BIOL 2060 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Evapotranspiration, Vapor Pressure, Drought Deciduous
6 Dec 2014
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Document Summary
Effect of the abiotic environment on the distribution of organisms september 15, 2014: climate and biome distributions. Curvature of the earth: more solar energy/m2 hits the earth at low latitudes than at high latitudes. Sun"s rays hit higher latitudes at a more oblique angle, and it strikes near the equator at a 90 angle. More solar energy/m2 means higher temperature: warm air can hold more moisture than cold air, temperature affects air circulation patterns. At equator, we have highest amount of moisture in the air. At equator, warm moist air rises, cools, forms clouds, and drops a lot of moisture. Why we get a heavy band of precipitation at equator. There are two other cells: ferrel cell (north) and ferrel cell (south) This explains why canada gets a lot of precipitation. The effect of temp on these cells causes air circulation patterns.
