Ecosytems Flashcards
(12 cards)
1
Q
Rainforest structure
A
- Emergents
- Canopy
- Under canopy
- Shrub layer
2
Q
Convectional rainfall
A
- Sun warms up air
- Warm moist air rises
- Moist air condenses
- Clouds form
- Rain falls
3
Q
Nutrient cycle
A
- Plants shed leaves and die
- Animals die
- Decompose - ants, termites, fungi, heat, moisture
- Nutrients taken up by roots.
- Other plants and animals take up nutrients to grow and to eat in order to live.
4
Q
Nutrient cycle
Added or taken away
A
- Surface-run off - out
- Leaching - out
- Rock weathering - in
5
Q
Hydrological cycle
A
- Heavy rain
- The trees intercept and store water through their leaves and through their roots.
- Some water falls to the ground and/or runs into rivers and streams and eventually the sea.
- Lots of water evaporates back into the atmosphere.
- Some used by the trees and some is used by transpiration.
- Condensation and forms clouds.
6
Q
Rubber tapping
A
Gathering rubber natural resource from the trees and doesn’t have an impact on the environment and is sustainable.
7
Q
Logging
A
- Trees being chopped down with a chainsaw
- Many people what mahogany tables and furniture but mahogany trees are rare and the process in not sustainable.
- Roads are cut and 28 other trees are damaged for one mahogany tree.
8
Q
Logging impact on nutient cycle
A
- More surface runoff and leaching.
- Less decomposition so less nutrients in the floor to be uptaken from other trees.
- Less dead matter and nutrients in the ecosystem.
- Trees removed
- Other organisms affected.
9
Q
Logging impact of hydological cycle
A
- Less interception – more run-off, more soil erosion
- Less evaporation and transpiration
- Less rain!
10
Q
Mining
A
The landscape is bare with no trees and the mining destroys the surrounding area and isn’t sustainable.
11
Q
Cattle ranching
A
- Trees get destroyed
- 2000 cattle on 3000 hectares.
- Land not productive
- A way of ‘claiming’ land
- A biggest cause on deforestation.
- Land not very fertile
- Land is taken
12
Q
Farming
A
- Free land offer – 1 million to Amazonia
- Farmers grow coffee, cocoa, corn, rice, fruit – low prices, little profit
- infertile soil ↠ poor harvest
- P&G palm oil – much Indonesian forest removed
- The goverment aren’t doing anything about it are to help to poor farmers.
