Date post: | 12-Jul-2015 |
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Exploring Ecosystems
What is an ecosystem?
These region are called biomes. Some of these areas
would be prairies, tropical rainforests, and deserts.
Abiotic or non-living factors are important to biotic
or living species. Some abiotic factors are
elevation, nutrients, rainfall, rocks, slope, aspect
to the sun, soil, temperature, and wind.
Abiotic Factors
Some abiotic influences might be altitude, clouds, rocks,
and soil.
This area might be high above timberline in the
mountains of Colorado.
Biotic factors
Living things- plants,,
animals, microbes etc.
Garden of the Gods is a city park near the base of
Pikes Peak. From here we can see four of the five
life zones (ecosystems) of Colorado’s Front
Range ecology; foothills, montane, sub-alpine,
and alpine.
The plains are the fifth life zone found on the front
range in Colorado.
Plains
FoothillsMontane
Subalpine
Alpine
High elevationsColder
The temperature decreases 3 degrees
per 1000-foot rise)
Shorter frost-free season (6 weeks)
Snow possible any month
Average 40 inches in the Colorado alpine.
More rain/snow
Low elevationWarmer
Less Rain/snow
Longer frost-free season
Colorado Springs - 21 weeks
(average in Colorado Springs
is 15.4 inches)
Ecological changes due to increasing elevation are
similar to those caused by increasing latitude. A trip
up Pikes Peak is like a trip to the Arctic tundra, except
the Arctic has extreme seasonal differences in daylight,
and the a lpine receives more intense sunlight.
As elevation changes, life
zones and climates change.