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Local Conditions

How would you describe your climate, or the average, year-after-year conditions of temperature and precipitation where you live? Does your area receive a great deal of precipitation—rain and snow—or is your area very dry?

Section 4-1

Interest Grabber

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4–1 The Role of Climate

A. What Is Climate?

B. The Greenhouse Effect

C.The Effect of Latitude on Climate

Section 4-1

Section Outline

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What is Climate?

• Weather – day-to-day condition of Earth’s atmosphere

• Climate – average of daily weather over a period of time

•Factors affecting climate:

– Trapping of heat by the atmosphere

– Latitude

– Ocean currents

– Etc.

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Greenhouse Gases

Include:

– CO2

– Methane– Water vapor

• Similar to a car on a hot day, glass allows light energy in, yet heat can not escape.

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Sunlight

Some heat escapesinto space

Greenhousegases trapsome heat

Atmosphere

Earth’s surface

Section 4-1

The Greenhouse Effect

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The Effect of Latitude on Climate

•Earth is tilted on it’s axis, causing varying degrees of light striking the Earth.

3 main zones of climate:

1. polar zones

2. temperate zones (United States)

3. tropical zones

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Sunlight

Some heatescapesinto space

Greenhousegases trapsome heat

Atmosphere

Earth’s surface

Sunlight

Most direct sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

90°N North Pole

66.5°N

23.5°N

0°

23.5°S

66.5°S

90°S South Pole

Arctic circle

Tropic of Cancer

Equator

Tropic of Capricorn

Arctic circle

Section 4-1

Figures 4-1 and 4-2 Heating of the Earth’s Surface and Some Factors That Affect Climate

Greenhouse Effect Different Latitudes

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4–2 What Shapes an Ecosystem?

A. Biotic and Abiotic Factors

B. The Niche

C. Community Interactions

1. Competition

2. Predation

3. Symbiosis

D. Ecological Succession

1. Primary Succession

2. Secondary Succession

3. Succession in a Marine Ecosystem

Section 4-2

Section Outline

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Biotic and Abiotic Factors

• Biotic factors – living components that influence the ecosystem.– Predators, prey, plants for herbivores

• Abiotic factors – non-living components that influence the ecosystem

– Water, O2, CO2, temp., precip.

• Combined both determine stability of the ecosystem.

• Examples of how it can be thrown out of whack?

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Biotic Factors

ECOSYSTEM

Abiotic Factors

Section 4-2

Abiotic and Biotic Factors

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Biotic Factors

ECOSYSTEM

Abiotic Factors

Section 4-2

Abiotic and Biotic Factors

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The Niche

• Where an organism fits into its environment

– Place on food chain

– What it eats

– How it reproduces

– Climate it prefers

• If niche is not suited for environment….then organism is not suited for the environment.

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Bay-Breasted WarblerFeeds in the middlepart of the tree

Yellow-Rumped WarblerFeeds in the lower part of the tree andat the bases of the middle branches

Cape May WarblerFeeds at the tips of branchesnear the top of the tree

Spruce tree

Section 4-2

Figure 4-5 Three Species of Warblers and Their Niches

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• No two species can share the same niche in the same habitat!!!

•Competition!

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Community Interactions

1. Competition

2. Predation

3. Symbiosis• Mutualism• Commensalism

4. Parasitism

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Ecological Succession

• Ecosystems are constantly changing in response to human or non-human interactions.

• Could be a rapid change or very gradual (thousands of years).

• Types:– Primary– Secondary

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Primary Succession

•Occurs where no soil exists – must start with plants….Why?

– Bare rocks– Volcanic areas

• Occurs often due to climatic changes of plate tectonics• After original pioneer species establish area, new organisms begin to inhabit area.

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Primary succession

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Secondary Succession

• When a drastic climatic event disturbs a particular area and organisms re-establish the ecosystem over time.

– Prairie fires

• Ecosystems typically bounce back from natural disturbances, but struggle to return when human disturbances occur (non-natural).

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Secondary succession

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4–3 Biomes

A.Biomes and Climate

B.The Major Biomes

C.Other Land Areas

1.Mountain Ranges

2.Polar Ice Caps

Section 4-3

Section Outline

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What is a biome?

•Many ecosystems combined sharing the same climate and soil conditions.

•Organisms are adapted structurally and behaviorally to that particular biome

•Ex: Saguaro and anthurium

•Organsims in biomes demonstrate tolerance.

– What is that?

