BIOL 226 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Landscape Ecology, Heat Capacity, Herbaceous Plant
3 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Biol226-Ch 52
An Introduction to Ecology and the Biosphere
Ecology: discover how factors like climate and interactions with other species influence the distribution
and abundance of organisms
o Interaction between organism and environment And Distribution and abundance of organisms
Greatest environmental issues of our time ?
o Climate change
Climate: the long-term, prevailing weather conditions in a given area.
4 physical factors of climate :
o Temperature
o Precipitation
o Sunlight
o Wind
hierarchical scales of ecology
1. Global ecology:
Biosphere : global ecosystem , sum of all the planet's ecosystem and landscape
2. Landscape ecology
Mosaic of connected ecosystems
3. Ecosystem ecology
Ecosystem: community of organisms in an area and the physical factors with which those
organisms interact
4. Community ecology
Community: group of population of different species in an area
5. Population ecology
Population: group of individuals of the same species living in the same area
6. Organismal ecology
Include subdisciplines of physiological, evolutionary and behavioural ecology is concerned how
an organism's structure physiology and behaviour meet the challenges posed by
environment
Global climate pattern;
Determined by : solar input and earth's movement
o Factors:
latitude
Seasonal
Wind & percipitation
Latitudinal Variation in Sunlight Intensity
o Warm at equator warm in the poles
o Earth’s curved shape causes latitudinal variation in the intensity of sunlight
o Because sunlight strikes the tropics most directly
o At higher latitudes, sunlight strikes Earth at an lower angle, and thus the light energy is more
diffuse on Earth’s surface.
Wind & percipitation
o Cold air denser
o Air cools as it rises
o Warm air more moisture
o Constantly in motion
Deserts ; 30 latitude
in tropics we have less seasonal variation
Bodies of water
o Water reflects more radiation
o Heats up more slowly and cools more slowly
o Higher specific heat
o Moderating influence of water
o Limited to coast
o Ocean winds;
Onshore; blow from body of water to land and are moist
Offshore: blow from the land towards sea and are dry
Biomes: major life zones characterized by vegetation type (in terrestrial biomes) or by the physical
environment (in aquatic biomes)
Ecotone: the area of intergradation between biomes which may be wide or narrow
Disturbance and Terrestrial biomes
By climate & latitude
Tropical forest
Distribution
o Equatorial and subequatorial regions
Precipitation
o Constant or highly seasonal
Temperature
o High year-round,
o little seasonal variation
Human Impact
o Rapid population growth leading to agriculture and development is now destroying many tropical
forests.
Desert
Distribution
o occur in bands near 30° north and south latitude
Precipitation
o Precipitation is low and highly variable
Temperature
Document Summary
Ecology: discover how factors like climate and interactions with other species influence the distribution and abundance of organisms. Interaction between organism and environment and distribution and abundance of organisms. Greatest environmental issues of our time : climate change. Climate: the long-term, prevailing weather conditions in a given area. 4 physical factors of climate : temperature, precipitation, sunlight, wind. Hierarchical scales of ecology: global ecology: Biosphere : global ecosystem , sum of all the planet"s ecosystem and landscape: landscape ecology. Mosaic of connected ecosystems: ecosystem ecology. Ecosystem: community of organisms in an area and the physical factors with which those organisms interact: community ecology. Community: group of population of different species in an area: population ecology. Population: group of individuals of the same species living in the same area: organismal ecology. Include subdisciplines of physiological, evolutionary and behavioural ecology is concerned how an organism"s structure physiology and behaviour meet the challenges posed by environment.
