Chapter 4 Vocab due October 19

4.1 Climate

·      Weather – day to day conditions of the atmosphere, including precipitation and temperature

·      Climate – The average year to year conditions f temperature and precipitataion that occur in an area over a long period.

·      Microclimate – environmental conditions within a small area that differs signifigantly from that of the surrounding area

·      Greenhouse effect – process in which certain gases (carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor) trap sunlight energy in earth’s atmosphere as heat

4.2 Niches and Community Interactions

·      Tolerance – the ability of an organism to survive and reproduce under circumstances that differ from their optimal conditions s

·      Habitat – an area where an organism lives including the abiotic and biotic factors that affect it

·      Niche – a full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way the organisms use those conditions

·      Resource - any necessity of life such as food, water, nutrients, light and space

·      Competitive exclusion principle – principle that states that no two species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time

·      Predation – interaction in which one organism captures and feeds on the other organisms

·      Herbivory  - Interaction in which one animal, the herbivore feeds on producers

·      Keystone species – a single species that is not usually abundant in a community yet it exerts strong control over the structure of the community

·      Symbiosis – relationship in which two species live closely together

·      Mutualism – a symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the relationship

·      Parasitism – symbiotic relationship in which one organism lives on or inside the other organism and harms it

·      Commensalism – the symbiotic relationship between organisms in which one organism benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed

4.3 Succession

·      Ecological succession – series of gradual changes that occur in a community following a disturbance

·      Pioneer species – the first species to populate an area after a succession

·      Primary succession – succession that occurs in an area in which no trace of a previous community is present

·      Secondary succession – type of succession that occurs in an area that was only partially destroyed by disturbances

4.4 Biomes

·      Canopy – Dense covering formed by the leafy tops of tall rain forest trees

·      Understory – layer of a rain forest found underneath the canopy formed by shorter trees and vines

·      Deciduous – Term used to refer to a type of tree that sheds its leaves during a particular season each year

·      Taiga – a biome with long cold winters, and a few months od warm weather, dominated by coniferous evergreens also called a boreal forest

·      Humus  - material formed by decaying leaves and other organic matter

·      Coniferous – Term used to refer to the trees that produce seed bearing cones and have thin needle shaped leaves

·      Permafrost – layer of permanently frozen subsoil found in the tundra

4.5 Aquatic Ecosystems

·      Photic zone – sunlight region near the surface of the water

·      Aphotic zone – Dark layer of the oceans below the photic zone were sunlight does not penetrate

·      Benthos – Organisms that live attached to or near the bottoms of bodies of water

·      Plankton – microscopic organisms that live in aquatic environments

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

·      Estuary – a kind of wetland formed where a river meets the ocean