| A | B |
|---|
| biosphere | part of Earth where life exists |
| biota | collection of living things in the biosphere |
| hydrosphere | all of Earth's water, ice and water vapor |
| geosphere | rocks, continents, sea floor, & everything below Earth's surface |
| atmosphere | air blanketing Earth's solid and liquid surface |
| climate | long term pattern of weather conditions |
| microclimate | climate of a small specific place wihtin a larger area (i.e. cavity in a log) |
| canopy | uppermost branches of trees in the rainforest, most animals live here |
| tropical grassland | warm all year, dry and rainy seasons, tall grasses |
| desert | very dry climate, can be hot or cold |
| deciduous forest | a forest that consists of trees like oak, maple, beech |
| coniferous forest | a forest that consists of evergreen trees - pine, spruce, etc |
| taiga | long cold winters, short warm humid summers, coniferous trees |
| tundra | subzero temps all year long, frozen ground, low diversity |
| chaparral | hot dry summers, cool moist winters, small leaved evergreen shrubs |
| tropical rain forest | warm temps and abundant rainfall all year, great biodiversity, lush thick forests |
| temperate grassland | dry & warm summer, short or tall grasses, snow in winter |
| temperate rain forest | long wet season with dry summer, evergreen conifers dominate |
| intertidal zone | land between high and low tide |
| neritic zone | contains 40 times more biomass than the rest of the ocean |
| bathyal zone | 200 to 2000 meters deep in the ocean |
| abyssal zone | below 2000 meters, in complete darkness in the ocean |
| plankton | tiny free-floating organisms that live in water |
| zooplankton | animal like plankton |
| phytoplankton | photosynthetic, create about 70% O2 in the air |
| coral reef | found in warm tropical waters, large biodiversity and biomass |
| kelp forest | exist in cold, nutrient rich water, composed of large communities of seaweed |
| estuary | partially enclosed body of water where a river flows into an ocean |
| watershed | region of land that drains into a river or another body of water |
| littoral zone | well lit, warma & shallow water along the shoreline of a lake |
| limnetic zone | open water in a lake, abundance of fish and plankton |
| benthic zone | lake or pond bottom, little sunlight |
| temperate deciduous forest | trees lose leaves in winter, even amount of precipitation all year, hot summer, cold winter (PA) |
