Chapter+3+Key+concepts

Permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, is soil, sediment, or rock that remains at or below 0°C for at least two years. It occurs both on land and beneath offshore Arctic continental shelves, and its thickness ranges from less than 1 meter to greater than 1,000 meters. Seasonally frozen ground is near-surface soil that freezes for more than 15 days per year. (uploaded by Zach)

Prairies, also called grasslands, are one of the main types of natural vegetation. Prairies are areas where either low amounts of annual rainfall or uneven seasonal rainfall favor grasses and herbaceous plants over the growth of trees. In some places, they also favor grasslands over other types of vegetation. Therefore, most prairies lie between desert shrub and forest lands. Prairies are found on every continent except Antarctica.

Hypothesises are vital to our scientists finding out how our world works. They use hypothesis' to find out why something does what it does or why it doesnt do what something similar to it does. They use a hypothesis so they know what they are doing in their experiment and what to look for. Without any hypothesis' there would be a considerable decline in scientific discovery.

Climate is affected alot on patterns in the weather. The most famose type of pattern is called El Nino which is a periodic change in the pattern of ocean currents, water temperatures, and weather in the mid-Pacific region. It doesn't occur every year but has become more common these past 25 years. Some things that can happen are the trade winds could e dimish or reverse directions. This can make ocean currents to change. Heavy percepatation can occur during El Nino in North and South America. Also warm winters can cause an issue of flooding in North America. In Southeast Asia and Austraila drough becomes a problem during the El Nino season. The economy can even be effected by El Nino causing people to pay more and more for castastrophes.

Global Warming has become a big issue in politics and our lives. It is believed that we are the cause of global warming. The causes can be from the buring of coal, oil and natural gases. These harsh gases get trapped in our atmosphere causing it to over heat. Scientist predict that this will effect our weather majorly causing more extreme weather that could be hard to live with. It is expected that water will evaporate more easily. Also the warm temperatures will melt the ice caps causing the ocean to rise making the coast line vulnuarable for costal flooding. This problem can lead to costal cities going under water.

Climates have alot to do with elevation and physical features. Mounatin ranges influence weather as well when most of the preciptation is formed on the windward side fo the mountain, that side is facing the wind. After the precipitation is released warmer drier desceds down the mountain on the leeward side. This produces hot dry air with little precipitation on the other side of the mountain. This can form a rain shadow which can lead to the development of desserts and dry areas. Also the higher in elevation you're likely to experience colder temperatures than someone who is in a lower elevation.

climate region: in climate region are made of tropical climate, dry climate, midlatitude climates, high latitude climate and highland climates. The tropical climate are the ones in the areas where the equator areas, the dry climate is made up of desert and steppe which differ from the desert which are not always hot but dry and steppe which got a little vegetation on it. The midlatitude climate has four major temperate climate which are mediterranean, humid subtropical, marine west coast and humid continental. High latitude is the freezing temperatures which include subartic, tundra and ice cap. the last one is highland climate which are found in the mountain.

Latitude: there are three types of latitude which are low, high, and midlatitudes. low lattude are found in 30 degree S and 30 degree N latitude, high latitude are in 60 to 90 degree in either north or south and in the last place the midlatitude are found in between 30 N to 60 N in northern and 30 S to 60 S in the southern areas

Wind and ocean currents: there is wind pattern, the horse latitudes and ocean currents together with weather and the water cycle which includes the El nino