Ecosystems Flashcards
Discribe the location of the worlds tropical rainforests…
Most of the worlds tropical rainforest is located at a low latitude between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Evidence of this is the Amazon rainforest in south America or the congo in Africa or Borneo in Indonesia although and anomaly is the southern tip of Madagascar. All of these are either islands or by the coast.
Why is the rainforest so high in Biodiversity?
The main reason for such high biodiversity is because of the hot humid climate in the rainforest with temperatures between 27°c and 30°c with 12hours of sunlight. This climate consequently causes lots of rain (2000mm a year) mainly due to transpiration. With no seasons this climate is constant and along with the other two factors is perfect for vegetation growth. Although the soil is not very fertile and is shallow, (because the constant rain bleaches and vegetation quickly absorbs it of nutrients) the surface layer is fertile because the humid conditions and bacteria/fungi ect speed up the decomposer of dead matter back into the soil. The vegetation has adapted to the soil and climate such as the having shallow reaching roots to get the thin layer of nutrients so it grows fast and can be eaten by primary consumers who in turn are eaten by omnivores who eventually are eaten by tertiary consumer who will die continuing the cycle. Because of the massive amounts of food/nutrients many species can survive leading to huge biodiversity.
Identify and Explain how vegetation is adapted to suit the rainforest climate… 7
Epiphyte - A non-parasitic plant that lives in the tree without roots. It get nutrients from leaf litter and water from the humid air through hairs beating the competition and being so high means they can easily get sunlight the photosinphisise instead of being at the surface where 2% of sunlight reaches.
Buttress - 10 metre wide roots support the tall tree while gaining hight to reach the sun (to phtotphisies) it can take nutrients from the shallow fertile soil instead of infertile deep soil
Lianas - fast growing vines race to the sunlight not wasting time strengthening but instead coiling ip a already made trunk to the sun the photosinphisies
Drip tip leafs - direct water from the leaf to the roots while preventing water building up on them which could lead to mould growing which would slow down the amount of photosiphsis. This process is vital as their is 2m of rain a year.
Dark large leafs - greater levels of chlorophyll mean the leaf can capture and absorb more light although only 2% reaches the forest floor
Carnivorous plants - due to poor fertilely in the soil plants have learned to take nutrients from insects instead
Waxy jagged leafs - to prevent consumption plants have adapted to make then hard to eat
Explain how global (TNCs and global consumers) and national (debt, population rise, increasing wealth) scales might cause rainforest deforestation…
- Global TNCs like mc Donalds exploit the rainforest’s resources to make large amounts of profit
- A increase in global demand due to population increase means these companies have million of consumers to make this profit with by getting the products cheaply and selling them off cheaply
- Usually increasing populations is due to a low infant mortality rate because of more wealth which means better health care
- Increase in wealth means increase in middle class which means increase disposable income which means in consumerism and more demand for meat, furniture, electricity, cars, ect which feeds into the TNCs
- a lot of the population rise is in developing countries (95%) and 95% of these have rainforests. Such large increase can put pressure on the government which causes dept and this is often payed quickly by exploiting the rainforest for quick money without worrying about the environmental cost.
Explain why 3 factors cause deforestation?
Palm oil - (Borneo) trees are cut to make space for plantations. 6million hectares and planned to be 10million by 2020. Removing biodiversity as their is only one type of tree. Driving animals to extinction
Cattle ranching - (Brazil) space is made for massive ranches. Cutting down trees (co2 absorber) and replacing them with cows which produce methane (which has 21x the green house gas effect of CO2) more space is also cleared by fodder crops like soy beans
Iron mines - (Carajas) cutting trees to access the resources below.the largest iron mine in the world has 3000 people in giant machines including trucks the size of houses at any one time. Once all is mined up they will move on.
Explain how deforestation causes environmental impacts to the climate, atmosphere, soil, biodiversity
- Although the rainforest covers 6% of the worlds surface but 50% of the worlds species live their and without it masses of biodiversity would be lost
- the trees transpire (give off) huge amounts of water through transpiration which helps cloud formation. Without the clouds cover the local climate will become hotter and drier including soil
- due to the hot wet climate, when leaves fall off the tree, they decompose quickly. This gives the soil nutrients. No the trees will cause low fertility soil so nothing can grow.
