If you appraise something or someone, you consider them carefully and form an opinion about them. [formal] This prompted many employers to appraise their selection and recruitment policies. [VERB noun] Gloria slid an appraising eye over the rest of the rack before reaching for the dress.
(a) Natural ecosystem boundaries occur between a tropical evergreen and riparian forest, and between the riparian forest and the river that it borders. (b) Natural boundaries occur across the gradient from marine to intertidal to foreshore environments near the shore in temperate coastal regions.
Terrestrial ecosystems are characterized by greater temperature fluctuations on both a diurnal and seasonal basis than occur in aquatic ecosystems in similar climates. The availability of light is greater in terrestrial ecosystems than in aquatic ecosystems because the atmosphere is more transparent in land than in water.