Ecol 316
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- What is a biome
- large scale communities generally defined by plant assemblages
- Why study climatic patterns
- to understand environmental factors on animals, determine parameters which survival is possible
- What happens to survival rates when optima goes down
- They are lower
- What are two major abiotic factors effecting community classification
- water and tempature
- Tempature is largley dependent on
- avaliable light tempature increaesd speed of chemical reactions physological rates as it increaeses
- Precipitation is dependent on
- is dependent on available water
- Tempature and precipitation are the limiting factors in what
- plant growth
- Tempature and moisture are determined by four factors what are they
-
1.) solar radiation
2.) Air/wind circulation
3.) Land masses
4.) Ocean currents - What happens with solar radiation at 0 degrees
- more then 2X the difference between polar regions and the equator
- What are the reasons for the radiation difference 3
-
1.) Angle of incidence changes and delutes the light angle wavelengths of light hitting serfice of earth comming streight down at the equator and spread a short distance.
2.) More atmosphere and more particles for light to travel through
tilt and rotation of the earth - what happens to survival rates as optima goes down
- lower as optima goes down.
- What are two major abiotic factors effecting community classifiaction
- Two major abiotic factors affecting community classification: water & temperature
- What is tempature largley dependedent on
- dependent on available light – temperature increased speed of chemical reactions/physiological rates as it increases
- Tempature and precipitation are limiting facors to what
- limiting factors for plant growth
- tempature moisture primarly determined by
-
1. Solar radiation
2. Air/Wind circulation
3. Land Masses
4. Ocean currents - Explain how solar radiation varies with latitude 3 reasons for this
-
Reasons for difference:
1. Angle of incidence changes and dilutes light, Angle wavelengths of light hitting surface of earth – coming straight down at equator and spread over shorter distance
2. More atmosphere and particles for light to travel through
3. Tilt/rotation of earth ïƒ seasonality - Explain sunrise and sun set
-
ïƒ red, yellow, orange in the sky, particles reflect light, absorb only certain wavelengths – red: longest wavelengths
R O Y G B I V: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet --colors of rainbow
dust at horizon filter out short wavelengths - Explain tilt rotation in northern hemisphere
- Northern Hemisphere: summer has solar equator, winter on dark side of earth a lot more/longer nights
- solar radiation equates with
- equates with temperature
- What happens to air near the equater
- heats quickly – hot air rises, differential air at earth’s surface – as air moves up, it displaces other air
- Explain convection cells
- circular pattern from air rising winds on surface are calm, air cools then sinks to earth’s surface, predictable
- convection cells equal what
- Hadley cells
- what are the names of the cells at 30 60 and 90 degrees
- 90° (Polar) 60° (Ferrel) 30° (Hadley) 0° (Hadley) 30° (Ferrel) 60° (Polar) 90°
- What is the primary movement of air at 0 30 and 60 degrees
- Primary movement at 0°, 30°, 60° is upward – more wind between these
- whats a doldrum
- Doldrum – Tropical upwelling of air, no movement while sailing, no vertical air flow
- whats the hoarse latitudes
- Horse latitudes – Boats couldn’t move through doldrums, had to dump horses overboard to lighted the boat
- what is the speed at the equator
- Relative speed on equator 25,000 mi/day, 1000mph
- what is the speed at the north pole
- North Pole 0 mi/day, 0mph
- Hows does the air move in the northern hemisphere
- Northern Hemisphere – northern air moving fast relative to slow earth
- how does air move in the southern hemisphire
- southern moves slow relative to fast earth)
- Explain why hot air is better than cool air
- Hot air holds more moisture, vertical flow of air changes amount of moisture being held –lots of rain, ideal vegetation
- what happens to ocean currents dragged by wind
- circular flow in the ocean
- what way are the ocean currents going in the northern hemesphire
- – N. Hemisphere: clockwise
- what way are the ocean currents going in the southern hemesphire
- S. Hemisphere: counterclockwise
- The oceans in the western U.S. tend to be
- cold water
- The oceans in the eastern U.S. tend to be
- Eastern US gets warm water
- Winds moving in different directions at the equatorial lines cause
- Winds moving in different directions at equatorial lines cause circular movement in the ocean
- What happens to air preasure as you move up in latitude
- Air pressure decreases as you move higher – less atmosphere pressing down, air expands
- what happens to air preasure as you move down in latitude
