GC 100 Exam 2

​How has climate changed?

• Average temperature increases

• Ocean warming

• Sea Level Rising

• Ice Sheets Losing Mass

Where has warming been greatest?

The Arctic

What are sunspots?

Cool dark regions that migrate across the suns surface

How long are cycles?

11 year average

How do they affect Earth's climate?

earth warms and cools

What are Milankovitch cycles? When do they happen?

Regular, natural variations in earths orbit that happen about every 100,000 years.

What is the greenhouse effect?

When longwave radiaton emmited from Earth is trapped in the atmosphere and prevented from escaping to space. Causes global warming.

How does the ice albedo feedback affect climate?
Can accelerate deglaciation

Predicted Climate Change

• Global average temp increase

• Air mass shifts, ocean currents, atmospheric circulation

• Precipitation and evap change

• Increase in extreme weather, sea levels, loss of vegetation

Biogeography - distribution patterns of organisms, their communities, and their ecosystems

• Biological processes and their patterns

• Phytogeography - geo of plants

• Zoogeography - geo of animals

Major Biotic Components of an Ecosystem

• Decomposers - break down dead organisms and other organic wastes and release inorganic molecules back to the environment

• Producers - use energy and inorganic molecules to make food

• Consumers - consumers take in food by eating producers or other living things

Major Abiotic Components of an Ecosystem

• Energy (Sunlight & Heat)

• Gases (Oxygen, CO2)

• Water

• Minerals and Nutrients, Disturbance (Wind, Fire, Storms)

Niche - function of an organism within a community

What is a food chain?

the flow of energy, as food, through an ecosystem

What is a food web?

network of interconnected food chains

What is a trophic level?

position in the food chain

Autrotrophs - Plants

Heterotrophs - Animals

----------------------------------------

As you go higher in the food chain,

there are FEWER organisms

​Biome - Large, stable terrestrial ecosystem, characterized by specific plant and animal communities, Usually named for dominant vegetation

Steppe - Short grass in sparse clumps/bunches

Succession - The process whereby older assemblages of plants & animals are replaced by different communities

​Which vegetation region has...

the highest diversity? Tropical Rainforest

only a few species of trees covering large areas? Grasslands

the world's largest trees? Coniferous Forest

the highest net productivity? Tropical Deciduous

------------------------

Pioneer Community - intial community in an area found on new surfaces or those that were stripped of life

Climax Community - a stable, steady state community, which is the endpoint of succession

Old-field succession

Succession following abandonment of agricultural land

How do wildfires influence ecosystems?

In forests- Moderate fires remove undergrowth and dead organic material, but leave the over-storey untouched

In grasslands- Fires destroy woody plants; grasses regrow from extensive root systems