Topic 7 - People and the Biosphere

Question 1

What is an Ecosystem?

Answer 1

An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjuction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system.

Question 2

What is a Biome?

Answer 2

A large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat.

Question 3

An ecosystem is different to a biome as…

Answer 3

An ecosystem is smaller in comparison to a biome as a biome can be widely distributed all through the earth. Unlike an ecosystem , a biome is strongly influenced by its physical factors such as climatic conditions such as snow, temperature, rainfall etc.

Question 4

Describe the climate of the Tropical Forest.

Answer 4

The boreal forest consists of regions that have a subarctic and cold continental climate. Long, severe winters with temperatures below freezing and short summers with only up to 100 frost free days.

Question 5

Describe the climate and vegetation of the Tundra.

Answer 5

Near continuous sunlight in summer, almost 24hr dark in winter

Very few plants can live here mostly lichens and mosses

Question 6

Describe the climate and vegetation of the Boreal Forest.

Answer 6

Long cold winters, short mild summers, low precipitation

Coniferous trees such as pine

Question 7

Describe the climate and vegetation of the Temperate forest.

Answer 7

Days vary in length - short in winter, long and warm summers and precipitation all year round

Deciduous such as oak

Question 8

Describe the climate and vegetation of the Temperate grasslands.

Answer 8

Hot in summer (25°) and very cold in winters (as low as 40°) 500-900mm of rainfall per year, most in late spring and summer

Shortgrass with very few trees and bushes

Question 9

Describe the climate and vegetation of Deserts.

Answer 9

Very hot all year (above 30°c) but with cool nights

Plants are scarce and have water storing features

Question 10

Describe the climate and vegetation of the Tropical grasslands.

Answer 10

Hot all year (25-35°c) 1000mm of rainfall per year but always with a dry season

Tall grasses, with some drought adapted shrubs and trees

Question 11

Describe the climate and vegetation of the Tropical forest.

Answer 11

Hot all year (25-30°c) wet all year (200-3000mm of precipitation)

Dense forests with several layers of trees

Question 12

How do biomes change with altitude on mountain sides?

Answer 12

The forest biomes will decrease with altitude, becoming stunted, and then replaced by hardier species like grasses.

Question 13

Identify and explain how two local factors affect the biome characteristics.

Answer 13

Altitude affects the characteristics of the biome. The higher the altitude, the more the temperature drops. This means tropical rainforests can’t grow at high altitudes.

Question 14

What would happen locally to the vegetation if water supplies were reduced?

Answer 14

There wouldn’t be enough water in the soil for plants so they become malnourished.

Question 15

What type of vegetation do you expect to see in a hot desert?

Answer 15

The vegetation in deserts are scarce and have water storing features, such as cacti.

Question 16

Define the term biodiversity

Answer 16

Biodiversity refers to all living entities in one area. Such as bacteria, animals and humans.

Question 17

Define the term abiotic.

Answer 17

Abiotic are all the non living components in our life style.

Question 18

Give 3 examples of abiotic components of an ecosystem.

Answer 18

Rock

Soil

Climate

Question 19

Define the term biotic.

Answer 19

Biotic are the living components in our life style

Question 20

Give 3 examples of biotic componentsof an ecosystem.

Answer 20

Animals

Plants

Funghi

Question 21

Explain how latitude affects temperature.

Answer 21

The closer you are to the equator, the warmer it gets. The closer you are to the equator, the lower the latitude, which means it gets warmer. The further you go away from the equator, you get higher latitude, which means it gets colder. The North and South Poles have the highest latitude (coldest).

Question 22

Explain how latitude afects precipitation.

Answer 22

High latitudes mean less precipitation, the amount of precipitation air can hold depends on temperature meaning there is more towards the equator.

Question 23

Explain how altitude affects ecosystems.

Answer 23

Altitiude affects ecosystems within temperatures. As altitiude increases, temperature decreases. Plants need sunlight and need to be warm for is to be able to grow properly, if high altitudes are met, there is going to be a struggle to grow plants up in high areas, mostly mountainous areas.

Question 24

Define ‘Goods’.

Answer 24

Goods are physical materials, such as timber from trees or fish caught in lake

Question 25

Define ‘Services’.

Answer 25

Services are finctions e.g. how forests prevent flooding or trees add oxygen to the atmosphere

Question 26

Define ‘Indigenous’.

Answer 26

Indigenous groups are those originating from a particular place; native.

Question 27

Define ‘TNCs’.

Answer 27

Companies that operate in several countries are called transnational corporations (TNCs). The US fast-food chain McDonald’s is a large TNC - it has 34,000 restaurants in 119 countries.

Question 28

How are ecosystem services used by indigenous people?

Answer 28

Indigenous people rely on plants and animals for fuel and cooking and keeping warm. Wood, moss, dried grass and dried animal dung is burnt as fuel. Lots of plants have medicinal properties which are also used to keep people healthy, as well as indigenous people.

Question 29

How are humans exploiting Energy?

Answer 29

Demand for energy is increasing as the world population increases. A large of electronic devices are used. Large areas of forests are cut down to clear land for growing of crops.

Question 30

How are humans exploiting Water?

Answer 30

Demand for water is also increasing because of increases in global population. People use water for a variety of reasons, washing, farmland etc. Wtaer sources are over exploited. This can cause damage to the biosphere, as plants and animals no longer have enough water to survive.

Question 31

What was Malthus’ theory?

Answer 31

Thought that population increasing was using more resources than there were available.

The point of where lines cross on the graph is the point of catastrophe which causes population to decrease almost immediately.

Believes when this happened, it would cause famine, illness and war.

Question 32

What was Boserup’s theory?

Answer 32

Thought that the more the population increases, the more sufficient resources that could be made

Thought the more people we had, the more ways we could come up with resources

Question 33

Was Boserup or Malthus right?

Answer 33

Boserup:

There has heen no global ‘crisis’ but have been local ones

The Earth provides enough for us 7 billion people, but won’t in the future