- trees absorb large levels of carbon dioxide but once they are cut down and burnt they release it back into the atmosphere and can no longer absorb it. This will cause global climates to become more unpredictable with more intense flood events interspersed with drought events because of increased green house effect
Explain 5 ways how deforestation causes social and 2 economic impacts to local and global people?
Social impacts because of defroestion include
- consumers in wealthier countries loosing their rainforest products such as (fruits,sugar, spices, flavourings ect)
- indigenous tribes such as Amero Indians lose their habit and way if life. 50 years ago their were 10mil now there are less than 200,000
- 70% of cancer/leukaemia medicines come from the rainforest. 150 drugs already have ingredients from the rainforest and having only researched 10% of rainforest plants what other cures could be lost
- climate change would mean extreme weather like heat waves in Europe which could be devastating
Economic:
- governments will have to spend more on recovery from extreme weather such as flooding /heat waves.
- consumer in wealthier countries will have to pay more to obtain fruits, sugar, flavourings, ect.
List 5 ways the rainforest can be used sustainably?
Sustainable farming Selective snd sustainable logging Ecotourism Agro forestry National parks Monitoring And conservation swaps
Explain the impacts of deforestation on the nutrient cycle?
- No leaf litter decomposes into the ground so the soil has no nutrients for vegetation
- rainfall still leaches any nutrients that is in the ground away
- the tree stumps have no nutrient so they still can’t grow stopping the cycle
- no interception so the top layer of soil is washed away
What are the short and long term effects of deforestation on the water cycle?
Short term:
- massive decrease in transpiration
- small decrease in clouds
- there is still lots of rainfall
- no trees intercept the rain so lots of water travel to the river by surface run off. Over time along with no trees roots absorbing water this causes the ground to saturate and massive amounts of erosion causing lots of sediment to be deposited in the river. -Because the ground is always saturated their is an increase in flooding
Long term:
- With no shade from trees the ground dries out
- the water is dirtier with more surface run off than normal
- some evaporation but little transpiration occur which means fewer clouds, precipitation and consequentially a drier climate which could mean more fires.
Explain how ecotourism is sustainable socially, economically and environmentally?
Environmentally: Less people will have no other choice but to slash and burn the rainforest. If the economy is based on ecotourism people are less lightly to want to damage it
Socially: it provides locals with jobs (tour guide, ect), so they can earn money sustainably. If the economy is based on ecotourism
local people will be educated on the importance of the rainforest. Tourist can come over.
Economically: it provides income for the government and locals meaning they overall could invest more into the rainforest to make more from ecotourism. This included general tourism as even then they are paying for food accommodation ect.
Explain how conservation swaps are economic, social and environmental?
Economically - the government are getting a reduction in dept to pay to other countries
Socially - more jobs will be created to help preserve the rainforest
- American government can show they are doing their part for the forest which reduce political pressure
Environmentally:
People in developing countries will be able to use preserving the rain forest as a way to make money instead of destroying it. Less dept means a reduction in need to destroy the rainforest to pay it off and instead they can invest in it replenishing and preserving it.
Explain how Afro-forestry are sustainable: socially, economically and environmentally?
Environmentally:
- it maintains the biodiversity of a plot of land
- by combining multiple crops it maximises space usage so more trees can be used meaning less space is needed and more trees would have to be cut
Socially: it provides people with food and work and plant protection from heavy means peace of mind as crops are safer
Economically: it provides products faster so more could potentially be sold
-less money has to be spent using/making more plots
Explain why a variety of approaches to developing the rainforest are needed for it to be sustainable?
Firstly it is variety of factors that cause deforestation and many different mesures must be taken to counter these.
Eg: agro forestry counters slash and burn by growing the trees with the crops instead of destroying them.
Another reason is that for it be sustainable it must be a permeant thing and to get that you need to provide alternatives that don’t have massive draw backs compared to the other non-sustainable tactics. Eg. Like in the Kilum-Ijum society uses agro forestry and selective logging instead of cutting all the trees and to make back any profits in all forms they also run ecotourism which will mean they will go on long term even with population increase ect.
Summary - people need to see change as a better alternative.
