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Glite Dictionary
🔬 With mesons 🌱 Moderately moist
mesic

mesic

9.9
Having a moderate amount of moisture, not too wet or dry
  • adjective
  • /ˈmɛzɪk/
  • Specialized
translation icon : mesófilo
  • The park features a variety of plants thriving in mesic areas where moisture is plentiful.
  • mesic ecosystem
  • mesic upland
  • mesic hardwood

Examples

  • More extreme rainfall regimes are expected to increase the duration and severity of soil water stress in mesic ecosystems as intervals between rainfall events increase.

    Academic text (2008)

  • The loss of mesic hardwood forests on the North Carolina coastal plain has attracted little notice.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Because of this, prevention through prescribed burning is most urgently needed on mesic landscapes.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Hysteresis is not as severe in the mesophytic state as on mesic landscapes.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Generally, the more mesic and fertile a system is, the more rapid and steadfast the conversion will be.

    Academic text (2008)

  • The modeling exercise described above was based on a relatively mesic ecosystem, but it can be extended to other ecosystems with very different water balances.

    Academic text (2008)

  • However, the portion of oak-pine forest identified in the 1984 survey on mesic uplands can mature, at least potentially, in a century or so.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The greatest expected distinction in response between mesic and xeric ecosystems may be related to differences in their sensitivity to event size and event frequency.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Festooned with Spanish moss, a live oak grows in a mesic hammock along with saw palmetto.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Species shifts are most rapid on mesic landscapes that have favorable growing conditions (e.g., fertile, deep soils with high water capacity).

    Academic text (2008)

Synonyms

mesophytic
vsmesic
  • Specialized
9.9

Plants that grow in places that are neither very dry nor very wet

is about the presence of a balanced amount of moisture in an area

Antonyms

dry
791 1.0

Not wet or without any liquid

arid
19 4.0

Very dry land or weather with little rain that cannot grow plants

xeric
  • Specialized
1 9.9

Very dry and needing little water, like a desert

hydric
  • Specialized
9.6

Soil or land that is very wet and often flooded

How Moist

soggy
17 1.9
wet
1 1.0
mesic
  • Specialized
9.9
damp
11 1.0
dry
791 1.0

Surface Forms

mesic positive

Morphology

mesic = mes + ic

The ecological sense comes from a Greek combining form meaning 'middle' or 'moderate', which is not a transparent modern English base for most learners.

Etymology

Mesic in ecology comes from the root meso- meaning 'middle', so it describes places with 'moderate' moisture — not very dry and not very wet, which is why we call such habitats mesic.