Ecology and the Biosphere: module 4

Question 1

what is biotic vs abiotic?

Answer 1

biotic: living things
abiotic: non living things

Question 2

what can evolutionary change influence?

Answer 2

the outcome of ecological interactions, and the functioning of the ecosystem as a result

Question 3

why is it hotter near the equator?

Answer 3

more solar radiation per unit area is recieved here, where the suns rays strike the earth perpendicularly

Question 4

what does intense solar radiation near the equator intiate?

Answer 4

global pattern of air circulation and percipitation, and the suns energy causes air to rise at the equator and flow toward the two poles

Question 5

what does air flowing close to the earth surface cause?

Answer 5

predictable global wind patterns, that influence climate

Question 6

What is the coriolis effect?

Answer 6

circulating air is deflected toward the right in the Northern Hemisphere and toward the left in the Southern Hemisphere

Question 7

where does the land move faster? near the poles or equator?

Answer 7

the equator

Question 8

where is the wind from in the temperate zone?

Answer 8

the west

Question 9

what do wind patterns have an effect on?

Answer 9

movement of solar energy and water vapour across terrestrial and aquatic environments

Question 10

what do ocean currents do for land mass geographically?

Answer 10

redistribute solar energy

Question 11

what does the gulf stream carry?

Answer 11

warm water from the equator, explaining why northwestern europe has warm winters

Question 12

why do we have seasons?

Answer 12

• the earth’s exis is tilted at 23.5˚
• half of our orbit, the northern hemisphere, tilts towards and is more directly facing the sun
• the other hald of our orbit, the southern hemisphere, is tiltering towards and is more directly facingthe sun
• this is why we have opposing seasons in the northern vs southern hemispheres

Question 13

how is rainfall mainly subsidized by the oceans?

Answer 13

• 86% of global evaporation occurs from oceans
• 78% of it falls back directly into the ocean
• 10% falls on land
• without this, many terrestrial habitats would be much drier and less habitable

Question 14

what can proximity to water bodies do to climate?

Answer 14

can modify the climate of nearby terrestrial habitats

Question 15

what happens the further away you get from the earth?

Answer 15

• the thinner the atmosphere gets
• since the total heat content of a system is directly related to the amount of matter present
• therefore, it is cooler at higher elevations

Question 16

what is rainshadow?

Answer 16

a patch of land that has been forced to become a desert because mountain ranges blocked all plant-growing, rainy weather.

Question 17

what is a way climate can be affected?

Answer 17

being close to geophysical phenomena, like volcanos and thermal features

Question 18

what is an example of microhabitat variation?

Answer 18

• much cooler and moisture under a canopy of a forest, rather than out in an open and sunny meadow

Question 19

what are species that are not very mobile victims of? what about species that are highly mobile?

Answer 19

• not very mobile: victims of circumstance
• mobile: can move freely between habitats and can exploit different habitats at different times of the day or year

Question 20

why is there no biome in cold moist areas of the earth? also how are biomes seperated?

Answer 20

• biomes are seperared into terrestrial habitats that differ in annual mean temperature and annual mean precipitation
• no biome in cold moist areas, since those places do not exist

Question 21

how has convergent evolution impacted evolutionary lineages of different species, in terms of climate?

Answer 21

• unrelated evolutionary lineages become adapted to very similar habitats on different continents

Question 22

how does global variation in environment generate and maintain biological diversity?

Question 23

how can someone predict how whole biomes might shift their distribution?

Answer 23

• they creates maps to predict where biome turnover is most likely to occur, using a map of temperature change and a map of where various biomes used to exist historically, to the predict the shifts in species that are critical for defining biomes
• lots of this biome turnover depends on woody plants like trees: lots of species depend on certain other factors to survive

Question 24

what does the type of disturbances that happen in an area impact?

Answer 24

the type of habitat and species found in a given area

Question 25

what is fire important for maintaining? provide an example related to serotinous cones.

Answer 25

• important for maintaing open habitats (ex. grasslands)
• prevents the intrusion/takeover of woody plants/forest
• serotinous cones only open to release their seeds, to make pine trees, when they are severly heated
• the supression of fires has caused for the buildup of fuel consisting of dead wood, which causes the hot and extensive forest fires we see

Question 26

where is solar energy aboserbed in, within waters?

Answer 26

surface waters

Question 27

what does variation in light energy within aquatic ecosystems influence?

Answer 27

the capacity of organisms to engage in photosynthesis

Question 28

Describe the different zones of aquatic habitats.

Answer 28

• photic zones: sufficient light for photosynthesis
• aphotic zones: not enough light for photosynthesis
• littoral zone: close to the shore
• pelagic zone: away from the shore, open water
• abyssal zone: bottom of aphotic zone, ocean life at the bottom, has lots of dead bodies of creatures produced in the photic zone that settle here, and some organisms here can tap into chemical energy instead of photosynthesis

Question 29

what is a thermocline?

Answer 29

• in most oceans and lakes
• narrow layer of abrupt temperature change in the water
• seperates the more uniformly warmer upper layers from the more uniformly colder layers
• in tropical oceans there is a strong shallow thermocline, that tends to prevent deeper nutrient rich waters from reaching the surface, but sometimes there are currents that bring it to the surface (up welling) which can be very productive, and can lead to profound changes in marine habitat