Glog text
Introduction to Ecology and the Biosphere
Definitions to Know
Ecology
Biomes
Biotic Factors
Climate
The Ecological Heirarchy
Abiotic Factors
Organismal Ecology
Population Ecology
Community Ecology
Global Ecology
Ecosystem Ecology
Global Ecology
Abiotic and Biotic Factors
Climate
The Biomes
Combinations of abiotic and biotic factors determine the Earth's many biomes, major terrestrial or aquatic life zones, characterized by vegetation type in terrestrial biomes or the physical environment in aquatic biomes.
Biotic-or, living factors-all the organisms that are part of the individual's environment.
Four abiotic factors-temperature, precipitation, sunlight, and wind-are the major components of climate, the long-term, prevailing weather conditions in a particular area. Climatic factors, particularly temperature and water availability, have a major influence on the distribution of terrestial organisms. We can describe climate patterns on two scales: macroclimate, patterns on the global, regional, and local level; and microclimate, very fine patterns, such as those encountered by the community of organisms that live beneath a fallen log
Abiotic-or nonliving, factors-all the chemical and physical factors such as temperature, light, water, and nutrients, that influence the distribution and abundance of organisms.
Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions between organisms and the environment. These interactions occur at a heirarchy of scales that ecologists study, from organismal to global.
Organismal ecology, which includes the subdisciplines of physiological, evolutionary, and behavioral ecology, is concerned with how an organisms;s strucutre, physiology, and behavior meet the challenges posed by its environment.
A population is a group of individuals of the same species living in an area. Population ecology analyzes factors that affect population size and how and why it changes through time.
A community is a group of populations of different species in an area. Community ecology examines how interactions between species, such as predation and competition, affect community structure and organization.
An ecosystem is the community of organisms in an area and the physical factors with which those organisms interact. Ecosystem ecology emphasizes energy flow and chemical cycling between organisms and the environment.
A landscape is a mosaic of connected ecosystems. Research in landscape ecology focuses on the factors controlling exchanges of energy, materials, and organisms across multiple ecosystems.
The biosphere is the global ecosystem--the sum of all the planet's ecosystems and landscapes. Global ecology examines how the regional exchange of energy and materials influences the functioning and distribution of organisms across the biosphere.
We have seen how both biotic and abiotic factors influence the distribution of organisms on Earth. Combinations of these factors determine the nature of the Earth's many biomes, major terrestrial or aquatic life zones, characterized by vegetation type in terrestrial biomes or the physical environment in aquatic biomes.Aquatic Biomes account for the largest part of the biosphere in terms of area, and all types are found around the globe. Ecologists distinguish between freshwater biomes and salttwater biomes on the basis of chemical differences. For example, marine biomes generally have salt concentrations that average 3%, whereas freshwater biomes are usually characterized by a salt concentration of less than .1%. The oceans of the Earth cover more than 75% of the earth's surface. Because of their size, they have a large impact on the biosphere. In aquatic biomes,ecologists distinguish between the upper photic zone, where there is sufficient light for photosynthesis, and the lower aphotic zone, where little light penetrates. At the bottom, there is a substrate called the benthos zone. Made up of sand and organic and inorganic sediments, the benthic zone is occupied by communities of organisms collectively called the benthos. In oceans, the abyssal zone refers to the part of teh benthic zone that lies 2,000-6,000 meters below the surface. There are 8 main types of aquatic biomes, lakes, wetlands, streams and rivers, estuaries, intertidal zones, oceanic pelagic zone, coral refs, and marine benthic zone. For more information on these biomes, research them online. I do not have the appropiate space to do so in this glog. Abiotic factors have a large impact on the distribution of terrestrial biomes. Because there are latitudinal patterns of climate over the Earth's surface, there are also latitudinal patterns of biome distribution. These biome patterns in turn are modified by disturbance, an event that changes a community, removing organisms from it and altering resource availability. Frequent fires, for instance, can kill woody plants and keep a savanna from becoming the woodland that climate alone would otherwise support. We can see the great impact of climate on the distribution of organisms by constructing a climograph, a plot of the temperature and precipitation in a particular region. The map of biomes in the above by the definition of biomes shows distinct boundaries, however, this is not entirely true. There are no true sharp boundaries surrounding biomes. The area of intergradation, called an ecotone, may be wide or narrow. There are also 8 dominant types of biomes on the planet. These are: Tropical Forest (both rain forests and dry forests), Desert, Savanna, Chaparral, Temperate Grassland, Northern Confiferous Forest, Temperate Broadleaf Forest, and the Tundra.
Four abiotic factors-temperature, precipitation, sunlight, and wind-are the major components of climate, the long-term, prevailing weather conditions in a particular area. Climatic factors, particularly temperature and water availability, have a major influence on the distribution of terrestial organisms. We can describe climate patterns on two scales: macroclimate, patterns on the global, regional, and local level; and microclimate, very fine patterns, such as those encountered by the community of organisms that live beneath a fallen log. For basics of climate, refer to hyperlink above and the beginning of the biotic and abiotic factors video.
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