The Biosphere

Part 1
Biomes
The Order of Things….
 Subatomic Particles  Atoms
molecules  macromolecules 
Organelles  Cells  tissues  Organs
 Organisms 
 (Ecological Order…) Populations 
Communities  Ecosystems  Biomes
 Biosphere
Biogeography

The study of the distribution of

organisms and the processes that
underlie distribution patterns (a
central question – evolutionary
and ecological answer -
Biogeographic Realms
Factors that Affect Distribution
 Geologic history
 Topography
 Climate
 Species interactions
Biosphere

 Sum total of the places in which

organisms live

 Includes portions of the hydrosphere,

lithosphere, and atmosphere

Climate

 Average weather condition in a region

 Affected by:
 amount of incoming solar radiation
 prevailing winds
 elevation
 precipitation
Climagraph, San Diego, CA
More Climagraphs
Fig. 5.4
The Atmosphere

 Three layers
 Outer mesosphere
 Middle stratosphere (includes ozone layer)
 Inner troposphere (where air is warmed by
the greenhouse effect)
Earth’s Atmosphere
 Ozone Layer
 Region 17 to 27 kilometers above sea
level in the stratosphere
 Molecules of ozone absorb most layers
of ultraviolet light
 Protects living organisms from excess

3O2
exposure
- 2O
to UV light
3 (ozone)
Warming the Atmosphere

 Solar energy warms the atmosphere

and sets global air circulation patterns
in motion

Figure 49.4
Page 890
Rotation and Wind Direction
 Earth rotates
faster under the
air at the equator
than it does at the
poles
 Deflection east
and west
Figure 49.4
Page 890
 Global Wind Patterns

Trade winds, doldrums, and horse latitudes

Red Arrows Indicate Very Strong Winds
Seasonal Variation
 Northern end of Earth’s axis tilts toward
sun in June and away in December
 Difference in tilt causes differences in
sunlight intensity and day length
 The greater the distance from the equator,
the more pronounced the seasonal
changes
Earth’s Axis Tilts
Ocean Currents
 Upper waters move in currents that distribute
nutrients and affect regional climates

Figure 49.6
Page 892
Rain Shadow

 Air rises on the windward side, loses

moisture before passing over the
mountain

Figure 49.7
Page 893
Monsoons
 A monsoon is defined as a seasonal shift in
wind direction, being derived from the Arabic
word "mausim", meaning season.
Affect continents north and south of warm-
water oceans
 Can cause seasonal variation in rains
Air Moves from Cool to Warm
Regions
Coastal Breezes
 Breeze blows in direction of warmer region
 Direction varies with time of day

Afternoon Night

Figure 49.8
Page 893
Biogeographic Realms
 Eight areas in which plants and
animals are somewhat similar
 Maintain their identity because of
climate and physical barriers that tend
to maintain isolation between species
Biogeographic Realms
Biomes
 Regions of land characterized by
habitat conditions and community
structure
 Distinctive biomes prevail at certain
latitudes and elevations
 A biogeographic realm generally
composed of many biomes
Fig. 5.2
Olympic NP
 The most famous temperate rainforest
is in the Olympic National Park of
Washington state.
 It is locates on the western slope of an
Olympic mountain where it gets about
200 inches of rain per year.
 Temperate Rainforest Great
Smoky Mountains NP
 Each 1,000 feet of elevation gained is
the equivalent of moving 250 miles
north. This creates a temperature
gradient combined with
 additional precipitation (GT 100 inches
per year) classifies small sections of the
Park as a temperate rainforest.
http://www.great.smoky.mountains.national-park.com/info.htm
Forests in the Great Smoky
Mountains

 Five forest types dominate the Great Smoky

Mountains.
 The spruce-fir forest caps the Park's highest
elevations. (4500 – 5500 ft)
 A northern hardwood forest dominates the
middle to upper elevations from 3,500- 5,000 feet.
 Drier ridges in and around the Park hold a pine-oak
forest.
 A hemlock forest often grows along stream banks.
 The cove hardwood forest lines the valleys
throughout the Park.
Fig. 5.3
Hot Spots
 Portions of biomes that show the
greatest biodiversity

 Conservationists are working to

inventory and protect these regions

 24 hot spots hold more than half of all

terrestrial species
Conservation International’s
Definition
 Conservation International defines
hotspots as "regions that harbor a great
diversity of endemic species and, at the
same time, have been significantly
impacted and altered by human
activities."
 Hotspots Map

http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/sectors/env/biodiversity_eastasia.html
 Ecoregions
 Large areas of globally important
biomes or water provinces

 Currently vulnerable to extinction

 Targeted by World Wildlife Fund for

special study and conservation efforts
 WWF global 2000 Project
 “WWF has ranked the terrestrial Global 200
ecoregions by their conservation status -
classifying those ecoregions that are
considered critical, endangered, or vulnerable
as a result of direct human impacts, and
those that are relatively stable or intact.
Nearly half (47%) of the terrestrial
ecoregions are considered critical or
endangered; another quarter (29%) are
vulnerable; and only a quarter (24%) are
relatively stable of intact.”
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/ecoregions/global200/pages/mapdownload.htm#map3
Map of WWF’s Ecoregions
Soil Characteristics
 Amount of humus
 pH
 Degree of aeration
 Ability to hold or drain water
 Mineral content
 Soil Profiles
 Layer structure of soil
 Soil characteristics
determine what plants
will grow and how well

