Unit 4 - Land Ecosystems

2. Measures the distance north or south of the equator.
8. A time-based graph that presents a location's average temperature and precipitation.
9. Treeless regions found in the Arctic and on the tops of mountains, where the climate is cold and windy and rainfall is scant.
10. Happens when a climax community or intermediate community is impacted by a disturbance.
11. Plant species that can germinate and grow with limited resources.
14. A permanently frozen layer on or under Earth's surface.
16. Made up of the parts of Earth where life exists.
17. Major life zone of vegetation composed primarily of cone-bearing needle-leaved or scale-leaved evergreen trees and found in northern circumpolar forested regions characterized by long winters and moderate to high annual precipitation.
19. Any large and extremely dry area of land with sparse vegetation.
20. Happens when a new patch of land is created or exposed for the first time.

1. A patch of land that has been forced to become a desert because mountain ranges blocked all plant-growing and rainy weather.
3. An island's windward side faces the prevailing or trade, winds.
4. Hardy species that are the first to colonize barren environments or previously biodiverse steady-state ecosystems that have been disrupted such as by wildfire.
5. The distance above sea level.
6. A variety of temperate forest 'dominated' by trees that lose their leaves each year.
7. The process by which the mix of species and habitat in an area changes over time.
12. An area classified according to the species that live in that location.
13. The island's leeward side faces away from the wind and is sheltered from prevailing winds by hills and mountains.
15. An area of tall and mostly evergreen trees and a high amount of rainfall.
18. An area in which the vegetation is dominated by a nearly continuous cover of grasses