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Y2 Climate Change Science > Terrestrial Ecosystems > Flashcards

Terrestrial Ecosystems Flashcards

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1
Q

Climate change is predicted to be a strong stressor on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystem
What are some examples of impacts on species?

A
  • Shift in species ranges
  • Many species will not be able to track their favoured climatic condition
  • Reduced population vigour and variability
  • Increasing numbers of invasive species
  • Rapidly increasing extinction rates
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2
Q

What two big changes to climate are we expecting to see in the near future at high latitudes, due to climate change?

A
  • Warmer at high latitudes
  • More rainfall at high latitudes
  • In particular for the winter
  • (winter (top), summer (bottom))
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3
Q

How is rainfall expected to change in the tropics and sub-tropics due to climate change?

A
  • Expected to increase in the tropics
  • Expecred to decrease in the sub-tropics
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4
Q

What are Biomes and how are they controlled?

A
  • Biomes are large scale dominant vegetation/functional types
  • Biomes are controlled by climate i.e. temperature and precipitation
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5
Q

What is the risk to biomes due to climate change?

A
  • Habitat loss or displacement of species
  • Endangered survival of the associated species
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6
Q

Current the UK has a mean annual rainfall of ~150-200 cm and temperature of ~10 °C
Hence the natural biome is temperature deciduous forest
How could climate change affect this?

A
  • Climate change is expected to reduce precipitation levels
  • Mean temperature is also expected to decrease
  • Push our biome into the Boreal forest
  • Resulting in the vegetation community on land to change and hence other species within that area
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7
Q

What 3 factors can affect adaptive ability?

A
  • Individual
  • Genetic
  • Mobility
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8
Q

For a specis to establish within a new area, they must…

A
  • Colonise new areas
  • where they maintain reproductively viable populations
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9
Q

Why may new habitats open up?

A

Because of abiotic and biotic environmental change

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10
Q

What is an extinction?

A
  • Eliminates a species from all or part of its geographic range
  • Extinction occurs when large numbers of individuals from a species are killed by biotic interactions or abiotic environmental change
  • Limited extinctions within sub-regions of a species’ range are common
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11
Q

What is a dispersal and some reasons behind it?

A
  • A dispersal can be defined as the movement of individuals away from others of the same species
  • To find new habitat rich in resources
  • Or evade competition influence of parent/siblings and other species
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12
Q

What is resilience/tolerance range?

A
  • Species are limited in at least parts of their geographic range by abiotic factors: temp, moisture, nutrient availability, soil nutrients
  • All species have specific limits of tolerance to physical factors that directly affect their survival or reproductive success
  • The portion of the abiotic factor’s range of variation which a species can survive is the tolerance range
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13
Q

The level within the tolerance range at which a species or population can function most efficiently is termed the….

A

…optimum

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14
Q

A species can adapt on two different scales being…

A

1) Individuals change their physiology to fit into its environment - acclimatisation BUT is limited and not passed onto offspring
2) A group of individuals can produce offspring which are better suited to some set of environmental conditions - species adaptation as an inherited trait

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15
Q

What it the key difference between past and present climate change?

A
  • The rate of climate change is a lot more rapid now
  • But also even relatively small changes of ~2 °C can still have huge impacts
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16
Q

Climate has varied through time as a response to…

A
  • Volcanic activity
  • Releases of gas hydrates (methane)
  • Solar forcing
17
Q

Why is the current rate of climate change so concerning

A

Recent measured and predicted climate warming is occuring rapidly compared to previous changes giving eocystems limited time to adapt/migrate

18
Q

What is an Ecotone?

A
  • The transition area between two biological communities, where two communities interact
  • It has some of the characteristics of each bordering biological community and often contains species not found in the overlapping communities
  • They are good indicators of climatic change
19
Q

What can be the issue with Ecotones?

A

The overlapping environments, mean that some species can colonise and outcompete the previous existing species

20
Q

What can limited the expansion of tree-lines in alpine environments

A
  • Moisture availability, particularly during seedling establishment
  • Permafrost can limited tree-line expansion especially on northern slopes
  • Available sites for germination
  • High slope angles
21
Q

Some key affects of climte change on habitats have been:
- Ealier ice-free
- Later freeze dates in lakes and streams
- Earlier breeding/flowing times
- Shifts to higher elevations/latitudes
What impacts can this have on species?

A
  • Population densities-migration (biodiversity loss which could affect the whole ecosystem)
  • Individual morphology development (growing season temperature - life cycle changes)
22
Q

Around how much of the CO₂ emitted by human activities have been absorbed by terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems

A

1/4
(is this always going to be the case tho)

22
Q

What is Net Primary Productivity?

A

Is the difference between the energy which is fixed by autotrophs and their own respiratory losses

23
Q

What the 4 main factors for rising primary productivity of plants?

A
  • Climate
  • Leaf Area Index
  • fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation
  • CO₂
24
Q

Which areas of the globe have seen a rise in primary productivity?

A

Increases in North and South America
Increases in boreal zone
Increased in the Amazon (but this trend is predicted to not be sustained also similar in Congo basin)

25
Q

Which areas of the globe have seen a decrease in primary productivity?

A
  • Decreases in drier areas of North America
  • Congo
  • Peru
  • Coloumbia
  • Brazil
  • Kazakhstan
26
Q

What has happened to NPP since preindustrail times?

A
  • Increase in NPP since preindustrialtimes with 5% (current sink strength is 2.6 PgC/yr)
  • Possibly due to rising CO₂ levels but strong evidence is lacking
27
Q

What has happened to ecosystem carbon stocks (biomass, litter and soil carbon) since preindustrial times?

A
  • Ecosystem carbon stocks have increased globally
  • Estimated increases in the global carbon stock is 0.16-0.2 PgC/yr
28
Q

What is the predicted rates of extinction in the future?

A

Between 18-35% extinction

29
Q

What affect can warmer oceans have on the biodiversity living within them?

A
  • The associated environmental changes often include global warming and the development of widespread oxygen-poor conditions in oceans
  • Hence less favourable conditions for survival
30
Q

What types of biomes can vegetation distribution models predict and not predict?

A
  • Tropical Evergreen forest
  • Temperate deciduous forest
  • Not predict western europe well
  • Not predict Africa and Australia grassland/savanna/steppe (drought adapted vegetation)
31
Q

Which types of biome are becoming more common with climate change?

A
  • Boreal
  • Conifer
  • Temperate broadleaf
  • Tropical grassland
32
Q

Which types of biome are becoming less common with climate change?

A
  • Tundra
  • Alpine
  • Boreal/Configer
  • Temperate Conifer
  • Tropical Woodland
  • Temperature shrub land
33
Q

Why is the Amazon becoming particularly more threatened due to climate change?

A
  • Temperature increase and precipitation decreases mean
  • Decreases in soil moisture
  • Decrease in evaporation (+feedbacks)
  • Decreased general primary productivity
34
Q

Where are the big losses in biodiversity expected to happen?

A

Arctic and Mediterranean habitats threatened since much of the biodiversity is close to its climatic limits

35
Q

To combat the rising temperatures, species might move…

A

Upwards of an altitude gradient (likely easier to do as less distance will need to be travelled)
Or Northwards

36
Q

Why might migration rates differ for different species groups?

A
  • Individals
  • or seed dispersal
  • Highest rates for split hoofed mammals and carnivores
  • Differences linked to their tolerance range
  • Resource availability

Y2 Climate Change Science (8 decks)

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