Rainforest Desert Grassland

Figure 49.12
Page 896
Deserts
 Less than 10 centimeters annual
rainfall, high level of evaporation
 Tend to occur at 30 degrees north
and south and in rain shadows
 One-third of land surface is arid or
semiarid
Sonoran Desert
Temperate Grasslands
Precipitation less than 60 centimeters per
year and greater than 10 cm per year

Temperature range -5 to 20 C0 (usually)

Grasslands
Dry Shrublands
and Woodlands
 Semiarid regions with cooler, wet
winters and hot, dry summers

 Tend to occur in western or southern

coastal regions between latitudes of
30 and 40 degrees
Dry Scrubland
 Savannas
 “A savanna is a rolling grassland, dotted
with trees, which can be found between
a tropical rainforest and desert biomes.”

 “There are actually two very different

seasons in a savanna; a very dry
season (winter), and a very wet season
(summer).”
http://www.rain.org/global-garden/biomes/BIOME_SA.HTM
Map of Savannas
African Savanna
Forest Biomes
Tall trees form a continuous canopy
 Evergreen broadleaves in tropical latitudes
 Deciduous broadleaves in most temperate
latitudes
 Evergreen conifers at high temperate
elevations and at high latitudes
Evergreen Broadleaf Tropical
Forest
Temperate Deciduous Forest
Evergreen Forest, Pacific
Coast
Taiga
 Biome that borders the artic tundra
 Few trees
 Most common tree is the black spruce
 Can be considered an ecotone
 Low bio - productivity and diversity
Taiga
Taiga
Arctic Tundra

 Occurs at high
latitudes
 Permafrost lies
beneath surface
Do not post
 Nutrient cycling on Internet

is very slow  Arctic tundra in Russia in summer

Figure 49.19 
Page 903
 Alpine Tundra
 Occurs at high
elevations
 No underlying
permafrost
 Plants are low
cushions or mats as
in Arctic tundra Do not post
on Internet
Figure 49.19 
Page 903
The Biosphere

Part 2
Aquatic Ecosystems
 Lakes
 Bodies of standing freshwater
 Eutrophic: shallow, nutrient-rich, has
high primary productivity
 Oligotrophic: deep, nutrient-poor, has
low primary productivity
Lake Zonation
LITTORAL LITTORAL
LIMNETIC
PROFUNDAL Figure 49.21
Page 904
Thermal Layering
 In temperate-zone lakes, water can
form distinct layers during summer

THERMOCLINE

Figure 49.22
Page 904
Seasonal Overturn
 In spring and fall, temperatures in the
lake become more uniform
 Oxygen-rich surface waters mix with
deeper oxygen-poor layers
 Nutrients that accumulated at bottom
are brought to the surface
Eutrophication
 Enrichment of a body of water with
nutrients

 Can occur naturally over long time span

 Can be triggered by pollutants

Streams

 Begin as springs
or seeps
 Carry nutrients
Do not post
downstream on Internet

 Solute concentrations influenced by

streambed composition and human activities

Figure 49.23 
Page 905
 Ocean Provinces
neritic oceanic
zone zone
intertidal
zone
continental ater
shelf lit w ater
n
su ht" w
0 ilig
200 "t w
bathyal PELAGIC
shelf PROVINCE a ter
BENTHIC ssw
PROVINCE 1,000
u nle
s
2,000
abyssal
zone
4,000
hadal zone

deep-sea
Figure 49.24 trenches 11,0000
Page 906 depth (meters)
 Phytoplankton

 Floating or weakly swimming

photoautotrophs; form the base for
most oceanic food webs
 Ultraplankton are photosynthetic
bacteria
Plankton Nets
Diatoms and Dinoflagellates
Primary Productivity
 Primary producers are usually the
phytoplankton
 Productivity can vary seasonally
north temperate
north polar

tropical

Figure 49.25
Page 906
Deep Ocean Food Webs
 Regions too dark for photosynthesis
 Marine snow supports a detrital food
web
 Organic matter drifts down from
shallower water
 Diverse species migrate up and down in
water column daily
 Hydrothermal Vents
 Openings in ocean floor
that spew mineral-rich, Do not post
superheated water on Internet

 Primary producers are

chemoautotrophic
bacteria; use sulfides as
energy source
Tube worms at hydrothermal vent

Figure 49.26 
Page 907
Mangrove Wetlands
 Tropical saltwater ecosystem
 Form in nutrient-rich tidal flats
 Dominant plants are salt-tolerant
mangroves
 Florida, Southeast Asia (25 ° N/S
latitude)
Red Mangroves
Mangrove Ecosystem
Where the Rivers meet the
Sea: 5. Mangroves (Video)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SM
M7x7qKE4
Estuary
 Partially enclosed area where
saltwater and freshwater mix
 Dominated by salt-tolerant plants
 Examples are Chesapeake Bay, San
Francisco Bay, salt marshes of New
England
 Estuarine Food Webs

