BIO120H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Soil, Atmospheric Circulation, Herbivore
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BIO120H1 Full Course Notes
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Lecture 13: species ranges and limiting factors; climate. Model organisms vs. broad comparative biology: differences and similarities are important. Nocturnal insect sampling: put up a white sheet with a light behind it and wait for moths to accumulate. Abiotic factors: resources and conditions: resources are exhaustible: nutrients, space, etc, conditions are not exhaustible: temperature, ph, salinity, etc, conditions vary across space and time; we envision gradients of conditions. Organisms perform best at certain levels (at certain portions of a gradient) Nutrients (n most important, then p, k) Herbivory, disease, pollinators, seed dispersers, mycorrhizal fungi. Add salinity, remove moisture and fire, p key. So, animals will tend to follow plants: temperature: mostly a function of latitude. Higher latitudes = colder; seasonality a function of temperature (summer- winter) Lower latitudes = warmer; seasonality a function of rainfall (dry season-wet season) Rainfall mostly depends on atmospheric circulation, offshore ocean currents, rain shadows. Differe(cid:374)tial heati(cid:374)g dri(cid:448)es the earth"s at(cid:373)ospheric heat engine.
