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| the scientific study of the interactions of organisms with their environment |
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| examination of how one kind of organism meets the challenges of its environment |
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| an interbreeding group of individuals belonging to the same sppecies and living a a particular geographic area |
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| all the organisms or all the populations of different species that inhabit a particular area |
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| all the life forms existing in a certain area and all the nonliving factors |
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| organisms that make up the community of species in an area |
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| the global ecosystem or the portion of the Earth that has life |
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| environmental situations in which organisms live |
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| energy from the sun which powers nearly all surface terrestrial and shallow water ecosystems |
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| an abiotic factor that is essential to all life |
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| an abiotic factor which effects metabolism |
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| an abiotic factor which blows nutrients of increases an organism's rate of water loss by evaporation |
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| light winds caused by the rising air of the equator from the rays of the sun; eventually becomes clouds which give rain |
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| dry air which descends and spreads back toward the equator; have a cold region |
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| latitudes between 23.5 degree N and S |
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| latitudes between the tropics and the Arctic Cricle (N) or Antarctic Circle (S) |
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| air movements caused by the effects of the rising and falling of air masses and Earth's rotation |
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| winds that blow from east to west in temperate zones |
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| riverlike flow patterns in the oceans caused by prevailing winds, the planet's rotation, unequal heating of the surface waters, and the locations and shapes of the continents |
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| an area where fresh water merges with sea water |
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| the shallow zone at the edge of an estuary or ocean |
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| an ecosystem that is intermediate between an aquatic ecosystem and a terrestrial one |
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| ocean water which supports communities of highly motile animals |
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| diverse algae and cyanobacteria which drift pass the pelagic zone; ocean's main photosynthesizers making the organic food molecules |
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| animals that drift in the pelagic zone because the can't resist ocean currents or because they don't swim; eat phytoplankton |
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| a small portion of ocean water and bottom where light penetrates and photosynthesis occurs |
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| a dark region under the photic zone which is the most extensive part of the biosphere |
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| terrestrial ecosystems which cover the land surface of Earth; characterized by their vegetation and animals; distributed by climate and termperature |
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| equatorical lowlands where rainfall is scarce; have a long dry season and plants are shrubs and trees; in E Africa and NW India |
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| tropical deciduous forests |
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| distinct wet and dry seasons with deciduous trees and shrubs and releaf after heave rains or monsoons; in W Africa and India and SE Asia |
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| in humid equitorial areas where rain is abundant and season of reduced rainfall lasts a few months; Indonesia and S America |
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| a biome dominated by grasses and scattered trees; in S America, S Africa, N America, and Australia;has frequent fires and grasses; has large herbivores and burrowing animals |
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| with high and low temperatures, it is dry with little rain; in Australia and Africa; has desert plants and desert animals which live in burrows and learn to conserve water |
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| the conversion of other biomes especially savannas to deserts |
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| a region with dense, spiny shrubs with tough evergreen leaves; with a cool climate and rainy winters, hot summers; occasional fires and animals such as deer, birds, lizards, and snakes; in the Mediterranean region, Chile, W Africa, SW Australia, and CA |
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| treeless except along rivers of streams with cold temperatures; in Argentina, Uruguay, Asia, and N America; has droughts, fires and grazing by animals; has short grass and animals such as bisons, pronghorns, gazelles, zebras, horses, sheeps, snf to many microorganisms |
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| temperate deciduous forests |
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| grow where there is moisture in the E US, Europe, E Asia, and Australia; have broad trees and oak, hickory, beech, and maple; hot summers and cold winters; has a period where the trees are dormant; animals are small mammals such as bobcats, foxes, black bears, and mountain lions |
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| has trees such as cone-bearers, spruce, pine, fir, and hemlock; in N America and Eurasia; with warm moist area |
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| a coniferous forest which has harsh winters and short summers; with thin soil and waxy covered needles; snow falls and creates openings;birch, willow, aspen, and alder grow with occasional fires |
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| at high alititudes with permanamt areas of ice; plants such as shrubs, grasses, mosses, and lichens grow; in the N pole, Ecuador, and Canada; there are animals which can stand the cold |
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| continuously frozen ground where it prevents plants from planting their roots deep into the soil |
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