Ecology Chapter 2

·       Climate — the typical atmospheric conditions that occur throughout the year, measured over many years

·       Weather = variation in temperature and precipitation over periods of hours or days

·       Greenhouse effect — the process of solar radiation striking Earth, being converted to infrared radiation, and being absorbed and re-emitted by atmospheric gases

·       Albedo — the fraction of solar energy reflected by an object

·       Saturation point – the limit of the amount of water vapor that the air can contain

·       Intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) — the area where the two Hadley cells converge and cause large amounts of precipitation

·       Polar cells — the atmospheric convection currents that move air between 60° and 90° latitudes in the Northern and Southern hemispheres

·       Ferrel cells – areas of atmospheric currents lacking patterns.

·       Adiabatic cooling – due to reduced pressure on air as it rises higher and expands

·       Adiabatic heating – due to increased pressure on air as it sinks and decreases in volume

·       Latent heat release — when water vapor is converted back to liquid, water releases energy in the form of heat.

·       Gyre —large-scale water circulation pattern between continents

·       Upwelling — an upward movement of ocean water

·       Thermohaline circulation — a global pattern of surface- and deep-water currents that flow due to variations in temperature and salinity that change the density of water

·       Rain shadow — a region with dry conditions found on the leeward side of a mountain range as a result of humid winds from the ocean, causing precipitation on the windward side

·       Biome — a geographic region containing communities composed of organisms with similar adaptations

·       Convergent evolution – unrelated species evolve to have similar characteristics under similar selective pressures

·       Climate diagram — a graph that plots the average monthly temperature and precipitation of a specific location on Earth

·       Lotic — characterized by flowing water

·       Stream: narrow channel of fast-flowing fresh water

·       River: wide channel of slow-flowing fresh water

·       Riparian zone: adjacent land influenced by flooding

·       Allochthonous: inputs from outside (example: leaves)

·       Autochthonous: inputs produced by algae and aquatic plants inside the ecosystem  

·       Ponds and lakes — characterized by nonflowing fresh water with at least some area of water that is too deep for plants to rise above the water’s surface

·       Littoral zone — the shallow area around the edge of a lake or pond containing rooted vegetation

·       Limnetic zone — the open water beyond the littoral zone, where the dominant photosynthetic organisms are floating algae; also known as Pelagic zone

·       Profundal zone — the area in a lake that is too deep to receive sunlight

·       Benthic zone — the area consisting of the sediments at the bottoms of lakes, ponds, and oceans

·       Stratification — the condition of a lake or pond when the warmer, less dense surface water floats on the cooler, denser water below

·       Epilimnion — the surface layer of the water in a lake or pond

·       Hypolimnion — the deeper layer of water in a lake or pond

·       ^{Estuaries — an area along the coast where the mouths of freshwater rivers mix with the salt water from oceans}

·       Salt marshes — a saltwater biome that contains nonwoody emergent vegetation

·       Mangrove swamp —  a biome that occurs along tropical and subtropical coasts and contains salt-tolerant trees with roots submerged in water

·       Intertidal zone —  a biome consisting of the narrow band of coastline between the levels of high tide and low tide

·       Open ocean — the part of the ocean that is away from the shoreline and coral reefs. Open oceans cover the largest portion of the surface of Earth

·       Neritic zone — the ocean zone that is beyond the range of the lowest tidal level and extends to depths of about 200 m.

·       Oceanic zone — the ocean zone beyond the neritic zone

·       Photic zone —  the area of the neritic and oceanic zones that contains sufficient light for photosynthesis by algae

·       Aphotic zone —  the area of the neritic and oceanic zones where the water is so deep that sunlight cannot penetrate