Key Terms in Geography and Ecology: Definitions

Posted on Jan 10, 2025 in Geology

Key Terms in Geography and Ecology

Macchia: Typical of the Mediterranean vegetation that develops in areas degraded by human pressure.
Evergreen: Vegetation that keeps its leaves year-round.
Pinsapo: A typical plant species, native to Málaga and Cádiz (with African influence), that requires high humidity.
Relict: A plant species that is a remnant of a type that populated an area in the past.
Revegetation: A group of works that aim to regenerate forests that have been exploited or areas where trees have been destroyed or cut.
Rupicolous Vegetation: Vegetation that grows among rocks.
Eurosiberian Vegetation: A region comprising Europe and Siberia. On the Iberian Peninsula, it includes the North Atlantic area, where the vegetation is deciduous forest, heath, and meadows.
Macaronesian Vegetation: A group of plant species typical of the Canaries, Azores, and Madeira, characterized by elements of Mediterranean, Atlantic, and tropical vegetation, along with native species.
Xerophytic Vegetation: A set of vegetation that lives in dry environments, adapting to drought through widespread and deep roots, and fleshy stems.
Xeromorphic: Adaptation of plants to dry (xeric) environments.
Biodiversity: The set of interdependent living beings living in an ecosystem.

Soil Science: The science that studies the soil.
Endogenous: Phenomena produced inside the Earth.
Humus: A component of topsoil, formed by substances resulting from the decomposition of organic matter. It provides nitrogen to the soil and allows it to retain significant amounts of water, contributing to its fertility and conservation.
Soil Profile: The arrangement of soil layers or horizons of different texture, color, and consistency.
Soil: A set of horizons or layers of a ground.
Soil Texture: The proportion of grain sizes that make up the soil.

Aquifer: An underground water table or reservoir, formed by water seepage.
Tributary: A stream flowing into a major waterway.
Waterway: The location where water from a river or stream flows.
Absolute Flow: The amount of water passing in one second through a given point of a river.
Drainage Basin: A set of lands that drain into a main river.
Endorheic: Areas where the water network does not shed its water to the sea, but to the interior (lake, pond) or is lost through evaporation or seepage.
Runoff: The movement of surface water from rain or melting.
River Low Flow: The period during which rivers and streams are at their lowest flow.
Hydrography: The part of physical geography that studies marine and inland waters.
Ibon: A glacial lake in Aragon.
Meander: A curve described by the course of a river due to erosion on the concave side and sedimentation on the convex side.
Rambla: The bed of a dry watercourse typical of Mediterranean areas.
River Regime: Seasonal variations of river flow.
Water Regimes: Values of river flow that express the normal and exceptional flow over a year (abundance, scarcity, irregularity).
River: A natural water current, continuous, more or less copious, flowing into a river, lake, or sea.
Torrent: A watercourse, short, fast, and flashing, that occurs on a slope or hillside.
Peatlands: Soil that is waterlogged with decaying vegetable matter.
Watershed: All the land that drains into a particular sea.