Chapter 5 vocabulary
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29 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 barrier islands | low, narrow, sandy islands that form offshore from a coastline. |
| benthic | The bottom of a sea or lake |
| biomes | a broad, regional type of ecosystem characterized by distinctive climate and soil conditions and a distinctive kind of biological community adapted to those conditions. |
| bogs | an area of waterlogged soil that tends to be peaty; fed mainly by precipitation; low productivity; some bogs are acidic. |
| boreal forest | A broad band of mixed coniferous and deciduous trees that stretches across northern North America (and also Europe and Asia); its northernmost edfe, the taiga, intergrades with the artic tundra |
| chaparral | Thick, dense, thorny evergreen shrub found in Mediterranean climates |
| cloud forest | High mountain forests where temperatures are uniformly cool and fog or mist keeps vegetation wet all the time |
| conifer | Needle-bearing tree that produce seeds in cones |
| coral reefs | Prominent oceanic features composed of hard, limy skeletons produced by coral animals; usually formed along edges of shallow, submerged ocean banks or along shelves in warm, shallow, tropical seas |
| deciduous | Trees and shrubs that shed their leaves at the end of the growing season |
| deserts | a type of biome characterized by low moisture levels and infrequent and unpredictable precipitation. Daily and seasonal temperatures fluctuate widely. |
| estuaries | a bay or drowned valley where a river empties into the sea |
| fens | areas of waterlogged soil that tend to be peaty; fed mainly by upwelling water; low productivity |
| grasslands | A biome dominated by grasses and associated herbaceous plants |
| mangroves | Trees from a number of genera that live in salt water |
| marshes | wetlands without trees; in North America, this type of land is characterized by cattails and rushes |
| pelagic | Zones in the vertical water column of a water body |
| phytoplankton | Microscopic, free-floating, autotrophic organisms that function as producers in aquatic ecosystems |
| reefs | Consist of colonies of minute, colonial animals that live symbiotically with photosynthetic algae |
| southern pine forests | United States coniferous forest ecosystem characterized by a warm, moist climate |
| swamps | wetland with trees, such as the extensive swamp forests of the southern U.S. |
| taiga | The northernmost edge of the boreal forest, including species-poor woodland and peat deposits; intergrading with the arctic tundra |
| temperate rainforest | The cool, dense, rainy forests of the northern Pacific coast; enshrouded in fog much of the time; dominated by large conifers |
| thermocline | In water, a distinctive temperature transition zone that separates an upper layer that is mixed by wind (the epilimnion) and a colder, deep layer that is not mixed (the hypolimnion) |
| thorn scrub | a dry, semi-desert dominated by acacias and other spiny shrubs |
| tropical rainforest | Forests in which rainfall is abundant - more that 200 cm (80 in) per year - and temperatures are warm or hot year-round |
| tropical seasonal forests | semievergreen or partly deciduous forests tending toward open woodlands and grassy savannas dotted with scattered, drought-resistant tree species; distinct wet and dry seasons, hot year-round |
| tundra | Treeless arctic or alpine biome characterized by cold, harsh winters, a short growing season, and potential for frost any month of the year; vegetation includes low-growing perennial plants, mosses and lichens |
| wetlands | Ecosystems of several types in which vegetation is surrounded by stand water during part of the year |
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