 Primary producers are phytoplankton

and salt-tolerant plants
 Much primary production enters detrital
food webs
 Detritus feeds bacteria, nematodes,
snails, crabs, fish
 Intertidal Zones

 Littoral zone is submerged only during

highest tides of the year
 Midlittoral zone is regularly submerged
and exposed
 Lower littoral is exposed only during
lowest tides of the year
 Rocky
Intertidal
 Grazing food webs
prevail
 Vertical zonation is
readily apparent
 Diversity is greatest
in lower littoral zone Do not post
Figure 49.29 on Internet
Page 909
Sandy Coastlines
 Vertical zonation is less obvious than
along rocky shores
 Detrital food webs predominate
Beaches
 Beach Processes
 “Sandy beaches form by the accretion
of sand particles, the product of
erosion, which have been carried in
and deposited by waves.
 Once it forms, a beach changes
continuously. Winds are constantly
blowing the sand - often in the opposite
direction of the waves.”
http://www.amyingalls.net/jekyll/pages/beach/sandy_b.html
 Accretion
 Accretion: the process of growth or enlargement by
gradual buildup. Barrier islands grow through the
process of accretion. Currents wash the sand from
the northern end of the island and deposit it on the
southern tip.  

The growth of the islands in this manner causes the islands to migrate
up and down the coast.
Jekyll Island is migrating south toward Florida.
Erosion

 Erosion:
Erosion: the process
or state of being
slowly worn away.
Soil is eroded by
wind and water .
 Biotic Factors
 Crabs and other
animals are moving
sand from the
bottom up as they
emerge from their
burrows. Crabs can
move several tons of
sand in one day
http://www.amyingalls.net/jekyll/pages/beach/sandy_b.html
THE GHOST CRAB, Ocypode quadrata
Beach Dynamics
 Through the seasons, the waves
constantly rework the sand and reshape
the beach.
 During spring and summer, gentle
waves deposit sand onto the beach
platform forming a broad sandy slope
called a berm.
Summer Sand Accretion
 During the summer, the gentle waves
build up sand on the beach platform.
Berm

A berm is a narrow shelf or ledge of

sand and debris running parallel to the
beach. It is made by the building up, or
accretion, of sand.
Winter Sand Removal
 Through the seasons, the waves
constantly rework the sand and reshape
the beach.
 During the Winter, storms often remove
sand from the berm.
 The Southerly long shore current tends
to move the entire barrier island
southward.
Sand Dunes
 Sand dunes are vital to the barrier
island ecosystem. They provide
shelter for shorebirds and sea turtles.
Dune Sand Reservoirs
 Dunes also provide the necessary sand
supply for the constantly changing beach.
 This supply of sand helps to control
beach erosion - a problem many beaches
experience.
 Sand dunes provide the first line of
defense from severe storms and
hurricanes.
Dune Zonation
 There are three different zones in the
sand dunes: primary dunes,
secondary dunes, and the interdune
meadow.
 As the dunes get older, they migrate
back toward the maritime forest.
Interdune Meadows
 Between the dunes in a interdune
meadow, water will begin to collect. If
there is enough soil to hold this water,
a swamp will form.
 These swamps are called sloughs
(pronounced slews).
Role of Freshwater
 Because they are far enough back from
the ocean, sloughs contain fresh, and
not salt water.
 Fresh water allows more animals and
plants to live and grow.
 If enough time passes, the slough will
find itself in a maritime forest.
 Later, alligator - 9-footer
comes ashore on St. Simons

Fri, Aug 23, 2002

By KAREN SLOAN
The Brunswick News
Tourists were not the only ones who wanted to enjoy
the sun and surf on the beach near the old U.S.
Coast Guard Station on St. Simons Island Thursday.
A 9-foot alligator was found about 10 a.m. lingering
in the waters about 20 feet from the beach….

http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/local/278347593804907.php
Read the Beach ,127 (Video)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU7
hAZB1ATo
 Upwelling
Upward
movement of
water along a
coast; replaces
surface waters
that move away
from shore
Figure 49.31
Page 910
ENSO
 El Nino Southern Oscillation
 Climactic event that involves changes in
sea surface temperature and air circulation
patterns in the equatorial Pacific Ocean
(Western Pacific waters become warmer)
 Between ENSOs

 Warm water and heavy rainfall move

west across the Pacific
 Warm moist air rises in the western
Pacific causing storms
 Upwelling of cool water along western
coasts
 During an ENSO

 Trade winds weaken and warm water

flows east across the Pacific
 Sea surface temperatures rise
 Upwelling along western coasts ceases
 Heavy rainfall occurs along coasts,
droughts elsewhere
 Cholera Connection
 Cholera outbreaks
correlate with rises in
sea temperature
 Copepod population
increases when Do not post
on Internet
phytoplankton increase
Copepod host of Vibrio cholerae
in warming seas harbors dormant stage

Figure 49.34 
Page 913