- Air compresses as you move down – more heat/molecular motion
- what is bends
- Bends – little bubbles become larger in body if coming up from the ocean too fast
- what does air do as it rises
- Air cools as it rises, expands, less molecular movement, less motion = less heat
- Whats adiabiotic cooling
- Adiabatic cooling – passive cooling due to expansion of warm air without loss of total heat content, as air rises
- What is adibiatic heating
- Adiabatic heating – passive heating due to compression of cool air – down welling of air
- whats the adiabatic lapse rate
-
Adiabatic lapse rate – rate at which air in a closed system closes
dry air: 10° C/km of altitude, wet air: 6° C/km of altitude
*moisture holds energy - Whats hopkins bioclamatic law
-
Hopkins Bioclimatic Law – cooling is similar between altitude and latitude
Altitude: cools 3° F/1000ft
Latitude: cools 3° F/100mi (100 mi away from equator) - hotter air holds more
- moisture, can’t hold moisture as it cools
- In the northern hemesphire the west side is
- West side of continent –cooler in N. Hemisphere
- Ocean currents move counterclockwise in S. Hemesphire
- Ocean currents move counterclockwise in S. Hemisphere – mountains & coastal environment, rain shadow effect
- Whats Maritime
- Maritime – buffer for air change with moist air and ocean
- Water has a high specific heat explain
- Water has high specific heat – amount of heat energy to change a degree in temperature
- explain tempature on east coast
- Lots of moisture in air – temp doesn’t change quickly (humid back east at night – doesn’t vary in temperature much between day and night)
- Explain rain shadow effect
-
Rain Shadow Effect – air forced up mountain, cools
winds from ocean ïƒ across central valley ïƒ up foothills ïƒ adiabatic cooling up the mountain causing rain ïƒ wind goes over crest of mountain causing adiabatic heating ïƒ moves down great basin on other side of mountain – relatively dry air, air compressing as it moves down the mountain, heats up - What are the determinants of the aquatic enviornment
-
1. Light
2. Temperature
3. Oxygen
4. Pressure (as you move down in depth) - what is the littoral zone
- Littoral zone – rich in nutrients – runoff from land, tide pools, a lot of life
- What is the neritic zone
- Neritic zone – light energy, a lot of life, chemical reactions faster, repro/photosynthesis faster
- What is the benthos
- Benthos – detritus, bottom region
- Why are coral reefs good
- Coral reefs – one of richest ecosystems, light dependent
- Whats the oceanic zone
- Oceanic zone – open water
- What are brackish systems
- Brackish systems – fresh/salt water mix, fresh water dumps into marine system, shallow, muddy
- whats Lotic
- flowing aquatic environment, springs, streams, rivers
- whats lentic
- Lentic – Non-flowing aquatic environment, ponds, lakes, wetlands
- whats a 1st order stream
- 1st order – small headwater stream without tributary
- whats a second order stream
- 2nd order – two 1st order streams join
- whats a third order stream
- 3rd order – two 2nd orders join
- To increase in order a stream must
-
To increase in order, a stream must be joined by a stream of the same kind
one 1st order and one 2nd order = 2nd order stream - Whats Hypolimnion- tropholytic
- below compensation point, have to break things down – not a lot of photosynthesis, use of oxygen great, production of oxygen poor
- what happens in the winter to a body of water
- detrital accumulation, many things die, fall to bottom, rich nutrients
- What happens to water in the spring?
- turnover –water, nutrients, explosion of life, organic richness
- What happens to water in the summer
- Oxygen down, stagnate, thermocline
- whats abiotic factors
- temperature, pH, humidity, salinity, sunlight, other than living organisms
- whats biotic factors
- by living organisms, competition, predation, disease
- Whats a niche
- Niches – what an organism does, Grinnell (1917) coined term, actively measured it
- whats a fundimental niche
- Fundamental niche – abiotic influences only, idealized or theoretical, based on tolerances
- whats a realized niche
- Realized niche – determined by both abiotic and biotic factors, actual, real-life situation
- whats natural selection
- Natural selection – position/status of an organism within a community and ecosystem from organism’s structural adaptations, physiological responses and specific behavior (inherited and/or learned), force that shapes niche, differential reproduction of an individual that differs by one or more genetic trait(s), based on reproduction – surviving without reproduction is not natural selection
- whats eveloution
- Evolution – genetic change over time
- whats adaptation
- Adaptation – genetic change that improves function
- whats fitness
- pass on maximum number of genes to next generation
- whats artifical selection
- Artificial selection – one species of dogs, horses, cattle, humans –choose certain traits, fruits/vegetables, breed of dog, etc.