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Section 4-3

Compare/Contrast Table

Ten Major Biomes

Biome Precipitation Temperature Soil Diversity Trees Grasses

Tropical Rain Forest high hot poor high dense sparse

Tropical Dry Forest variable mild rich moderate medium medium

Tropical Savanna variable mild clay moderate sparse dense

Desert low variable poor moderate sparse sparse

Temperate Grassland moderate summer hot rich moderate absent dense

Temperate woodland and Shrubland

summer low, winter moderate

summer hot poor low medium medium

Temperate Forest moderate summer moderate, winter cold

rich high dense sparse

Northwestern Coniferous Forest

high summer mild, winter cold

rocky, acidic low dense sparse

Boreal Forest moderate summer mild, winter cool

poor, acidic moderate dense sparse

Tundra low summer mild, winter cold

poor low absent medium

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Tropical rain forest

Tropical dry forest

Tropical savanna Temperate woodlandand shrubland

Desert

Temperate grassland

Boreal forest(Taiga)

Northwesternconiferous forest

Temperate forest

Mountains andice caps

Tundra

Section 4-3

Figure 4-11 The World’s Major Land Biomes

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Generally speaking……•What adaptations do plants and animals have for the biomes they live in?

•Example: What are plants like in temperate climate?....

Video 1

Click the image to play the video segment.

Video 1

Earth’s Many Biomes, Part 1

Video 2

Click the image to play the video segment.

Video 2

Earth’s Many Biomes, Part 2

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Other land areas

•Mountain ranges– Varies elevation– How does that influence climate?

•Polar ice caps– Cool surrounding water (thus air also).– What does that mean?

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4–4 Aquatic Ecosystems

A. Freshwater Ecosystems

1. Flowing-Water Ecosystems

2. Standing-Water Ecosystems

3. Freshwater Wetlands

B. Estuaries

C. Marine Ecosystems

1. Intertidal Zone

2. Coastal Ocean

3. Coral Reefs

4. Open Ocean

5. Benthic Zone

Section 4-4

Section Outline

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•75% of the Earth covered in water– We have A LOT of aquatic ecosystems!

•Determined mostly by water’s:– Depth– Flow– Temperature

– Chemistry (fresh/marine, pH, O2.)

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Freshwater ecosystems – 3%

1. Flowing water– Rivers, creeks, etc.

2. Standing water– Lakes, ponds, etc.

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• Standing water ecosystems– Basis for the food chain is plankton

1. phytoplankton – plant-like (photo.)

-single celled algae

2. zooplankton – “critter-like”

- feed on phytoplankton

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Spoonbill

Duck

DragonflyPhytoplankton

FrogWater lilies

Mosquitolarvae

SnailDivingbeetle

Trout

Pickerel

Duckweed

Snail Benthiccrustaceans

Hydra

Frogs lay eggs in the shallowwater near shore.The eggs hatch in the water as tadpolesand move to the land as adults.

The shore is lined with grasses that provide shelter and nestingplaces for birds and otherorganisms.

The roots of water liliescling to the pond bottom,while their leaves, on longflexible stems, float on thesurface.

The bottom of the pond isinhabited by decomposers andother organisms that feed onparticles drifting down from thesurface.

Fish share the pondwith turtles and other animals. Many of them feed on insectsat the water’s edge.

Plankton and the organisms thatfeed on them live near the surfacewhere there is enough sunlight forphotosynthesis. Microscopic algaeare among the most importantproducers.

Section 4-4

Freshwater Pond Ecosystem

Crayfish

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Freshwater wetlands

• Water covers existing soil either partly or completely for an extended period of time.

•Very productive ecosystems containing both aquatic and terrestrial organisms.

•Swamps, bogs, marshes

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Illinois Swamps – Cache River

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Estuaries

•Where freshwater rivers reach the sea•Have a mixture of freshwater/marine life

– Crabs, clams, fish•Use them mostly to reproduce then when mature, head out to sea.

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Salt Marshes • Temperate-zone

estuaries• Salt tolerant grasses• Chesapeake Bay in

Maryland

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Mangrove Swamps • Tropical regions• Salt tolerant trees• Florida Everglades

National Park

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Marine ecosystems

• Photic zones– Shallow areas of the ecosystem where sunlight

can penetrate– rate of photosynthesis– Down to about 200 meters

•Aphotic zones– Deep areas, no light penetrates– rate of photo.– Chemosynthetic “critters”

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landCoastalocean

Openocean

Oceantrench

Aphotic zone

Photic zone

Continentalshelf

Continental slope andcontinental rise

Abyssalplain

200m

1000m

4000m

6000m

10,000m

Section 4-4

Figure 4-17 Zones of a Marine Ecosystem

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•Intertidal zone– Subjected to seawater, air, sunlight, battered by

waves all in the period of one day.– Exposed to daily extreme environ. Changes– Zonation: horizontal banding

-Coastal ocean

- Low tide make to outer edge of continental shelf– Almost entirely ‘photic’– Rich in plankton, kelp and other algae dominant – Kelp forests

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•Coral reefs– Formed from hard calcium deposits of dead coral

skeletons– Shallow water for algae that live symbiotically with

them.– Provide shelter for fish, etc.

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•Open ocean– “oceanic zone”– Largest marine zone by

area (90%)– Low # of producers

= ???• But, why such a large

rate of photo?•Benthic zone

– Ocean floor– Benthos– Chemosynthetic critters

or feed on dead stuff/detritus (decomposers)

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