Intro Lecture

Question 1

What is Biodiversity?

Answer 1

the total number and variety of living things in a given area

Question 2

What is ontario’s biodiversity

Answer 2

greater than 100,000 species

Question 3

Abiotic Vs. Biotic

Answer 3

Abiotic: means not living, things like temperature, wind, precipitation, bedrock, Glacial deposits etc.
Biotic: is living things, plants and animals.

Question 4

What is sedimentary rock?

Answer 4

produced from sediments under oceans (and animals in oceans such as corals) mostly younger rock (400-500 million years old)

Question 5

What is limestone?

Answer 5

A common sedimentary rock. Contains calcium (calcium chloride)=basic pH

Question 6

What is igneous?

Answer 6

Produced by magma hardening

Question 7

What is Granite?

Answer 7

Common type of igneous that hardened underground; lots of silicate minerals so acidic pH

Question 8

What is Basalt?

Answer 8

hardened aboveground (volcanic); low in silicate minerals= basic pH. older rock most are 1-3 billion years old.

Question 9

What is metamorphic rock?

Answer 9

made from pre existing rock modified by heat and pressure; maintains chemical and physical properties of its parent rock

Question 10

What is Gneiss?

Answer 10

it is metamorphic rock formed from granite

Question 11

What is marble?

Answer 11

Metamorphic rock formed from limestone, very old limestone so marble is 1-3billion years old. (marble effervesces)

Question 12

What is a calciphile?

Answer 12

an organism that loves calcium

Question 13

What is the test for calcium?

Answer 13

10% hydrochloric acid (HCl) +calcium carbonate (CaCO3) =water (H2O) +
carbon dioxide (CO2)+ calcium chloride (CaCl2).
The CO2 gas and water is why limestone effervesces when HCl is dropped on it.

Question 14

Where is sedimentary rock found?

Answer 14

It is flat, and underlies lowlands

Question 15

Where is Metamorphic and Igneous rock found?

Answer 15

Usually underlie hilly terrains known as highlands

Question 16

What is a physiographic region?

Answer 16

Based on underlying rock type and lay of the land

Question 17

What is an ecological or forest region?

Answer 17

Based on dominant canopy forming trees.

Question 18

Water is a major force that:

Answer 18

Creates habitats, carries, sorts and deposits material by weight and size

Question 19

What had a major effect on Ontario during the ice age (pleistocene)

Answer 19

Glaciers, they depressed the land (rebound=isostatic rebound), removed and deposited materials, meltwater from the receding glaciers created lakes)

Question 20

What are some signs of glaciers?

Answer 20

Striations (scratches on rocks) and erratics (large boulders dropped onto a different bedrock)

Question 21

What are lichens?

Answer 21

symbotic relationship between algae and fungi (or cyanobacteria). Lichens attain all nutrients from the air.

Question 22

What are Crustose lichens?

Answer 22

they colonize bare rocks and are a pioneer species.

Question 23

where do Arboreal lichens grow?

Answer 23

on trees

Question 24

What do mosses and lichens initiate?

Answer 24

succession

Question 25

Where do colonizing species arrive from?

Answer 25

Glacial refugia

Question 26

White birch and poplar are what kind of species?

Answer 26

Shade tolerant pioneer species. under them grow shade tolerant species such as spruces, maples etc. that can eventually form climax forest

Question 27

What is a climax forest?

Answer 27

is a self sustaining and self replacing forest system.