PP

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