APES Chapter 5 & 6
Terms
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- Coastal Wetland
- Land along a coastline, extending inland from an estuary, that is covered with salt water all or part of the year. Examples are marshes, bays, lagoons, tidal flats, and mangrove swamps.
- Phytoplankton
- Small, drifting plants, mostly algae and bacteria, found in aquatic ecosystems.
- Warm Front
- The boundary between an advancing warm air mass and the cooler one it is replacing.
- Coral Reef
- Formation produced by massive colonies containing billions of tiny coral animals, called polyps, that secrete a stony substance (calcium carbonate) around themselves for protection.
- Barrier Islands
- Long, thin, low offshore islands of sediment that generally run parallel to the shore along some coasts.
- Succulent Plant
- Plants, such as desert cacti, that survive in dry climates by having no leaves, thus reducing the loss of scarce water. They store water and use sunlight to produce the food they need in the thick, fleshy tissue of their green stems and branches.
- Euphotic Zone
- Upper layer of a body of water through which sunlight can penetrate and support photosynthesis.
- Climate
- Physical properties of the troposphere of an area based on analysis of its weather records over a long period (at least 30 years). The two main factors determining an this are temperature, with its seasonal variations, and the amount and distribution of precipitation.
- Mangrove Swamps
- Swamps found on the coastlines in warm tropical climates. They are dominated by mangrove trees, any of about 55 species of trees and shrubs that can live partly submerged in the salty environment of coastal swamps.
- Broadleaf Evergreen Plants
- Plants that keep most of their broad leaves year-round. Examples are the trees found in the canopies of tropical rain forests.
- Forest
- Biome with enough average annual precipitation (at least 76 centimeters, or 30 inches) to support growth of various tree species and smaller forms of vegetation.
- Inland Wetland
- Land away from the coast, such as a swamp, marsh, or bog, that is covered all or part of the time with fresh water.
- Elevation (Altitude)
- Distance above sea level.
- Transpiration
- Process in which water is absorbed by the root systems of plants, moves up through the plants, passes through pores (stomata) in their leaves or other parts, and evaporates into the atmosphere as water vapor.
- Runoff
- Fresh water from precipitation and melting ice that flows on the earth's surface into nearby streams, lakes, wetlands, and reservoirs.
- Desert
- Biome in which evaporation exceeds precipitation and the average amount of precipitation is less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) a year. Such areas have little vegetation or have widely spaced, mostly low vegetation.
- Surface Water
- Precipitation that does not infiltrate the ground or return to the atmosphere by evaporation or transpiration.
- Greenhouse Gases
- Gases in the earth's lower atmosphere (troposphere) that cause the greenhouse effect. Examples are carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, ozone, methane, water vapor, and nitrous oxide.
- Oligotrophic Lake
- Lake with a low supply of plant nutrients.
- Low
- An air mass with a low pressure.
- Intertidal Zone
- The area of shoreline between low and high tides.
- High
- An air mass with a high pressure.
- Arid
- Dry. A desert or other area with an arid climate has little precipitation.
- Lake
- Large natural body of standing fresh water formed when water from precipitation, land runoff, or groundwater flow fills a depression in the earth created by glaciation, earth movement, volcanic activity, or a giant meteorite.
- Greenhouse Effect
- A natural effect that releases heat in the atmosphere (troposphere) near the earth's surface. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, and several other gases in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) absorb some of the infrared radiation (heat) radiated by the earth's surface. This causes their molecules to vibrate and transform the absorbed energy into longer-wavelength infrared radiation (heat) in the troposphere. If the atmospheric concentrations of these greenhouse gases rise and they are not removed by other natural processes, the average temperature of the lower atmosphere will increase gradually.
- Evergreen Plants
- Plants that keep some of their leaves or needles throughout the year. Examples are ferns and cone-bearing trees (conifers) such as firs, spruces, pines, redwoods, and sequoias.
- Deciduous Plants
- Trees, such as oaks and maples, and other plants that survive during dry seasons or cold seasons by shedding their leaves.
