BIOB50H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Tide Pool, Permafrost, Benthic Zone
13 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
The physical environment ultimately determines where organisms can live, and the resources that are available to them. Thus understanding the physical environment is key to understanding ecological phenomena. Concept: climate is the most fundamental component of the physical environment. Weather: current conditions temperature, precipitation, humidity, cloud cover. Climate: long term description of weather, based on averages and variation measured over decades includes daily and seasonal cycles, as well as yearly and decadal cycles. Climate determines the geographical distribution of organisms. It must be characterized not only by average conditions, but also by its variability over time. Extreme events are particularly important due to their impacts on mortality. These three cells result in the three major climatic zones in each hemisphere - tropical temperate and polar zones. Also determine wind patterns and ocean currents. Concept: large scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns establish global patterns of temperature and precipitation.
