COURSE STUDY GUIDE
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT
ANSWERS 2026/2027
Prarie - ✔✔✔✔-A large area of flat land, or rolling hills covered by
grasses and wild flowers but few trees.
Temperate - ✔✔✔✔-Climate zones with moderate (warm) temperatures that are
located between the tropics and the polar zones.
Permafrost - ✔✔✔✔-A layer of permanently frozen subsoil found in the tundra
Alpine Tundra - ✔✔✔✔-biome at high mountain altitudes, which has
vegetation & climate similar to those of the Arctic tundra
(though no permafrost)
Marine - ✔✔✔✔-Biome that includes open ocean, seashore, and it covers 75%
of the planet. There is a very high salinity level, and a wide variety of animals
Page 1 of 43
,Plankton - ✔✔✔✔-A general term for the tiny, free-floating or weakly
swimming organisms that live in both freshwater and saltwater environments.
Estuary - ✔✔✔✔-An area where fresh water from a river mixes with salt water
from an ocean; are productive ecosystems because they constantly recieve fresh
nutrients from the river and the ocean.
Forest - ✔✔✔✔-Large tree and plant filled area that covers 30% of Earth's land
surface. Provide habitats, maintain soil, air, and water quality, acts as a carbon
sink in biogeochemical cycle.
Intertidal Zone - ✔✔✔✔-Part of the shoreline that is under water at high tide
and exposed to the air at low tide.
Neritic Zone - ✔✔✔✔-Area of ocean that extends from the low-tide line out to
the edge of the continental shelf.
Page 2 of 43
,Benthic Zone - ✔✔✔✔-At the bottom of all aquatic biomes, deep or shallow.
Made up of sand and organic and inorganic sediments.
Oceanic Zone - ✔✔✔✔-All the water the covers the sea floor except for the
continental shelf -water temperature is colder and pressure is greater -strange
looking animals live in the dark deeper areas. (Ex. Giant Squid).
Coral Reef - ✔✔✔✔-A structure of calcite skeletons built up by coral animals
in warm, shallow ocean water.
Open Water Zone - ✔✔✔✔-The zone of a lake or pond that extends from the
littoral zone out across the top of the water, and that is only as deep as light can
reach through the water.
Deep Water Zone - ✔✔✔✔-The zone of a lake or pond below the open water
zone where no light reaches.
Wetland - ✔✔✔✔-An ecosystem in which water either covers the soil or is
present at or near the surface of the soil for at least part of the year.
Page 3 of 43
, Marsh - ✔✔✔✔-A type of wetland featuring grasses, reeds and other
plants in shallow water.
Biome - ✔✔✔✔-A large region characterized by a specific type of climate and
certain types of plant and animal communities.
Savanna - ✔✔✔✔-A tropical / subtropical grassland biome with scattered
individual trees, large herbivores, and three distinct seasons based primarily on
rainfall, maintained by occasional
fires and drought.
Desert - ✔✔✔✔-A region of little vegetation, either cold or hot, that
receives ten inches or less of precipitation each year, long periods without rain,
deserts have extreme temperatures.
Tundra - ✔✔✔✔-Biome that surrounds the north and south poles;
treeless landscape with short, cool summers, and long, very cold winters with
short periods of winter sunlight, beneath the topsoil is a layer of permafrost.
Temperate Deciduous Forest - ✔✔✔✔-Characterized by warm
Page 4 of 43