South and Central America key terms

Altiplano image The high tableland of central South America.

Arboreal image The locomotion of animals in trees.

Archipelago image A sea or stretch of water containing many islands.

Basin image A depression, or dip, in the Earth's surface.

Biodiversity image The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

Biome image A biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate.

Chinchilla image Chinchillas are either of two species of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha. They are slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels, and are native to the Andes mountains in South America.

Coastal Plain image A coastal plain is flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast.

Copper image A reddish, extremely ductile metal of Group 11 of the periodic table that is an unusually good conductor of electricity and heat.

Drought image A deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time (usually a season or more), resulting in a water shortage.

Fauna image All of the animal life present in a particular region or time.

Flora image All the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring native plants.

Frost image A thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor to ice as the water vapor reaches the freezing point.

Fungi image Eukaryotic organisms that include microorganisms such as yeasts, moulds and mushrooms.

Grassland image Grasslands are found where there is not enough regular rainfall to support the growth of a forest, but not so little that a desert forms.

Pampas image Fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than 1,200,000 square kilometres and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazil's southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul.

Patagonia image A region encompassing the vast southernmost tip of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile, with the Andes Mountains as its dividing line.

Plateau image A plateau, also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side.

Rainforest image Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire.

Savanna image A mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close.

Thermal inversion image A deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude.

Tributary image A stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean.

Tropical image Any of the geographical zones loosely divided according to prevailing climate and latitude.

Waterfall image A point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops.

Waterfall image Every body of water has a watershed. Watersheds drain rainfall and snowmelt into streams and rivers. These smaller bodies of water flow into larger ones, including lakes, bays, and oceans.