Environmental Science C4&C5
Terms
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What is the Benthic Zone?
p.100 - The bottom of a body of water; inhabited by decomposers, insect larvae, and clams
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What is a Biome?
p.79 - A region that have distinctive climates and organisms and that contain many separate but similar ecosystems.
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What is a Canopy?
p.82 - The top layer of a rainforest where the covering of intertwining branches absorbs most of the sunlight and shades the understory.
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What is a Chaparral?
p.94 - Coastal Biome with a Mediterranean climate and low-lying vegetation. Animal species include quail, lizards, chipmunks, mule deer,et.al. which use camouflage for protection.
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What is a Coral Reef?
p. 107 - Limestone islands in the sea that are built by coral animals called polyps.
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What is a Desert?
p.95 - Areas that receive less than 25cm (10") of precipitation a year. Two types include hot&dry or cold&dry
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What is Drought Resistance?
p. 96. - Plants ability to live through long periods of drought (little water)
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What is Estivating?
p.96 - The act of burying in the ground and sleeping through the dry season.
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What is an Estuary?
p. 105 - Aquatic ecosystem in which fresh water from rivers mixes with salt water from the ocean forming a nutrient trap.
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What is the Littoral Zone?
p. 100 - The shallow-water area near the shores of lakes and ponds where sunlight reaches the bottom.
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What is Permafrost?
p.97 -
Permanently frozen soil a few inches below the active
soil layer in Tundra Biomes. -
What is Taiga?
p.88-89 - "Boreal Forest" , the northern coniferous forest that stretches in a broad band across the northern hemisphere just below the Artic Circle.
- What is a Temperate Deciduous Forest? p.86
- Forest where trees drop their leaves ech fall, occur betw. 30 & 50 degree latitudes, extreme seasonal variation, winter below freezing, summers up to 95 degrees F.
- What are Temperate Grasslands? p.92
- Biomes occurring in semi-arid interiors of continents; examples are the prairies of North America, the steppes of Russia and Ukraine, and the pampas of South America.
- What are Tropical Rainforests? p. 80
- Warm, wet biome that occurs in a belt around the Earth near the equator and that contains the greatest diversity of organisms on Earth.
- What is a Savannah? p. 90
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A tropical grassland biome with a short rainy season.
Ex. Tanzania, Kenya etc. - What is a Tundra? p. 97
- A biome without trees, where grasses and tough shrubs grow in the frozen soil; extends from Arctic Circle to the north pole.
- What are Wetlands? p102
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Areas of land covered with water for part of the year.
Two types are freshwater wetlands (marshes) which contain nonwoody plants and swamps containing woody plants or shrubs. - What is an Aquifer? p. 126
- An underground water source found in rock formations
- What is Artificial Eutrophication? p. 137
- Eutrophication that occurs because of the introduction of inorganic plant nutrients into a body of water through sewage and fertilizer runoff.
- What is Biological Magnification? p. 136
- Accumulation of increasingly large amounts of a toxin within the tissues of organisms at each successive trophic level.
- What is Desalinization? p.128
- A process in which salt is removed from salt water, as from the oceans rendering the water fit for drinking and cooking.
- What is Groundwater? p. 126
- Water that seeps down through the ground and is stored underground on top of nonporous rock layers.
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What is Nonpoint Pollution?
p. 133 - Pollution that comes from many sources rather than from a single specific site; an example is pollution that reaches a body of water from streets and storm sewers.
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What is Point Pollution?
p. 133 - Pollution that is discharged from a single source, such as a factory, wastewater treatment plant, or oil tankers.
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What is the Recharge Zone?
p. 127 - Area of land on the Earth's skurface from which groundwater originates.
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What is Surface Water?
p. 123 - Freshwater above ground in lakes, ponds, rivers, & streams.
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What is Thermal Pollution?
p. 137 - The addition of excessive amounts of heat to a body water such as runoff from industrial cooling systems.
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What is Water Pollution?
p. 131 - The introduction of foreign substances into water that degrade its quality, limit its use, and affect organisms in it or drinking it.
- What is a Watershed? p. 123
- The entire area of land that is drained by a river.