Geography Final Exam

Salt-crystal growth

An alcove in sandstone, such as that in the Cliff House at Mesa Verde, is indicative of which weathering process?

Longitude

An angular distance measured east or west of a prime meridian from the center of Earth is termed

Biomagnification

As chemical pesticides move through the trophic pyramid, they may be amplified at each higher level in a process called:

decreases, decreases

As map scale increases, the mapped earth area _____ and the level of generalization ________.

Subtropical highs, Rain Shadow effect, Continentality, and Cool Ocean Currents

Name the four major principals factors that cause dry climates

White sands, great sand dunes, and imperial sand dunes

Name three famous dune fields in the western US

Midlatitude grassland

Of all the natural biomes, this one is most modified by human activity

June 21

When the circle of illumination just touches the Arctic Circle and the South Pole is dark, the date is closest to:

Deposition occurs on the inside of the meander, whereas erosion occurs on the outside

Where do deposition and erosion of material occur along the meander?

In places where more snow falls in the winter that melts away in the summer

Where do glaciers form?

Mediterranean Shrubland

Which biome has woody shrubs and grassy woodlands and is noted for its chaparral or maquis with live and cork oak trees as well as pine and olive trees?

Tropical savanna- southern brazil, the sahel, Mozambique, and nw australia

Which biome is correctly matched with its location?

Ecotone

An _________ is a transition zone between adjoining ecosystems

Restricted

According to the map on the right, the greater roadrunner- NM state bird- has a __________ range within North America

Bajada

Alluvial fans which have expanded and joined over time to form a

Scientific theory

A complex scientific idea that has been failed to be rejected over and over again under many different circumstances is called:

Erratic

A huge boulder resting on a completely different type of bedrock in glacial zones is an

Succession

A natural but variable sequential change in vegetation species composition is termed

Ecosystem

A self-regulating association of living plants and animals and their nonliving physical environment is termed a

Chihuahuan

American something and most average

Cutoff; straighter

As they migrate, meandering streams erode their out outside banks, often forming a narrow neck of land that eventually erodes through and forms a ______ and the stream becomes ______

Great Basin

Big Sagebrush and the coldest

Tropical savanna

Characteristic fauna of this biome include large ungulates, such as giraffe, zebra, buffalo, gazelle, wildebeest, antelope, and rhinos

Snake-primary consumer

Consider a simple food chain in which a grasshopper eats grass, the grasshopper is eaten by a frog, the frog is eaten by a snake, and a burying beetle feeds on the snake after it dies. Which of the following is not correctly matched?

Karst Valley

Continuing dissolution and collapse may lead the coalescing of sinkholes to form a

Surfaces of concentrated pebbles and gravels

Desert pavement refers to:

Erg

Deserts characterized by a surface covering of sand are called

Mediterranean Shrubland

Dry summers and winter precipitation maxima characterize this small biome is located in 5 disparate locations, typically on the west coast of continents between 30 and 40 latitude

Badlands

Dryland rugged terrain of slopes dissected by rills and gullies are known as

Southwestern; extended periods of wet conditions

During the Pleistocence, pluvial lakes formed in the ______ United States as a result of

Hydrothermal

Features characterized by the outpouring or ejection of hot water and hot steam are referred to as

Accurately allows determination of longitude and latitude

GPS

Geysers

Hot springs that periodically erupt hot water and steam into the air are called

Positive

If a system responds to a change in input by moving further away from its equilibrium condition, what type of feedback has occurred?

decreases, deposited

If the velocity of a stream decreases, competence _______ and sediment is__________

Mesquite, juniper, ponderosa pine

If you hiked up the Organ Mountains, you would first encounter ____, then _____, and finally _____.

December solstice

In Las Cruces, NM, this is the shortest day of the year and also the day when the Sun is lowest in the sky

Inselbergs

Isolated, eroded remnants of mountains tops surrounded by an extensive low-relief surface are

Mojave

Joshua Tree and driest

Biomes

Large, stable communities of plants and animals whose boundaries are closely linked to climate and soils are called

map distance, earth distance

Map scale is the ratio of ______ to _____

Differential weathering and erosion

Mesa-and-scarp topography is most closely associated with

Fire suppression in the past allowed forest fuels to build up

People have become more involved in how, where, and why forests change

the sun's angle of incidence

Polar zones receive much less intense insolation than tropical zones because of

Leeward side

Relative to dune movement and form, a dune's slipface forms on which side?

