AP Biology Unit 8: Ecology Questions
and Answers
climate
✓ ~~~The long-term prevailing weather conditions at a given place.
abiotic
✓ ~~~Nonliving; referring to the physical and chemical properties of an environment.
biotic
✓ ~~~Pertaining to the living factors—the organisms—in an environment.
biomes
✓ ~~~Any of the world's major ecosystem types, often classified by temperature and
precipitation
disturbance
✓ ~~~A natural or human-caused event that changes a biological community and usually
removes organisms from it. Disturbances, such as fires and storms, play a pivotal role in
structuring many communities.
thermocline
✓ ~~~A narrow stratum of abrupt temperature change in the ocean and in many temperate-
zone lakes.
dispersal
✓ ~~~The movement of individuals or gametes away from their parent location. This
movement sometimes expands the geographic range of a population or species.
, tropical forest
✓ ~~~A terrestrial biome characterized by relatively high precipitation and temperatures
year-round.
savanna
✓ ~~~A tropical grassland biome with scattered individual trees and large herbivores and
maintained by occasional fires and drought.
desert
✓ ~~~A terrestrial biome characterized by very low precipitation.
chaparral
✓ ~~~A biome characterized by mild, rainy winters and long, hot, dry summers; dominated
by dense, spiny evergreen shrubs
temperate grassland
✓ ~~~A terrestrial biome that exists at midlatitude regions and is dominated by grasses and
forbs.
temperate broadleaf forest
✓ ~~~A biome located throughout midlatitude regions where there is sufficient moisture to
support the growth of large, broadleaf deciduous trees.
northern coniferous forest
✓ ~~~A terrestrial biome characterized by long, cold winters and dominated by cone-bearing
trees.
tundra
and Answers
climate
✓ ~~~The long-term prevailing weather conditions at a given place.
abiotic
✓ ~~~Nonliving; referring to the physical and chemical properties of an environment.
biotic
✓ ~~~Pertaining to the living factors—the organisms—in an environment.
biomes
✓ ~~~Any of the world's major ecosystem types, often classified by temperature and
precipitation
disturbance
✓ ~~~A natural or human-caused event that changes a biological community and usually
removes organisms from it. Disturbances, such as fires and storms, play a pivotal role in
structuring many communities.
thermocline
✓ ~~~A narrow stratum of abrupt temperature change in the ocean and in many temperate-
zone lakes.
dispersal
✓ ~~~The movement of individuals or gametes away from their parent location. This
movement sometimes expands the geographic range of a population or species.
, tropical forest
✓ ~~~A terrestrial biome characterized by relatively high precipitation and temperatures
year-round.
savanna
✓ ~~~A tropical grassland biome with scattered individual trees and large herbivores and
maintained by occasional fires and drought.
desert
✓ ~~~A terrestrial biome characterized by very low precipitation.
chaparral
✓ ~~~A biome characterized by mild, rainy winters and long, hot, dry summers; dominated
by dense, spiny evergreen shrubs
temperate grassland
✓ ~~~A terrestrial biome that exists at midlatitude regions and is dominated by grasses and
forbs.
temperate broadleaf forest
✓ ~~~A biome located throughout midlatitude regions where there is sufficient moisture to
support the growth of large, broadleaf deciduous trees.
northern coniferous forest
✓ ~~~A terrestrial biome characterized by long, cold winters and dominated by cone-bearing
trees.
tundra
