Ecosystems - answer✔a self-sustaining association of living plants and animals and their
nonliving environment
Biosphere - answer✔The area where the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere function together
to form the environment in which life exists. Extends from the sea-floor to ~8km above the
earth's surface, anywhere with living organisms
Biogeography - answer✔the study of the distribution of plants and animals, the diverse spatial
patterns they create, and the physical and biological processes, past and present, that produce
Earth's species richness
Photosynthesis - answer✔The process by which plants produce their own food from carbon
dioxide and water, powered by solar energy, releases oxygen and produces energy-rich food for
the plant
Respiration - answer✔The process by which plants oxidize carbohydrates to derive energy for
their operations; essentially the reverse of photosynthesis; releases carbon dioxide, water, and
heat energy into the environment
Net Primary Productivity - answer✔the net photosynthesis for an entire plant communicty; the
amount of stored chemical energy that the community generates for the ecosystem
Biomass - answer✔the net dry weight of all this organic material and its stored chemical energy
Life Zones - answer✔zonation according to altitude and vegetation; each one possesses its own
biotic communities
Limiting Factors - answer✔Factors responsible for determining the distribution of plants &
animals, includes weather/climate, competition, food sources, humans, elevation/topography
Primary succession - answer✔An area of bare rock or a disturbed site with no vestige of a former
community
Secondary succession - answer✔starts from remains of previous community in an area that has
been disturbed or destroyed
Pioneer Community - answer✔The initial plant community in an area, usually found on new
surfaces or those that have been stripped of life, as in beginning primary succession and includes
lichens, mosses, and ferns growing on bare rock
What does biogeography include? Describe its relationship to ecology. - answer✔Biogeography
includes the distribution of plants and animals, and Earth's species richness. Relates to ecology
because it looks at organisms and their environments, like ecology.
Briefly describe the global pattern of net primary productivity - answer✔Tends to be highest
between the Tropics of Capricorn & Cancer at sea level & decreases toward higher latitudes and
elevations
What are the principal abiotic components in terrestrial ecosystems? - answer✔Gaseous,
hydrologic, and mineral cycles
Describe what Alexander von Humboldt found that led him to propose the life concept. What are
life zones? Explain the interaction among elevation, latitude, and the types of communities that
develop. - answer✔Observed that plants & animals recur in related groupings wherever similar
conditions occur in the abiotic environment. Life zones are areas organized by altitude &
vegetation, each contains its own biotic community. Higher altitude is similar to travelling away
from the equator to higher latitude, climate changes the higher you go.
What is a limiting factor? How does it function to control the spatial distribution of plant and
animal species? - answer✔The one physical or chemical component that most inhibits biotic
operations, through either its lack or excess. It inhibits biotic operations, hindering the growth of
plants or animal species.
How does ecological succession proceed? What are the relationships between existing
communities and new, pioneer communities? - answer✔Disturbances destroy the old
environment, a new one forms. Pioneer communities affect existing communities.
Inner Core - answer✔Solid iron, most dense (13.5gcm-3)
Outer Core - answer✔Molten iron, magnetic field
Inner Mantle - answer✔Dense, contains a mixture of iron, magnesium, and silicats, with some
calcium and aluminum.
Outer Mantle - answer✔Divided into 3 layers: upper mantle, asthenosphere, and uppermost
mantle
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