3 types: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism

Question 23

What happens in mutualism?

Answer 23

both species benefit from the relationship; a type of symbiosis

Question 24

What happens in commensalism?

Answer 24

one member of the association benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed; a type of symbiosis

Question 25

What happens in parasitism?

Answer 25

one organism lives on or inside another organism and harms it; type of symbiosis

Question 26

What is ecological succession?

Answer 26

series of predictable changes that occurs in a community over time

Question 27

What is primary succession?

Answer 27

succession that occurs on surfaces where no soil exists

Question 28

What are pioneer species?

Answer 28

first species to populate an area

Question 29

What is secondary succession?

Answer 29

when an ecosystem recovers itself to its normal conditions after a disturbance like fires or human disturbances

Question 30

What is a biome?

Answer 30

a complex of terrestrial communities that covers a large area and is characterized by certain soil and climate conditions and particular assemblages of plants and animals

Question 31

What is an organism's tolerance?

Answer 31

their ability to survive and reproduce under conditions that differ from their optimal conditions

Question 32

What is microclimate?

Answer 32

the climate in a small area that differs from the climate around it

Question 33

Which biome contains the most species than all the other biomes combined?

Answer 33

tropical rain forest

Question 34

What biome is hot and wet year-round and has thin, nutrient-poor soils?

Answer 34

tropical rain forest

Question 35

Which biome grows in places where rainfall is highly seasonal rather than year-round?

Answer 35

tropical dry forest

Question 36

Which biome is generally warm year-round, alternates wet and dry seasons and its rich soil is subject to erosion?

Answer 36

tropical dry forest

Question 37

What is a deciduous tree?

Answer 37

a tree that sheds its leaves during a particular season each year

Question 38

What is another name for tropical savannas?

Answer 38

grasslands

Question 39

What biome has compact soil, frequent fires set by lightning, and seasonal rainfall?

Answer 39

tropical savanna

Question 40

What biome is defined as having annual precipitation of less than 25 cm?

Answer 40

desert

Question 41

Which biome has warm to hot summers, cold winters, moderate seasonal precipitation, fertile soils and occasional fires?

Answer 41

temperate grassland

Question 42

Which biome is characterized by a semiarid climate and a mix of shrub communities and open woodlands?

Answer 42

Temperate woodland and shrubland

Question 43

What are chaparral?

Answer 43

communities that are dominated by shrubs

Question 44

What biome contains a mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees?

Answer 44

temperate forest

Question 45

What are coniferous trees?

Answer 45

conifers that produce seed-bearing cones and most have leaves shaped like needles

Question 46

What is humus?

Answer 46

a material formed from decaying leaves and other organic matter that makes soil fertile

Question 47

What biome is also known as a temperate rain forest?

Answer 47

northwestern coniferous forest

Question 48

What biome has mild temperatures, abundant precipitation during fall, winter and spring and relatively cool dry summer?

Answer 48

northwestern coniferous forest

Question 49

Which biome has dense evergreen forests of coniferous trees?

Answer 49

boreal forest

Question 50

What is another name for boreal forests?

Answer 50

Taiga

Question 51

Which biome has long, cold winters, short mild summers, moderate precipitation, high humidity and acidic nutrient-poor soils?

Answer 51

taiga or boreal forests

Question 52

What is permafrost?

Answer 52

a layer of permanently frozen subsoil

Question 53

What biome is characterized by permafrost?

Answer 53

tundra

Question 54

What biome has low precipitation, short and soggy summers, long cold dark winters, and poorly developed soils?

Answer 54

tundra

Question 55

What biome is a moose found in?

Answer 55

taiga or boreal forests

Question 56

What biome is a caribou found in?

Answer 56

tundra

Question 57

As you move up a mountain, what happens to its temperature and organisms?

Answer 57

becomes colder and precipitation increases so organisms change

Question 58

What are aquatic ecosystems determined by?

Answer 58

the depth, flow, temperature, and chemistry of the overlying water

Question 59

What are the two types of freshwater ecosystems?

Answer 59

flowing-water and standing-water

Question 60

How do marine biologists divide the ocean?

Answer 60

photic and aphotic; depth and distance from shore

Question 61

What are the 3 zones that an ocean is divided into?

Answer 61

intertidal, coastal and open

Question 62

What is plankton?

Answer 62

a general term for the tiny-free floating organisms that live in both freshwater and saltwater environments

Question 63

What is phytoplankton? What do they do?

Answer 63

unicellular algae that use nutrients in the water and are the base of many aquatic food webs

Question 64

What is a wetland?

Answer 64

an ecosystem in which water either covers the soil or is present at or near the surface of the soil for at least part of the year

Question 65

What are the 3 main types of freshwater wetlands?

Answer 65

bogs, marshes, and swamps

Question 66

What are estuaries?

Answer 66

wetlands formed where rivers meet the sea

Question 67

What is detritus?

Answer 67

tiny pieces of organic material that provide food for organisms at the base of the estuary's food web

Question 68

What are salt marshes?

Answer 68

temperate-zone estuaries dominated by salt-tolerant grasses above the low-tide line, and by seagrasses under water

Question 69

What are mangrove swamps?

Answer 69

coastal wetlands that are widespread across tropical regions; dominated by salt-tolerant trees collectively called mangroves

Question 70

What is the photic zone?

Answer 70

the upper layer of the ocean where photosynthesis occurs; about 200 meters and producers live here

Question 71

What is the aphotic zone?

Answer 71

below photic zone and is permanently dark; chemosynthetic autotrophs are only producers in this zone

Question 72

What is the benthic zone?

Answer 72

covers the ocean floor

Question 73

What is zonation?

Answer 73

the prominent horizontal banding of organisms that live in a particular habitat

Question 74

What is the coastal ocean?

Answer 74

extends from the low-tide mark to the outer edge of the continental shelf; relatively shallow border that surrounds the continents

Question 75

What are kelp forests?

Answer 75

most productive coastal ocean communities; giant brown alga can grow 50 cm a day

Question 76

What are benthos?

Answer 76

organisms that live attached to or near the bottom of the ocean floor