Anthropocene Flashcards
What is biogeography?
The study of spatial diversity and patterns of life
What are the two divisions of biogeography?
Historical
Ecological
What is historical biogeography?
Distribution of organisms over time and space
What is ecological biogeography?
How distribution is affected by environment and interactions
Give examples of geologically separated species with a common ancestor
Ratites (flightless birds)
Nothofagus (southern beech)
What are the six biogeographic regions?
Nearctic (america)
Palaearctic (Eurasia)
Indomalayan
Neotropical (s America)
Afrotropical (Africa)
Australian
What are biomes?
Ecosystems that are structurally similar that occur under specific climate conditions
What is climate?
Temperature
Precipitation
Evaporation
Humidity
Sunlight
Wind
What does climate vary with?
Latitude ~angle of incidence + movement of air masses and ocean currents
What are the two divisions of biomes?
Terrestrial
Aquatic
What are the subdivisions of aquatic biomes?
Oceans
Fresh water - wetlands (marshes, swamps, seasonal ponds, rich biodiversity), lakes (eutrophic, oligotrophic), rivers & streams, estuaries
What is a eutrophic lake?
Nutrient rich
Lots of algal activity ~ anoxia
What is a oligotrophic lake?
Nutrient poor
Clear water
High O2
Little productivity
How are rivers and streams affected by humans?
Dams, channel straightening
Waste disposal pollution
What are the key features of estuaries?
Transition of freshwater to marine realms
Highly productive
Polluted by river input ie nitrogen
What are the subdivisions of the ocean biome?
Intertidal zones (rich in nutrients, oxygenated, polluted by oil)
Neritic zones (corals, very productive, protect land from storms)
Open ocean (pelagic or benthic, deep sea vents)
What are the eight subdivisions of terrestrial biomes?
Tropical rainforest
Tropical savanna
Desert
Chaparral
Grassland
Temperate deciduous forest
Temperate boreal forest
Arctic and alpine tundra
What are the key characteristics of tropical rainforests?
Equatorial
>200cm precipitation annually
20-25 degrees C (little seasonality)
Very diverse
Infertile soils - nutrients and carbon stored in plant biomass
What are the key characteristics of tropical savanna?
Tropics
25-30 degrees C
50-127cm precipitation
Dry season with <5cm precipitation
Grazing mammals
Grasslands with scattered trees
What are the key characteristics of deserts?
25-40 degrees latitudes
<25cm precipitation annually
Plant adaptation to converse water ie thorny leafs, succulents
Seasonal or sporadic biological activity related to rainfall
Why are deserts so hot and lacking water?
On the down arm of the Hadley cell
What are the key characteristics of chaparral biomes?
32-40 degrees latitude
West side of continents (maritime influence)
35-70cm precipitation annually
Summer drought
Plants resistance to fire and drought
Mainly shrubbery
What are the key characteristics of temperate grassland biomes?
Hot summers (38) and cold winters (-40)
50-90cm precip annually
Grazing animals
Nutrient rich soil therefore now mostly agricultural
What are the key characteristics of temperate deciduous forest biomes?
Moderate climate -30 to 30
Distinct winter frosting
75-150 cm precip annually
Moist summer season
Well developed understory
What are the key characteristics of coniferous boreal forest biomes?
45-60 degrees latitude
Long severe winters and short rainy summers
Mean annual temp 0 degrees
40-100 cm precip mostly snow
Nutrient rich soils
What are the key characteristics of tundra biomes?
Arctic or high mountains
Permafrost underlying tundra vegetation
15-25cm precip annually, ground usually wet (low evaporation, can’t drain)
Severe winters -34 degrees
Treeless, marshy plain
What is an ecocline?
Gradual boundaries between biomes
What happens to biomes during periods of climate change?
Ecocline gradients are squeezed or stretched and biomes shift north or south
What are factors that control the distribution of organisms?
Plate tectonics
Climate
Evolution
Dispersal
Competition
Succession
Disturbance
Human impacts
What is ecology?
The study of the interaction of organisms with their environments (biotic and abiotic factors)
What is an ecosystem?
A geographic area where plants, animals and other organisms interact with each other and weather and landscape
What are the factors of ecological concepts/ecosystems?
Population growth
Competition
Species interactions
Tropic relationships
Diversity
What is the importance of population growth?
Concept of exponential growth is unsustainable
Each population within an ecosystem will have a carry capacity K
What are the factors that influence carry capacity and therefore population size?
Density dependent: limited resources, toxic waste production, infectious diseases, predation, stress, migration
Density independent: extreme climate, natural hazards
What are limiting resources?
Food (in a human sense, resource vs distribution)
Energy
How do infectious diseases impact population?
Increasing population, moving into unexploited habitats, crammed conditions, pollututed air
What predation affects human population?
Conflict over resources ie Ukraine
What causes migration?
Immigration and emigration are responses to stress and conflict
What affects does climate change cause for population?
Severe storms, flooding, drought, wildfire
Reduced resources ie water and food
Loosing of habitat
What causes competition between species?
Shared ecological niche
What is an ecological niche?
The role a species plays in an ecosystem
What allows different species to occupy similar niches in different locations?
Convergent evolution ie mouse vs marsupial mouse
What are the possible outcomes of competition between species?
Extinction of one species
Resource partitioning
Character displacement
What is character displacement?
When two similar species evolve in such a way as to become different form each other by accentuating their initial minor differences
Give an example of resource partitioning?
North American warbler birds
Give an example of character displacement.
Darwin’s finchers in Galápagos Islands
What are the two types of species interactions?
Predator/prey
Symbiotic
What happens biologically in response to predator/prey relationships?
Oscillations in the population sizes of the predator and prey with an offset
Coevokutiom
What is symbiosis?
A biological relationship in which two species live in close proximity and interact regularly in such a way to benefit one or both of the organisms
Give an example of a symbiotic relationship
Oxpecker feeds of ticks, flies and maggots that cling to the hide of African black rhinoceros
What is the hierarchy of trophic systems?
Primary producers ie plants and algae (photosynthesis)
Primary consumers
Secondary consumes
Tertiary somsumers
Why is energy lost through the food web?
Lost as heat, respiration, waste
What is succession?
The gradual alteration of an ecosystem over time (becoming more complex)
What are the distinct processes of classical succession theory?
Nudation - creation of initial bare surface
Migration - seeds or vegative spread
Ecesis- establishment of plants
Competition - for water and space
Reaction - modification of the habitat by vegetation (soil development)
Stabilisation - final climax community include in animals
What can disturbance do to succession?
Whole process may have to start over ie lava
Shift the process back one or several stages I.e. fire
Result in a different succession direction ie mining
Give an example of secondary succession
198p mt St Helens
Krakatoa - all animal life destroyed. 2/3 is,and destroyed. Rapid colonisation succession due to high temp, little seasonality, nutrient cycle, volcanic soils, presence of nearby islands
What is a plagioclimax?
Subclimax state or a human suppressed succession