BIOL 1108 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Cool Air, Rain Shadow, Northern Hemisphere
Document Summary
Chapter 48 - biomes and global ecology (review) Broad geographic areas with similar sets of communities. The principal control on earth"s surface temperature is the angle at which solar radiation strikes the surface. Two features of earth as a planet. Surface is tilted at an angle to incoming solar radiation, so there is temperature distribution. The physical features of earth, which also contributes to global temperature patterns. Heat is transported toward the poles by wind and ocean currents. Warm air is less dense than colder air and so it rises through the atmosphere (especially at the equator) As warm air rises, it cools, and once it reaches a certain point, it no longer rises and instead spreads towards the poles, and continues to cool. The cool air then becomes dense enough to sink back to the surface. Earth"s lower atmosphere is organized into cells of rising and falling air masses, and these transport heat from the equator toward the poles.
