Study Notes for Chapter 3:
The Earth’s Ecosystems
(Green Environmental Science Book)
Chapter 3 Section 1:
Land Biomes
1. _______
Abiotic factors are the nonliving
parts of an environment.
2. ______
Biotic factors are the living parts
of an environment.
3. __________
Coniferous forests have tall
trees full of leaves year-round.
Tropical ____
Rain forests has many
4. _______
trees and receives up to 400 cm of
rainfall per year.
Tropical Rain
5. _______
____ forests have very
poor soil.
6. During the summer, _________
savanna
grasses dry out and turn yellow.
7. A ______
desert is very dry and often very
hot.
8. __________
Permafrost is soil that is always
frozen.
Chapter 3 Section 2:
Marine Ecosystems
1. Water temperature, depth, and
abiotic factors
amount of sunlight are ______
of a marine ecosystem.
2. __________
Plankton are tiny organisms that
float near the surface of the water
and produce their own food.
3. The base of the ocean’s food chains
is formed by ________.
plankton
4. The _______
surface zone has the warmest
temperature.
Intertidal zone is where the
5. The _________
ocean meets the land.
6. Animals living in the _________
intertidal
zone must adapt to crashing waves
and exposure to air.
7. The ________
neritic zone is where the
ocean floor begins to slope
downward, with warm, sunlit water.
8. Coral reefs, Sea turtles, and
dolphins live in the _______
neritic zone.
9. In the _______
oceanic zone the sea floor
drops ________
sharply and contains the
deep water of the open ocean and
animals such as whales and sharks.
10. The _______
benthic zone is the ocean
floor where the deepest parts get no
_______.
sunlight
benthic
11. Animals that live in the ________
sinks from
zone eat material that _____
above.
12. Oceans provide most of the water
for ____________
precipitation on Earth.
Coral_____
reefs are very biologically
13. ____
diverse compared with other marine
ecosystems.
14. An area with nutrient-rich, fastmoving _____-water
from rivers that
fresh
spills into the ocean is called an
estuary
_______.
15. The nutrient-rich waters near
polar ice
_____
___ supports large numbers of
plankton.
Chapter 3 Section 3:
Freshwater Ecosystems
abiotic factor that affects
1. A major _______
freshwater ecosystem is speed of
adapt
water because animals must ______
so they are not washed away.
2. Many plants can grow in the littoral
zone of a lake because ________
sunlight
reaches its bottom.
3. _________
Wetlands are ecosystems that
play an important role in flood
control.
4. _________
Wetlands help replenish
underground water supplies because
water moves deeper in the ground.
marsh is an area near the shore
5. A _______
of a pond with many grasses and no
trees.
swamp is an area with wet soil,
6. A _______
standing water, with willows and
orchids.
7. A ____
lake may become a forest when
sediment over time.
it fills with _________
The End