ecology
Terms
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- landscape ecology
- study of exchanges of materials, energy, and organisms, especially among ecosystems
- tropical savanna
- warm and cool seasons, noticeable wet and dry seasons, impermeable soil layers, fire important to maintaining dominance by grasses, still supports diversity and big #s of large animals
- geographic ecology
- study of long term and large scale regional processes
- why are there seasons at high latitudes but not low latitudes?
- lower latitudes don't have a variation in solar energy and sunlight like higher latitudes do
- mediterranean woodland and shrubland
- cool and moist winters, hot and dry summers, low to moderate soil fertility, organisms adapted to seasonal drought and periodic fires
- what causes predictable latitudinal variation in climate?
- uneven heating of the earth's surface by the sun and the tilt of the earth on its axis
- ecotone
- transition from one type of ecosystem to another
- biome
- divisions of the terrestrial environment distinguished by their predominant plants and their climates
- community
- all the species inhabiting an area
- natural history
- study of how organisms in a particular area are influenced by factors like climate, soils, predators, competitors, and evolutionary history
- geographic distribution of terrestrial biomes corresponds closely to...
- variation in climate, especially prevailing temperature and precipitation
- tundra
- cold and low precipitation, short and soggy summers, poorly developed soils, permafrost, dominated by low vegetation and animals adapted to long and cold winters, migratory animals make seasonal use.
- mountains
- temperature, precipitation, soils, and organisms shift w/ elevation. they are climatic and biological islands.
- temperate forest
- moderate and moist winters, warm and moist growing season, fertile soils, high productivity and biomass, dominated by deciduous trees where growing seasons are moist, winters are mild, and soils fertile. otherwise dominated by conifers.
- desert
- hot or cold, dry and unpredictable precipitation, low productivity but usu. high diversity, organisms well adapted to climatic extremes
- tropical rain forest
- found in se asia, w. africa, and s. and c. america. avg temp 25 to 27 C, avg rainfall ranges from 2000-4000 mm. warm, moist, low seasonality, infertile soils, exceptional bio diversity and many interactions
- biosphere
- total global ecosystem
- ecosystem
- all the organisms in an area plus all the physical and chemical factors
- ecology
- study of relationships between organisms and the environment.
- population
- group of individuals inhabiting a defined area.
- tropical dry forest
- warm and cool seasons, seasonally dry, bio rich, found in africa, c. and n america, and asia.
- boreal forest
- long and severe winters, climatic extremes, moderate precipitation, infertile soils, permafrost, occasional fire, extensive forest biome, dominated by conifers.
- temperate grassland
- hot and cold seasons, peak rainfall coincides w/ growing season, droughts sometimes last several years, fertile soils, fire important to maintaining dominance by grasses, historically inhabited by roving bands of herbivores and predators