Chapter 7: Climate and Terrestrial Biodiversity

What Factors Influence Climate?

The Earth Has Many Different Climates

• Weather: Local area’s short-term temperature, precipitation, humidity, windspeed cloud cover, and other conditions.
• Climate: Area’s general pattern of the atmosphere over a long period of time.
• Ocean Currents: Prevailing winds and earth rotation.
• Tropical: Equator, intense sunlight
• Polar: Poles, little sunlight
• Temperate: In-between tropical and polar

El Nino- Southern Oscillation

• El Niño-Southern Oscillation: It happens every few years. Prevailing winds in the tropical Pacific Ocean change direction. It affects much of earth’s weather for 1-2 years

Greenhouse Gases Warm the Lower Atmosphere

• Greenhouse gases: H20, CO2, CH4, N2O
• Greenhouse effect: Gases keep the earth warm and habitable
• Moist air rises cool and releases moisture as rain

Earth’s Surface Features Affect Local Climates

• Rain Shadow Effect: Most precipitation falls on the windward side of mountain ranges.

How Does Climate Affect the Nature and Locations of Biomes?

Climate Helps Determine Where Organisms Can Live

• Major biomes: Large land regions with certain types of climate and dominant plant life
• Abiotic factors
  • Latitude
  • Elevation
  • Precipitation
  • Temperature

There Are Three Major Types of Deserts

1. Tropical deserts: Hot and dry most of the year. They have few plants and are often deserts that are seen in movies.
2. Temperate deserts: Temperatures are high in the summer and low in winter and they have more precipitation.
3. Cold deserts: Winters are cold and summers are hot. Precipitation is also low.

• They have fragile ecosystems
  • Slow plant growth
  • Not a lot of species diversity
  • Lack of water

There Are Three Major Types of Grasslands

• Grasslands: This happens in areas that are too moist for deserts and too dry for forests.
• Tropical
  • Savanna: Brazing and browsing animals
• Temperate: Cold winters and hot and dry summers, with tall and short grass prairies
  • Chaparral:
• Artic tundra: Fragile biome with plants close to the ground. They also have short summers and the animals there have thick fur
  • Permafrost: Underground soil that stays frozen
• Alpine Tundra: Above the tree line in the mountains

How Have We Affected the World’s Terrestrial Ecosystem?

Major Human Impacts on Terrestrial Ecosystem

• Deserts
  • Large desert cities
  • Soil destruction by off-road vehicles
  • Soil salinization from irrigation
  • Depletion of groundwater
  • Land disturbance and pollution from mineral extraction
• Grasslands
  • Conversion to cropland
  • Release of CO2 to the atmosphere from burning grassland
  • Overgrazing by livestock
  • Oil production and off-road vehicles in the arctic tundra
• Forest
  • Clearing for agriculture, livestock grazing, timber, and urban development
  • Conversion of diverse forests to tree plantations
  • Damage from off-road vehicles
  • Pollution of forest streams
• Mountains
  • Agriculture
  • Timber extraction
  • Mineral extraction
  • Hydroelectric dams and reservoirs
  • Increasing tourism
  • Urban air pollution
  • Increased ultraviolet radiation from ozone depletion
  • Soil damage from off-road vehicles

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