Year 10 Geography Environments Flashcards

Flashcards for Year 10 Geography environments lecture notes.

Tropical Forest

A forest in the tropics that gets a lot of rain.

Boreal Forest

A biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches.

Savanna

Grassland ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close.

Desert

A barren or desolate area, esp. one with little or no vegetation.

Tundra

A biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons.

Mountains

A large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak.

Chaparral

A shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the US state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico.

Polar Ice

Regions of Earth covered in ice.

Temperate Forest

A forest found in temperate regions.

Temperate Grassland

A biome populated by grasses and herbs.

Biotic

The living components of an ecosystem.

Abiotic

Non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems.

Ecosystem

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Producers

Organisms that produce their own food.

Consumers

Organisms that eat other organisms.

Photosynthesis

The process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water.

Individual

A single organism.

Population

A group of individuals of the same species living and interbreeding within a given area.

Community

An interacting group of various species in a common location.

Biome

A large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g., forest or tundra.

Hydrological Cycle

The cycle of water through the environment.

Carbon Cycle

The biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth.

Oxygen Cycle

The biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of oxygen within its three main reservoirs: the atmosphere, the total content of biological matter (the biosphere), and the Earth's crust.

Greenhouse Effect

The trapping of the sun's warmth in a planet's lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface.

Photolysis

The chemical process by which molecules are broken down by the energy of photons.

Sustainability

The ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.

Fossil Fuels

A natural fuel such as coal or gas, formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms.

Biodiversity

The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

Global Warming

A gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.

Pollutant

A substance released into the environment that has a harmful or negative effect on the natural environment.

Demographic Transition

A model that describes why rapid population growth is a temporary phenomenon.

Spatial Variation

Describes differences in the way built and natural features are arranged on the Earth's surface.

Pollutant

Any substance released into the environment that has a harmful or negative effect on the natural environment.

Coastal Dead Zone

An area in a body of water that does not have enough oxygen to support marine life.

Eutrophication

The excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.

Ocean Acidification

The process by which the ocean reduces in pH over an extended period of time, caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

Soft Engineering

Coastal management that involves accommodating natural processes.

Hard Engineering

Coastal management that involves building artificial structures to protect the coast.

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)

A coastal management approach that considers all aspects of the coastal zone, including environmental, economic, and social factors.

Atmosphere

All of the gases that surround the Earth

Biosphere

All living things on Earth, i.e. plants, animals, humans and other organisms

Hydrosphere

All of the water on Earth, i.e. in solid, liquid and gaseous forms

Lithosphere

The outer rocky layer of Earth, i.e. crust