- whats natural selection example
- Natural selection – peppered moth example, warfarin resistance in rats, bacterial resistance to medicine
- In order for natural selection to occur you must have
-
Natural selection:
Variation
Heritable
Differential reproduction - whats industrial melanism
- Industrial melanism – peppered moth (Biston betularia), Bacterial resistance to medicine, warfarin (poison to kill) resistance in rats
- Whats Darwin's fitness
- – pass on as many genes in a lifetime, measure of total young produced per year, find individual with most young, use as denominator for measure to define fitness – ex. 14 young/14 = 1.0, 11young/14 = .8
- Explain ring species
- distribution circular around some feature that is a barrier, along the way adjacent populations can breed but end populations can no longer interbreed, change in morphology, greater genetic distance (Change in habitat, moisture tolerance, color patterns may be camouflage from predators)
- Human population had greatest impacts in
-
– greatest impacts in natural resources – technological advances, hunting, fire, agriculture, human lineage 2-6 million years, rate of advancement
Earth 4-8 billion years old - Mammalian Megafauna extinction 3 causes
- Mammalian megafauna extinctions – large mammals extinction correlates with humans
- Problems with water
-
limited –decrease loss, avoiding desiccation, increasing gain of water
too much – decrease gain, increase loss of water - 67% of the earths surface is covered in what
- water
- Hydration spheres density is
- hydration spheres, density greatest about 4°C, high specific heat
- Oxyogen
- high electro-negativity, holds more electrons
- hydrogen bonds form when
- form as H2O molecules stick together
- Why don't lakes freeze in the winter
- lakes don’t completely freeze, ice floats and insulates lakes below, density causes water to sink
- Whats specific heat
- Specific heat - amount of energy required to change something
- Whats high specific heat
- High specific heat – keeps land masses warm, less fluctuation
- whats biomass
- Biomass – standing crop of an organism, how many trees, how many grams, how much grass, greatest biomass of salamanders is in Appelation Mountains
- Whats GPP
- Gross Primary Production (GPP) – amount of energy fixed in photosynthesis
- whats NPP
-
Net Primary Production (NPP) – energy fixed from energy coming in but some is lost – lost in maintaining the plant, not all in energy production, remainder is fixed into plant tissues, what is captured by photosensitive pigments
NPP = (B1 + B0) + L + G (L = loss by death of plants, G = biomass lost to consumers) - Most energy comes in at the
- - most energy comes in at equator
- Light captured by several
- light captured by several organisms NPP
- Most light is lost when
- - most lost – atmosphere, reflects from plant
- What is the percent in converting energy
- - 38-40% efficiency in converting energy
- tropical rainforest system are
- Tropical rainforests – most productive system
- swamps and marshes are
- Swamps/Marshes – incredibly productive, wetlands
- upwelling zones are
- Upwelling zones – massive amounts of nutrients from benthos
- algal beds are
- Algal beds and reefs – shallow, warm
- estuaries are
- Estuaries – very productive
- whats a Poikilotherm
- Poikilotherm – body temperature fluctuates with environment
- Whats a Homeotherm
- Homeotherm – body temperature held constant across range of environmental temperatures
- Whats an Ectotherm
- Ectotherm – majority of body heat derived from environment
- Whats a endotherm
- Endotherm – majority of body heat from own metabolism
- Whats a heterotherm
- Heterotherm – animals that are facultatively endothermic homeotherms able to generate some heat internally, dinosaurs generate or maintain heat and not enough body surface to disperse heat, also tuna, swordfish, crocodiles
- why would you want to move to land
- moving onto land – resources available, less competitors, plants move to land then herbivores