Define
Ecology
Study of how factors such as climate and interactions with other species influence the distribution and abudance of organisms
What are the differences between ecology, environmentalism and environmental studies?
Environmentalism is a socio-political movement to protect the environment, and environmental studies is an interdiscipliary field which encompasses ecology as well as other sciences to study the environment
Define
Climate
Long-term, prevailing weather conditions in a certain area
Classify
The different levels of ecology, starting from most general
- Global (across the biosphere)
- Landscape (across multiple ecosystems)
- Ecosystem (energy flow, chemical cycling)
- Community
- Population
- Organismal
What separates the organismal, population, community and ecosystem levels?
- Organismal is the structure, physiology and behavior of a specific organism
- Population is “organismal” but on a population scale (population size variations)
- Community is the coming together of more than 2 species and their interactions
- Ecosystem is the addition of abiotic factors to “community”
Define
Emergent properties
- Novel properties that emerge at each level of organization
- Not observable at lower levels
Define
Biome
Major life zone characterized by vegetation type or by physical environment. The intersection of climate and dominant vegetation
What are the abiotic components that modify climate patterns?
- Latitude
- Seasonality
- Wind+Precipitation
- Mountains
Describe how latitude dictates, in part, climate patterns
- Temperature tends to be warm at equator and cold at poles
- Sun hits the equator at a high angle, meaning more radiation/surface area (lower angle the more one moves away from the equator)
Describe how seasonality works
- The Earth has a permanent tilt of 23 degrees
- That tilt (/) puts the Northern Hemisphere towards the sun during our summer
- The opposite tilt occurs December
What are the basic facts about wind and precipitation?
- Cold air is denser than warm air
- Air cools as it rises
- Warm air contains more moisture
- The Earth rotates, the winds near the equator are stronger, and opposite to the rotation (point towards equator, in a slant)
Describe how air impacts various biomes
- Ascending moist air releases moisture: hot, wet weather near equator
- Descending dry air absorbs moisture: hot, dry deserts
- Ascending moist air releases moisture: cool, wet taiga
- Descending dry air absords moisture: cold, dry tundra
This is going from the equator to the North Pole
Define
Rain shadow
Leeward side of a mountain on which it doesn’t rain, as the mountains prevents a uniform distribution of atmospheric moisture
What are the features to define a terrestrial biome?
- Average temperature
- Total amount of precipitation
- Seasonality: how much moisture is available to plants (trees vs shrubs vs grass)
Name the various biomes
- Tropical forest
- Savanna
- Desert (closer to equator)
- Chaparral (closer to poles)
- Temperate grassland
- Temperate broadleaf forest
- Northern coniferous forest (boreal)
- Tundra
- High mountains
- Polar ice
What are the defining characteristics of an aquatic biome?
- Salinity (freshwater (lake or stream) vs saltwater)
- Depth
- Still vs flowing
- Connectivity of water to terrestrial environment
What are the zones of a lake?
- Benthic
- Pelagic: photic and aphotic
- Littoral zone
- Limnetic zone
Define
Estuary
- Where fresh and saltwater meet
- Productive, as it contains nutrients from land
- Fertile but also very polluted
Define
Wetland
- Innundated land
- Regulates water quality and floods
Most productive biome on Earth
Define
Intertidal zones
- Zone between water and land, unveiled by low tide
