Topic 7 - People and the Biosphere Flashcards
What is an Ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjuction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system.
What is a Biome?
A large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat.
An ecosystem is different to a biome as…
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.
Describe the climate of the Tropical Forest.
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.
Describe the climate and vegetation of the Tundra.
Near continuous sunlight in summer, almost 24hr dark in winter
Very few plants can live here mostly lichens and mosses
Describe the climate and vegetation of the Boreal Forest.
Long cold winters, short mild summers, low precipitation
Coniferous trees such as pine
Describe the climate and vegetation of the Temperate forest.
Days vary in length - short in winter, long and warm summers and precipitation all year round
Deciduous such as oak
Describe the climate and vegetation of the Temperate grasslands.
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
Describe the climate and vegetation of Deserts.
Very hot all year (above 30°c) but with cool nights
Plants are scarce and have water storing features
Describe the climate and vegetation of the Tropical grasslands.
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
Describe the climate and vegetation of the Tropical forest.
Hot all year (25-30°c) wet all year (200-3000mm of precipitation)
Dense forests with several layers of trees
How do biomes change with altitude on mountain sides?
The forest biomes will decrease with altitude, becoming stunted, and then replaced by hardier species like grasses.
Identify and explain how two local factors affect the biome characteristics.
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.
What would happen locally to the vegetation if water supplies were reduced?
There wouldn’t be enough water in the soil for plants so they become malnourished.
What type of vegetation do you expect to see in a hot desert?
The vegetation in deserts are scarce and have water storing features, such as cacti.
Define the term biodiversity
Biodiversity refers to all living entities in one area. Such as bacteria, animals and humans.
Define the term abiotic.
Abiotic are all the non living components in our life style.
Give 3 examples of abiotic components of an ecosystem.
Rock
Soil
Climate
Define the term biotic.
Biotic are the living components in our life style
Give 3 examples of biotic componentsof an ecosystem.
Animals
Plants
Funghi
Explain how latitude affects temperature.
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).
Explain how latitude afects precipitation.
High latitudes mean less precipitation, the amount of precipitation air can hold depends on temperature meaning there is more towards the equator.
Explain how altitude affects ecosystems.
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.
Define ‘Goods’.
Goods are physical materials, such as timber from trees or fish caught in lake
Define ‘Services’.
Services are finctions e.g. how forests prevent flooding or trees add oxygen to the atmosphere
Define ‘Indigenous’.
Indigenous groups are those originating from a particular place; native.
Define ‘TNCs’.
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.
How are ecosystem services used by indigenous people?
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.
How are humans exploiting Energy?
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.
How are humans exploiting Water?
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.
What was Malthus’ theory?
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.
What was Boserup’s theory?
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
Was Boserup or Malthus right?
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