about obtaining information about earth's surface with non-contact sensors

Remote sensing is:

Sonoran

Saguaro and biologically richest

Convection and Conduction

Sensible heat transfer refers to energy transfer between air and the surface by:

V,U

Streams carve _____-shaped valleys and glaciers carve______-shaped valleys

Intermittent

Streams which flow only a part of the year are

Open systems in terms of both energy and matter

Systems encountered in nature at Earth's surface, such as a forest, are

Horst and graben

The Basin and Range Province in the western United States is an example of a

Oblate ellipsoid

The best description of the actual shape of the Earth is an

Stream Rejuvination

The existence of a stream terrace is sure evidence of:

Alluvium

The general term applied to stream-deposited debris is

The testing of ideas through controlled observations and experiments

The key idea behind the scientific method is

20,000 years ago

The last glacial maximum occurred approximately ________ years ago

Terminal moraine

The maximum extent of a glacier is marked by a

Rangelands

The most extensive anthropogenic biome is

Mogote

The most typical landform in tower karts topography is

Saltation

The process in which small particles are moved along by streamflow (or wind) in a series of jumps and bounces is

Deflation

The removal and lifting of individual loose particles by the wind is termed

Biogeography

The study of the distribution of plants and animals, the diverse spatial patterns they create, and the physical and biological processes that produce Earth's species richness is called

Ventifacts

The term used to describe rocks that are pitted, fluted, or polished from eolian erosion is:

Hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere

The three inorganic Earth "spheres" around which our class is designed are the

Saltation

The transport of small sand particles along the ground in a bouncing and skipping actions is known as

Alpine glaciers and continental ice sheets.

The two main types of glaciers are

Biodiversity

The variation of life encompassing species diversity, genetic diversity, and ecosystem diversity is known as

Sinkholes

The weathering of limestone can create circular depressions knows as:

The life zone concept

The zonation of flora and fauna along an altitudinal transect similar to that found along latitudinal transects is known as the:

Light, temperature, precipitation

These three abiotic factors largely explain the distribution of organisms at the global scale.

Artic and Alpine Tundra

This biome is generally located north of the 10 Celsius isotherm for the warmest month, such as the extreme northern areas of NA and Russia

Temperate Rain forest

This biome is typically found in areas with the marine west coast climates, characterized by high precipitation, moderate air temperatures, summer fog, and an overall maritime influence

Deserts

This biome occupies more than one third of the Earth's land area and is characterized by xerophytic vegetation, low precipitation, and high potential evapotranspiration

Tropical seasonal forest and scrub

This biome occurs in equatorial regions with erratic rainfall and typically occur on the margins of tropic rainforests

Boreal and montane forest

This extensive biome stretches from the east coast of Canada to the Canadian Rockies as well as across the entire extent of Russia to the European Plain and at high elevations at lower latitudes.

Glacial fronts remain stationary when melting and snow accumulation are equal

Under what conditions will the front of a glacier remain stationary?

Fumaroles

Vents that emit mixture of steam and other volcanic gases but not moisture are called

Drainage divides

Watersheds are defined by

They are mainly concerned with place names

What is not true of geographers?

Stalagmite

What speleothem forms from groundwater emerging at a cavern roof, drips to the floor, evaporates, and leaving the dissolved materials it contained to accumulate as a deposit attached to the floor of the cavern?

Humid subtropical (hot summer)

Which of the following climate types is associated with the midlatitude broadleaf and mixed forest biome?

Mineral Nutrients

Which of the following is not a biotic component of an ecosystem?

Little seasonal variability

Which of the following is not a reason for the energy deficit in the polar regions?

They have the highest net primary productivity among the terrestrial (nonmarine) biomes

Which of the following statements about tropical rain forests is correct?

Carbonation

Which of the following weathering processes most likely produces Karst landscapes?

GIS

Which of the following would be used for overlay map analysis where two or more map layers are superimposed or integrated?

Habitat is an organism's environment, whereas niche is its way of life

Which statement correctly differentiates between habitat and niche?

Tarns

_______ are small mountain lakes formed in cirques

Nunatak

_________ are exposed, rocky mountain tops not covered with ice in an ice field or glacier

Buttes

___________ are steep-sided landforms resulting from the weathering and mass wasting of mesas