- Grassland
- Biome found in regions where moderate annual average precipitation (25-76 centimeters, or 10-30 inches) is enough to support the growth of grass and small plants but not enough to support large stands of trees.
- Upwelling
- Movement of nutrient-rich bottom water to the ocean's surface. This can occur far from shore but usually occurs along certain steep coastal areas where the surface layer of ocean water is pushed away from shore and replaced by cold, nutrient-rich bottom water.
- Detritus
- Parts of dead organisms and cast-off fragments and wastes of living organisms.
- Coniferous Evergreen Plants
- Cone-bearing plants (such as spruces, pines, and firs) that keep some of their narrow, pointed leaves (needles) all year.
- Monsoon
- Periods of heavy rains experienced on continents lying north or south of warm oceans.
- Open Sea
- The part of an ocean that is beyond the continental shelf.
- Cultural Eutrophication
- Overnourishment of aquatic ecosystems with plant nutrients (mostly nitrates and phosphates) because of human activities such as agriculture, urbanization, and discharges from industrial plants and sewage treatment plants.
- Coastal Zone
- Warm, nutrient-rich, shallow part of the ocean that extends from the high-tide mark on land to the edge of a shelflike extension of continental land masses known as the continental shelf.
- Permafrost
- Perennially frozen layer of the soil that forms when the water there freezes. It is found in arctic tundra.
- Cold Front
- Leading edge of an advancing mass of cold air.
- Coniferous Trees
- Cone-bearing trees, mostly evergreens, that have needle-shaped or scalelike leaves. They produce wood known commercially as softwood.
- Nekton
- Strongly swimming organisms found in aquatic systems.
- Front
- The boundary between two air masses with different temperatures and densities.
- Weather
- Short-term changes in the temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloud cover, wind direction and speed, and other conditions in the troposphere at a given place and time.
- Detritus Feeder
- Organism that extracts nutrients from fragments of dead organisms and their cast-off parts and organic wastes. Examples are earthworms, termites, and crabs.
- Watershed
- Land area that delivers water, sediment, and dissolved substances via small streams to a major stream (river).
- Decomposer
- Organism that digests parts of dead organisms and cast-off fragments and wastes of living organisms by breaking down the complex organic molecules in those materials into simpler inorganic compounds and then absorbing the soluble nutrients. Producers return most of these chemicals to the soil and water for reuse. Consists of various bacteria and fungi.
- Latitude
- Distance from the equator.
- Benthos
- Bottom-dwelling organisms.
- Mesotrophic Lake
- Lake with a moderate supply of plant nutrients.
- Wetland
- Land that is covered all or part of the time with salt water or fresh water, excluding streams, lakes, and the open ocean.
- Rain Shadow Effect
- Low precipitation on the far side (leeward side) of a mountain when prevailing winds flow up and over a high mountain or range of high mountains. This creates semiarid and arid conditions on the leeward side of a high mountain range.
- Eutrophic Lake
- Lake with a large or excessive supply of plant nutrients, mostly nitrates and phosphates.
- Biome
- Terrestrial regions inhabited by certain types of life, especially vegetation. Examples are various types of deserts, grasslands, and forests.
- Broadleaf Deciduous Plants
- Plants such as oak and maple trees that survive drought and cold by shedding their leaves and becoming dormant.
- Ultraplankton
- Photosynthetic bacteria no more than 2 micrometers wide.
- Freshwater Life Zones
- Aquatic systems where water with a dissolved salt concentration of less than 1% by volume accumulates on or flows through the surfaces of terrestrial biomes. Examples are standing (lentic) bodies of fresh water such as lakes, ponds, and inland wetlands and flowing (lotic) systems such as streams and rivers.
- Zooplankton
- Animal plankton. Small floating herbivores that feed on plant plankton (phytoplankton).
- Estuary
- Partially enclosed coastal area at the mouth of a river where its fresh water, carrying fertile silt and runoff from the land, mixes with salty seawater.
- Plankton
- Small plant organisms (phytoplankton) and animal organisms (zooplankton) that float in aquatic ecosystems.