BIOL 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Biome, Growing Season, Permafrost
16 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Diversity of organisms found on earth is complex. Unique part of trying to make sense of all this diversity. Talk about tremendous amount of variation field outside ojibway, counted organisms in one square meter, if we all did it no one would end up with the same numbers. Biology of biomes is defined heavily by climate. Winter solstice sun hits earth at 90 degrees on the trop of capricorn. Growing season too short to support trees. Difficult for large autotrophic organisms to feed themselves. So cold, so little movement of water moving to the atmosphere. Permafrost prevents drainage frost that never disappears, even tallest ones are very short, like mosses low precipitation, low evapotranspiration. 30cm down, you will hit rock and soil that is permafrost. Short growing season still allows many migratory birds to breed in the arctic. Breeds in tundra all the way down to antarctica longest distance migrants.
