ES101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Nutrient Cycle, Temperate Deciduous Forest, Polar Desert
Document Summary
Broad patterns of ecosystems can be identified across earth s surface and reflect dominant vegetation cover and related animal populations. Different climates result bc of air and water flowing over unevenly heated plate. Climate: changes land surface, change in temp, air circulation. Terrestrial: regions with characteristic types of natural ecological communities adapted to the climate of each region. Annual precipitation, temperature and soil type are important factors. Biomes are not uniform, consist of mosaic of patches. Desert: little precipitation, vegetation, found in tropical, temperate and polar regions evaporation exceeds precipitation. Found in interiors of continent, far from moisture. Tropical deserts: hot and dry, few plants, sparse. Polar desert: very cold winter and very hot summer. Succulent: have 3 adaptions, no leaves, store water and synthesize food in fleshy tissue, reduce water loss by opening pores only at night. Evergreen: conserve water with wax-coated leaves that minimize evaporation. Some deserts use deep roots to tap into ground water.
