Ecosystem and Environmental Interactions

Question 1

Name three types of plant distirbutions and how they are distributed

Answer 1

Cosmopolitan = occurs almost everywhere

Maritime = costal distribution

Complementary

Question 2

What are some plants with these distributions?

Answer 2

Comopolitan = Daisy

Maritime = Sea sandwort

Complementary = Crowberry and dogwood

Question 3

What three factors control plant distribution?

Answer 3

Climatic

Physiographic (landscape)

Edaphic (soil)

Question 4

What do climatic factors include?

Answer 4

Temperature, rainfall, light, wind, humidity

Question 5

What determins physiographic factors?

Answer 5

Landform of the landscape and include altitude and aspect

Question 6

How do altitude and aspect effect landform?

Answer 6

Altitude = the lapse rate (-6.5C for each increase of 1000m)

Aspect = slope direction influences irradiance received e.g. south facing side would get more sun

Question 7

What are functional features of edaphic factors?

Answer 7

Rooting medium

Source of water

Source of nutrients

Provides conditions and resources

Question 8

How does pH effect nutrient availability?

Answer 8

Increasing acidity causes a decrease in nutrient availability

Some nutrients/ions become their toxic forms in low pH

Neutral tends to be the best for nutrient availability

Question 9

What are the factors of plant resources?

Answer 9

Commodities consumed by plants

Essential for growth

Different species have different capacities to use a particular level of resoruce supply

Insufficent resources = poor growth

Excess resources does not always mean increased growth - may even be detrimental

Question 10

What are the factors of plant conditions?

Answer 10

Environmental variables to which plants respond

Not consumed

Some may help regulate resource availability e.g. pH

Question 11

Give an exmaple of a resource and a condition for plants

Answer 11

Resource = CO2

Condition = Light

Question 12

What describes the global biome distribution?

Answer 12

Temperature and precipitation

Question 13

How do global biome distribution factors effect biodiversity?

Answer 13

Increased rainfall and temperature causes an increase in biodiversity

Question 14

What biomes are most and least diverse/distributed

Answer 14

Most diverse = tropical rainforest

Least diverse = tundra

Question 15

How are biomass and productivity related?

Answer 15

Weight of biomass = productivity

Question 16

What happens to biodiversity in very productive areas?

Answer 16

Decrease in biodiversity as more aggressive species out-compete the less aggressive ones and become dominant

Question 17

What happens to biodiversity in low productive areas?

Answer 17

Decrease in biodiversity as there are less resources/nutrients available

Only the species well-adapted will win out