Chapter 4: Terrestrial Environment Flashcards
What are the four major differences from the aquatic environment?
- water balance
- structure for living on land
- temperature and environmental variability (more variety on land, water holds temp well)
Desiccation:
- living cells are __-__% water
-75-95%
Desiccation:
- terrestrial organisms must protect themselves against ??
water loss
Desiccation:
- Water balance?
- *also what is desiccation
- adaptations to prevent water loss. Must replace water that is lost via eating and drinking for animals, vascular transport for plants.
- *if you’re not in an area very humid you are losing water, so terrestrial animals have to protect themselves from water loss aka desiccation
Describe the photosynthetically active zone on land?
- if you’re a plant you have to be adapted to how much light is actually reaching you i.e. are larger organisms like tree’s blocking some of your exposure to UV? How do you compensate?
Is all light reaching the surface used by plants?
nope
Some light can be ___ depending on the type of light and the type of leaves. Eg?
- reflected
- 6-12% of PAR is reflected by leaves, ~70% of IR and ~3% of UV
- *PAR= Photosynthetically active radiation
There may be a ____ influence on light depending on the composition of the forest.
- seasonal
ie decidious plants
Plant cover can do what with respect to light?
- intercept light depending on the relationship between leaf area and available light.
Attenuation of light is described by?
Beer’s Law
** ALi= e^-LAIixk
What is the medium of plant growth?
soil
Soil controls the fate of what in terrestrial environment
water
Is soil just an abiotic environment?
- no! contains billions of bacteria, fungi and animals (habitat)
How does soil formation begin?
- weathering of rocks
What are some variations in physical characteristics of soil?
- colour, texture (particle size), moisture, depth and methods of soil formation
