Section B: The Living World 🌁 Flashcards
What is the climate like in polar regions?
Below freezing point -40•c
What is the climate like in tundra ?
Warm months only reach max of 10•c
What is the precipitation like in the tundra and polar regions ?
Low 100mm (less than )
How well are seasons defined in the polar and tundra regions?
Well defines cold summers and even colder winters
What covers the soil in the polar?
Ice sheets so no soil is exposed
What is the tundra soil like?
Thin acidic and infertile
What is beneath the thin tundra soil?
Permafrost
What is trapped in permafrost in the soil?
Green house gases
What plants are fount in the polar regions ?
Mosses - grow on rocks and grasses
What plants grow in the tundra ?
Hardy shrubs - grow short in warmer areas
What is the polar area mostly?
Uninhabited but has a few scientists doing work
Who lives in the tundra?
Indigenous people and oil /gas workers
What type of ecosystem is the polar regions ?
Fragile and interdependent - each thing relies on one another
What do cold environments cause plants to do? How does it limit plant growth ?
Decompose slowly so plant cover is low meaning there are low nutrients in the soil limiting plant growth
What does the low decomposition of plants cause herbivores and carnivores to do ?
The low plant cover mean is that herbivores have to migrate where plants grow quicker
This causes carnivores to follow
What do plants do to protect permafrost from melting in the tundra in the summer?
When it’s sunny in the tundra the surface cover of plants absorb the sunlight
preventing the permafrost form thawing and releasing greenhouse gases,
decreasing the rate of climate change and
keeping the plants constant water source
How could one knock in effect effect the cold environment?
If humans trample on the surface plants , this may leave some soil exposed to the sun , thawing the permafrost
Greenhouse gasses being released into the atmosphere- climate change
This leads to the soil becoming saturated and being unable to grow plants
Leading to herbivores having to migrate to avoid starvation
Give examples of animals in polar regions
Polar bears 🐻❄️
penguins 🐧
Reindeer
What happens ms to the soil in the tundra on a wet summer?
Soil becomes waterlogged
How do plants adapt to the harsh cold environment? 5)
Plants become donate (inactive ) to survive the cold
Plants grow low and are round shaped to be protected form the wind
Plants have shallow roots because of permafrost
Leaves are small to limit amount of water lost during transpiration
Reproduce using underground runners because of short growing season
How have animals adapted for the harsh cold environment?
- Insulated fur - reduces amount of energy needed to keep warm
- Animal hibernate to conserve energy
- Animals have white fur to camouflage from predators
- Adapted on low food sources
What level of biodiversity does cold environments have ?
Low
What has global warming caused animals in the cold regions to do ?
To live toward the poles where it’s colder and they have adapted for cold environments . Those who have adapted cannot go anywhere so they risk extinction
What continent is Alaska part of ?
USA
Where is the north of Alaska found ?
In the Artic circle
What are the opportunities found in Alaska ? 4)
- Oil and gas - over half of Alaskas income comes from here . Oil field are found in Prudhoe bay and transported through the trans-Alaskan oil pipe line to be shipped to customers
- Minerals - gold silver found in Tintina gold belt - $150 mill
- Fishing 🎣 1.7 bill 30000 fishermen
- Tourism 2 mill people
how does inaccessibility challenge to development in Alaska ?
Inaccessibility- remote mountainous terrain - difficult from people to get to jobs and develop
Have to use air transport
Remote- far from unemployment
How does external temperature challenge development in Alaska?
Unsafe to work in
Daylight hours vary
80 days of uninterrupted light
67 - darkness
How do buildings and infrastructure effect development in Alaska ? How can we overcome this ?
Building having to cope with hard then soft ground is difficult and expensive
Most construction can only take place in summer when it’s warmer and brighter
Value of resources gives enough funds to invest in gravel beds and stilts for the trans-Alaskan pipe line to stop the melting of permafrost- less unstable ground
What is the climate in a tropical forest 🌳?
It’s the same all year round there is no define seasons
it’s hot between 20 and 28°C
Why is the tropical rainforest in warm?
The Sun’s energy is more intense near the equator as its overhead all around
What’s the rainfall like in the rainforest?
It’s high it rains every day and it’s 2000 mm
What are plants like in the rainforest?
The Evergreen mean they keep their leads all year round this allows them to take advantage of the continuous growing season
Trees are too and visitation is very dense because very little light reaches the floor
there’s lots of epiphytes (which are plants 🌱 that grow on other plants to take its nutrients and water from the air) like orchards
What is the soil like in the rainforest?
Not very fertile as heavy rain for washes the nutrients away
surface nutrients occur when small the one leaves fall onto the ground and delay
the layer is very thin and Decay is fast in warm and moist conditions
What kind of animals are found in the rainforest?
A has the largest biodiversity in the world and consist of
frogs 🐸
Jaguars 🐆
anacondas 🐍
What people live in the rainforest and what do they do?
The indigenous people live there and they hunt
and gathering nuts and berries and grow vegetables in small garden plots
What is biodiversity?
A variety of organisms living in a certain area both plants and animals
What kind of environments are rainforests? why?
Stable and productive
as it’s hot and wet all the time
and animals don’t have to change with conditions because there’s plenty to eat
What have organisms in rainforests evolved to do?
to depend less and fewer species as they are specific to a particular habitat or food
What kind of ecosystem is the rainforest?
Interdependent meaning that everything is dependent on each other and if one of them gets affected everything else gets affected
Give an example of an interdependent relationship in the rainforest
The woman wet climates fungi bacteria on the first floor to decompose the plant material up of it does make the surface soil more fertile meaning that plants can go easily
Plants pass on their nutrients to animals when they are eaten the dense vegetation provides lots of food so animal populations are high when animals die their nutrients are transferred back into the soil making it richer encouraging lots of vegetation this is part of the nutrient cycle

Explain the symbiotic relationships in the rainforest
The agouti rat is the only rid of that can crack open a nut and bury the seed inside
this insures that plants are grown enabling more animals to eat and reproduce increasing the biodiversity in
the rainforest and giving nut pickers more jobs
Explain the symbiotic relationship between cecropia trees and ants
have hollow stems to produce energy rich food stuff and the base of the leaves this makes ants want to live under
which relies on the food and shelter answer them fight off insects that feed of the tree
and attacked lianas which compete with the cecropia for sunlight
How are humans interfering with ecosystems in the rainforest?
Trees intercept water and release it back into the atmosphere allowing clouds to form and give rain water for plants to grow
however deforestation decreases this chance and May lead to drought
also decreases the coverage of the surface nutrients washing away the nutrients decreasing the fertility of the soil
How long is River Clyde?
160km - Flows through Scotland
What is River Clyde’s mouth?
An estuary 
