| A | B |
|---|
| Biomes | Very large ecosystems that contain a number of smaller but related ecosystems within them. |
| Biosphere | the thin volume of Earth and its atmosphere that supports life |
| Ecosystem | all of the organisms and the nonliving environment found in a particular place |
| Community | all the interacting organisms living in an area |
| Population | all the members of a species that live in one place at one time |
| Biotic components | the organisms making up the community of species in the area. |
| Habitat | where an organism lives |
| Abiotic components | temperature, forms of energy, gases, water, nutirents, and other chemicals that are found in an area. |
| Population | All the members of a species that live in the same area and make up a breeding group. |
| Organism | any living thing. |
| Solar energy | Energy from the sun. |
| Water | is essential to all life, made of 2 H and 1 O. |
| Temperature | effects metabolism, |
| Wind | The perceptable natural movement of the air. |
| Tropics | Latitudes between 23.5 degrees north and south. |
| Doldrums | An area of calm or very light winds near the equator, caused by rising warm air. |
| Trade winds | The movement of air in the tropics. |
| Temperature Zones | Latitudes between the tropics and the Artic Circle in the north and the Antartic Circle in the south; regions with milder climates than the tropics or polar regions. |
| Prevailing winds | Winds that result from the combined effects of the Earth's rotation and the rising and falling of air masses. |
| Westerlies | Winds that blow from west to east. |
| Ocean Currents | One of the riverlike flow patterns in the Oceans. |
| Estuary | An area where freshwater merges with seawater. |
| Wetland | An ecosystem intermediate between an aquatic one and a terrestrial one. Wetland soil is saturated with water permanently or periodically. |
| Intertidal Zone | A shallow zone where the waters of an estuary or ocean meet land. |
| Pelagic Zone | The region of the ocean occupied by seawater. |
| Phytoplankton | Algae and photosynthetic bacteria that drift passively in aquatic environments. |
| Zooplankton | Animals that drift in aquatic environments. |
| Benthic Zone | A seafloor, or the bottom of a freshwater lake, pond, river, or stream. |
| Photic Zone | The region in an aquatic ecosystem into which light penetrates and where photosynthesis occurs. |
| Aphotic Zone | The region of an aquatic ecosystem beneath the photic zone, where light does not penetrate enough for photosynthesis to take place. |
| Continental Shelves | The submerged parts of continents. |
| Coral Reefs | Warm water, tropical, ecosystems dominated by the hard skeletal structures secreted primarily by the resident cnidarians. |
| Tropical Forests | Forests that occur between 23.5 degrees north and south latitudes. |
| Savanna | A biome dominated by grasses and scattered trees. |
| Deserts | A biome characterized by organisms adapted to sparse rainfall (less than 30 cm per year) and rapid evaporation. |
| Desertification | The conversion of semi-arid regions to desert. |
| Chaparral | A biome dominated by spiny evergreen shrubs adapted to periodic drought and fires; found where cold ocean currents circulate offshore, creating mild, rainy winters and long, hot, dry summers. |
| Temperate Grasslands | Grassland regions maintained by seasonal drought, occasional fires, and grazing by large mammals. |
| Temperate Deciduous Forests | A biome located throughout midlatitude regions where there is sufficent moisture to support the growth of large, broadleaf deciduous trees. |
| Coniferous Forests | A biome characterized by conifers, cone-bearing evergreen trees. |
| Taiga | The northern (boreal) coniferous forest, which extends across North America and Eurasia, to the southern border of the artic tundra; also found just below alpine tundra on mountainsides in temperate zones. |
| Tundra | A biome at the northernmost limits of plant growth and a high altitudes, characterized by dwarf woody shrubs, gasses, mosses, and lichens. |
| Permafrost | Continuously frozen ground found in the tundra. |
