Apes Key Terms: Unit 3

Front 1

Climate

Back 1

the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.

Front 2

Rain Shadow Effect

Back 2

An area having relatively little precipitation due to the effect of a topographic barrier, especially a mountain range, that causes the prevailing winds to lose their moisture on the windward side, causing the leeward side to be dry.

Front 3

Biome

Back 3

a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat

Front 4

Plankton

Back 4

the small and microscopic organisms drifting or floating in the sea or fresh water, consisting chiefly of diatoms, protozoans, small crustaceans, and the eggs and larval stages of larger animals

Front 5

Nekton

Back 5

aquatic animals that are able to swim and move independently of water currents.

Front 6

Benthos

Back 6

the flora and fauna found on the bottom, or in the bottom sediments, of a sea, lake, or other body of water.

Front 7

Turbidity

Back 7

the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye

Front 8

Salinity

Back 8

the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water

Front 9

Oligotrophic lake

Back 9

characterized by a low accumulation of dissolved nutrient salts, supporting but a sparse growth of algae and other organisms, and having a high oxygen content owing to the low organic content

Front 10

Eutrophic lake

Back 10

characterized by an abundant accumulation of nutrients that support a dense growth of algae and other organisms, the decay of which depletes the shallow waters of oxygen in summer.

Front 11

Estuary

Back 11

the tidal mouth of a large river, where the tide meets the stream.

Front 12

Intrinsic value

Back 12

belonging naturally; essential.

Front 13

Deforestation

Back 13

the clearing of trees, transforming a forest into cleared land

Front 14

Overgrazing

Back 14

graze (grassland) so heavily that the vegetation is damaged and the ground becomes liable to erosion.

Front 15

Invasive species

Back 15

an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health

Front 16

Bycatch

Back 16

the unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing for a different species

Front 17

Overburden

Back 17

the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation, such as the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body

Front 18

Spoils

Back 18

the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation

Front 19

Open-pit mining

Back 19

surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pitor borrow

Front 20

Strip mining

Back 20

a mine that is dug by removing the surface of a large piece of land one section at a time

Front 21

Contour strip mining

Back 21

a seam or multiple seams are located at a certain elevation or elevations through a mountain or hill.

Front 22

Mountaintop removal

Back 22

Mountaintop removal mining devastates the landscape, turning areas that should be lush with forests and wildlife into barren moonscapes. Huge machines, called "draglines," push rock and dirt into nearby streams and valleys, forever burying waterways

Front 23

Smelting

Back 23

extract (metal) from its ore by a process involving heating and melting

Front 24

Reserves

Back 24

a supply of a commodity not needed for immediate use but available if required.

Front 25

Igneous rock

Back 25

formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava.

Front 26

Metamorphic rock

Back 26

a type of rockwhich has been changed by extreme heat and pressure.

Front 27

Sedimentary rock

Back 27

Rock that has formed through the deposition and solidification of sediment, especially sediment transported by water (rivers, lakes, and oceans), ice ( glaciers ), and wind

Front 28

Ore

Back 28

a naturally occurring solid material from which a metal or valuable mineral can be profitably extracted.

Front 29

Mineral

Back 29

a solid inorganic substance of natural occurrence

Front 30

Mantle

Back 30

the part of the earth between the core and the the crust

Front 31

Lithosphere

Back 31

the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle

Front 32

Aesthenosphere

Back 32

the upper layer of the earth's mantle, below the lithosphere, in which there is relatively low resistance to plastic flow and convection is thought to occur.

Front 33

Depletion time

Back 33

An accounting method used by mining, oil, or other natural resource companies to write off natural resource assets such as oil, gas, precious metals, or minerals as they are withdrawn from the ground

Front 34

Species richness

Back 34

the number of species present in a sample, community, or taxonomic group

Front 35

Species evenness

Back 35

the relative abundance ofspecies.

Front 36

El Nino

Back 36

an irregularly occurring and complex series of climatic changes affecting the equatorial Pacific region and beyond every few years, characterized by the appearance of unusually warm, nutrient-poor water off northern Peru and Ecuador, typically in late December.

Front 37

La nina

Back 37

a cooling of the water in the equatorial Pacific that occurs at irregular intervals and is associated with widespread changes in weather patterns complementary to those of El Niño, but less extensive and damaging in their effects