GEOG 1 - Quiz 5

How do deserts form?

• The sun beams above the equator the most

• Tropics get the warmest avg temps

• Sun only shines directly over tropic of cancer and capricorn

• Hot air rising over tropics

• Low pressure zone 

• Sinking dry air over tropics

What are Hadley Cells?

Large-scale circulation patterns responsible for deserts and trade winds 

What are Coastal Deserts?

Cold winters and cool summers

Not very hot at all

Driest desert type

Surrounded by cold water, shielded by rain shadows

What are Polar Deserts?

Coldest deserts with very short summers

Water mostly locked in permanent glaciers

Little to no vegetation

What is the desert type with the most wildlife?

What are subtropical deserts?

Mostly hadley cells

hottest deserts on earth

warm year-round

very minimal vegetation and wildlife

What are semiarid deserts?

• where, temp, texture, vegetation/wildlife

At the fringes of subtropical deserts

More moderate temperatures than subtropical

Shallow, rocky, soil with good drainage

Desert type with the most vegetation, wildlife

What is desertification?

the process of arable land turning into desert

What are the two main drivers of desertification?

population growth

• soil erosion

global warming

• shrinking bodies of water

What is Sahel?

semi-arid grassland belt between the Sahara and tropical sub-saharan Africa

What are the conditions for singing sand dunes?

Tall > 120ft

> 30degree slope

High winds

Which desert type is the hottest?

subtropical

What desert type has the most vegetation and wildlife?

Semiarid

Which desert type is the driest on avg?

coastal

Where are you most likely to find a desert oasis?

low elevation

Desertification is being driven by all except:

• excessive wood harvesting

• high evaporation

• population growth

• rising sea level

rising sea level

What type of glacier is atop Mt Shasta?

alpine

All of the following drive global movement except

• global warming

• gravity

• snowstorms

• weight of ice

snowstorms

__ is the name of the intermediate state between snow and glacier ice

Firn

Melting arctic ice is resulting in all of the following except

• cooler global sea temperatures

• greater arctic tourism

• new passages for shipping

• polar bears migrating southward

cooler glacier sea temperatures

What is a glacier?

large, slow-moving rivers of ice resting or adjacent to land

What does a non--stationary glacier mean?

always moving

What is the cryosphere?

• the portion of the hydrosphere that is perennially frozen

  • Everything stops when water is frozen

How does snow become ice?

Snow becomes ice due to the amount of air. Snow is 90% air.

What are Alpine Glaciers?

• speed, size

• Small, individual glaciers formed in mountain ranges (bowl-shaped snowfields) 

• Faster movement (100 year cycle) 

• Few hundred feet to a few miles wide 

What are continental glaciers?

• speed, size

• Large scale ice sheets formed in polar regions

• Slower movement (up to 1 MILLION year cycle) 

• Hundreds to thousands of miles wide 

Which polar region is colder?

South

What is the biosphere?

Sphere of all life and organic activity on earth

What is biogeography?

study of the spatial distribution of plants and animals

Biosphere scale

Global events and how they affect the entire planet

• impact on global warming

Ecosystem scale

Self-sustaining association of plants/animals and their physical environments

• impacts on the Amazon

Community scale

Specific interactions between select species and places

• impact on canopy species in the Amazon

Populations scale

Members of the same species type

• impacts on the population of 3 toucan birds

Organism scale

How an organism survives in a place

• impact on the red-billed toucan

Biotic things

living organisms

producers, autotrophs, consumers, hetertrophs

abiotic things

nonliving/inanimate

gaseous, hydrologic, mineral

producers

plant life

3 species that make up 60% of the world’s food supply

• wheat, corn, rice

Primary consumers

feed directly on producers

All primary consumers are herbivores

Secondary consumers

feed on primary consumers

All secondary consumers are carnivores (or omnivores)

Tertiary consumers

feed on secondary consumers

All tertiary consumers feed on carnivores

Detritus feeders

feed on dead organic debris and/or waste (detritivores)

Can be both complex organisms (worms, vultures) and basic (bacteria)

Mutualism

Each organism benefits and is sustained by the relationship

• farmer and eagle

Commensalism

One organism benefits and the other is unaffected/neutral

• birds nesting on tree

parasitism

One organism causes the other harm and the relationship is unsustainable

Endemic species

A species is unique to and only found in one place on earth

Cosmopolitan species

A species found in most or all places on earth

What are reasons why people relocate species?

1. accidentally

2. purposefully

3. ornamentally

4. pets

island biogeography

Study of how many species are present on any particular island

Which biotic organisms are most important for sustaining life?

producers

A species unique to and only found in one place is known as __.

Endemic

Which symbiotic relationship is this? A racoon sifts through dumpsters looking for food left behind by humans.

Commensalism

Which symbiotic relationship is this? A farmer builds a coop for a group of hens to harvest the eggs they lay.

mutualistism