Ecology Exam 2

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Clouds near the equator move which direction?

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Clouds near the equator move which direction?

East to west

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Clouds in the higher latitudes move which direction?

West to east

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What is the main determiner of how much solar radiation the ground receives

The angle of ground relative to the angle of incoming rays (Cosine Law)

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What is the cosine law

S=cos(a)

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What is the equinox

When the equator gets the most direct sun so both the northern and southern hemispheres get equal light

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what two things related to the sun are highly affected by latitude?

Day length and seasonality

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What is the Coriolis effect

the movement of the Earth rotating while the air rotates around

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Inter-tropical convergance

the area on the ground where the two Hadley cells come together

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Trade winds

Wind patterns within the Hadley cells that are very reliable

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Ferrel cell

30 to 60 N and S

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When the north pole is tilted towards the sun what season is it in the southern hemisphere?

Winter

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Near the equator it is:

Very hot and not very seasonable

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In the mid latitudes it is:

seasonal in temperature and daylength, especially away from oceans

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Near the poles it is:

extremely cold and seasonal

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Rising air at the convergence cools and sheds ____ as it rises

rain

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\n The descending air \n to the N & S of the Hadley cells heats as it descends, this means \n ____

Dry

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Tropical rain forest dominates near the ______

tropical convergence

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Desert dominates in the latitudes of the _______

descending limbs of the Hadley cells

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Biomes of mid-latitudes include:

Deciduous forests, prairies, chaparral, southern \n taiga

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Biomes of high latitudes include:

Taiga (boreal forest) and Tundra

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What is the adiabatic lapse rate

1°C for every 100 meters of increased elevation

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What are the ways to make rain?

Mountains, frontal systems, local convection, and tropical convergance

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what is a side effect of the mountain way to make rain?

Rain shadows which usually create deserts

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Frontal systems are an example of what feedback loop?

A positive feedback loop

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How is rain made?

Rain is made by moving moist air upwards until it cools to the dewpoint, and water vapor begins to condense

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What vegetation are tropical rainforests dominated by?

Broad leaf evergreens

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What is the term for plants growing on plants?

Epiphites

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What is the dominant vegetation of tropical seasonal forests?

dry deciduous broad leafs

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There ___ clear lines between biomes

are no

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What is the dominant vegetation of tropical savanna and grasslands?

mixture of trees and grasses, grasslands have mostly grass while savannas have occasional drought resistent trees

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Why is grass so important to grasslands and savannas?

Grass supports a high biomass of large area grazers since 2/3rds of it is below ground and it is edible.

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The Serengeti savanna is threatened by wildfire ____

Suppression

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A desert is defined when:

potential evapotranspiration far exceeds rainfall for most of the year

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What are the ways that there are deserts?

In the spot between the hadley and ferrel cells, and rain shadows

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Why is the broadleaf sclerophyll/chaparral considered its own biome?

It has unique vegetation dominated by drought resistent shrubs and has a high population of people living in it

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emperate grassland/prairie is largely maintained by what?

Fires

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What vegetation dominated temperate decidious forests?

winter-decidious trees

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What are spring ephemerals characterized by

Completing most of their growth in a brief period of spring and remaining dormant as seeds for the rest of the year

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Temperate rainforests are characterized as:

Wet maritime climate with the tallest trees

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Boreal forests or tiaga are often called the moose, spruce biome, why?

Moose and spruce are abundant throughout the biome yet are not directly part of each others food chains, moose prefer broadleaf trees and shrubs that come from disturbed lands

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Why do trees in the boreal forest or tiaga have a monopodial shape rather than an umbrella?

Monopodial is more vertical which catches more of the suns rays that are towards the horizon versus above them

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permafrost:

a layer of soil a short distance below the surface that is frozen all the time

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Why does surface matter in terms of water on earth?

because most ecosystems run on solar energy arriving at the earth’s surface

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Freshwater is important to us but very _____

scarce

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water has a very high specific heat, what does this mean?

it takes a lot of E loss or gain to change water temperature

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What do you need to be an endotherm in water?

Be big with a lower surface area to volume ratio or come out of the water periodically

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Diffusion is ____ in water vs air

slower

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Gas exchange in water is much quicker when the water is _____

moving

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Why are Sessile algae and animals are often most abundant in the moving water of rivers and shorelines

Because the moving water speeds up the uptake of CO2 and nutrients

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What are the main limitations in water?

nutrients and light

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Marine ecosystems are more productive _____

near land because more nutrient rich currents come to the surface and light is more available

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There is ____ more saltwater than freshwater

MUCH

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A continental shelf:

has basically the same bedrock as continental rock, and is confined to the immediate edges of the continents

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The deep sea floor:

has dark bedrock made of the basaltic geologically distinct ocean floor and does not have many nutrients

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Palagic means

open water

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Benthic means

On or near bottom (earth)

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Surface palagic is

near the surface and primary production (photosynthesis) will be limited by nutrients

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Deep palagic is

limited by light, since there is no local primary productivity

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Shallow Benthic are genrally

rich and productive

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Deep Benthic is also called the

abyssal plane

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Deep benthic is limited by

light and nutrient “rain”

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What is unique about mid-ocean ridges?

There is no sunlight but they host an entire productive ecosystem based on sulfur bacteria living off the mineral-laden hot water coming up from vents in the ocean floor

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Mid-ocean ridges often have _______ concentrations of life

Extremely dense

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The energy running the biosphere is ultimately

Solar energy captured by photosynthesis

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How do bacteria support life in mid-ocean ridges

capturing chemical energy by oxidizing the sulfides (H2S, \n FeS, etc.) through chemiosis

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The energy running the mid-ocean ridge community ______ captured by photosynthesis

is not

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Bacteria in mid-ocean vents make their living by ______ which means they need what provided from what process?

Oxidizing, oxygen, provided by photosynthesis

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As energy flows through the Earth it is _______

degraded (made less concentrated)

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What type of system is the Earth in terms of energy?

an open system

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The energy leaving the earth is less concentrated, and therefore what?

Less able to do work

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A single photon of visible light has roughly how much of the energy of a single photon of infrared?

10x

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The Earth is what type of system in regards to matter? This means what?

A closed system which means matter doesn’t enter or leave in significant amounts

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Has Earth always been a closed system in terms of matter?

No, 4.6 billion years ago during the hadean period asteriod strikes were common

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matter and energy movements are what?

Couples (or paired)

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An efficiancy:

is a basic concept that gets used a lot in ecosystem ecology and other areas of science that is a dimensionless number that can be expressed as a proportion

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Of the solar energy that hits a leaf how much of it is captured by phtosynthesis?

5%

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Efficiency of photosynthesis =

E captured by photosynthesis / E hitting the leaf = ~ 0.05

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primary productivity is:

Solar energy captured by photosynthesis in plants

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What are the units of primary production

biomass (dry g/m^2/year) or energy (joules)

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What is NPP

Net primary productivity (NPP) is GPP minus plant respiration (proportional to total accumulated plant matter \n produced)

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What is the NPP of tropical rainforests

2000 g/m2/year

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What is the NPP of temperate grasslands

1200 g/m2/year

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What is the NPP of deserts

70 g/m2/year

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What is the NPP of marshes and coral reefs

2000 to 2500 g/m2/year

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