The vocabulary highlighted in chapter 4 of the prentice hall textbook Biology
Terms : Hide Images
| 256745695 | Weather | the day-to-day condition of earth's atmosphere at a particular time and place | |
| 256745696 | climate | the average year-after-year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a particular region | |
| 256745697 | greenhouse effect | the natural situation in which heat is retained by this layer of greenhouse gases | |
| 256745698 | Polar Zone | cold areas where the sun's rays strike Earth at a very low angle located in the areas around the north and south poles | |
| 256745699 | temperate zones | sit between the polar and tropic zones. temperate zones are more affected by the changing angle of the sun over a course of a year | |
| 256745700 | tropical zone | near the equator receive direct or nearly direct sunlight year round | |
| 256745701 | biotic factors | the biological influences on organisms within an ecosystem | |
| 256745702 | abiotic factors | physical or nonliving factors that shape an ecosystem | |
| 256745703 | niche | the full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those condition | |
| 256745704 | resource | any necessity of life | |
| 256745705 | competitive exclusion principle | a rule stating that no two species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time | |
| 256745706 | predation | an interaction in which one organism captures and feeds on another organism | |
| 256745707 | symbiosis | any relationship in which two species live closely together | |
| 256745708 | mutualism | both species benefit from one another | |
| 256745709 | commensalism | one member of the association benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed | |
| 256745710 | parasitism | one organism lives on or inside another harming it | |
| 256745711 | ecological succesion | the series of predictable changes that occur in a community over time | |
| 256745712 | primary succesion | succession that occurs on surfaces where no soil is present | |
| 256745713 | pioneer species | when primary succession begins, there is no soil just ash and rock, the first species to populate the area | |
| 256745714 | secondary succesion | when a disturbance is over, community interactions tend to restore the ecosystem to its original condition in this process | |
| 256745715 | biome | a complex of terrestrial communities that cover a large area and is categorized by a certain soil and climate conditions and a particular assemblage of plants and animals | |
| 256745716 | tolerance | ability to survive and reproduce under conditions that differ from their optimal conditions | |
| 256745717 | canopy | dense covering formed by the leafy tops of tall rain forest trees | |
| 256745718 | understory | a second layer of shorter trees and vines | |
| 256745719 | deciduous | a tree that sheds its leaves during a particular season each year | |
| 256745720 | coniferous | trees that produce seed-bearing cones and most have leaves shaped like needles | |
| 256745721 | humus | a material formed from decaying leaves and organic matter that makes soil fertile | |
| 256745722 | taiga | boreal forests | |
| 256745723 | permafrost | a layer of permanently frozen subsoil | |
| 256745724 | Plankton | tiny free-floating organisms that live in both freshwater and saltwater environments | |
| 256745725 | phytoplankton | unicellular algae | |
| 256745726 | zooplankton | planktonic animals | |
| 256745727 | wetland | 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 | |
| 256745728 | Estuaries | wetlands formed where rivers meet the sea | |
| 256745729 | detritus | tiny pieces of organic material that provides food for organisms at the base of the estuary's food web | |
| 256745730 | salt marshes | temperate zone estuaries dominated by slat tolerant grasses above the low tide line and by seagrasses underwater | |
| 256745731 | mangrove swamps | are coastlands that are widespread across tropical regions including tropical southern florida and hawaii | |
| 256745732 | photic zone | photosynthesis is limited to the well lit upper layer | |
| 256745733 | aphotic zone | the layer below the photic layer that is permanently dark | |
| 256745734 | Zonation | the prominent horizontal banding of organisms that live on a particular habitat | |
| 256745735 | coastal ocean | extends form the low tide mark to the outer edge of the continental shelf | |
| 256745736 | kelp forests | coastal ocean community named for its dominant organism-kelp, a giant brown alga | |
| 256745737 | coral reefs | Prominent oceanic features composed of hard, limy skeletons produced by coral animals; usually formed along edges of shallow, submerged ocean banks or along shelves in warm, shallow, tropical seas | |
| 256745738 | benthos | organisms that live attached to or near the bottom of the ocean floor |
