Chapter 4 - Kinds of Ecosystems

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Date:	Friday, 22 November 2024, 2:14 AM

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Holt, Rinhart and Winston; 2000

FORESTS

Conservation measures are often costly in teh short term, they also can cause oppostion from people who will no longer get economic gain or benefit from protected lands.
If people are proud of thier country's natural resources they are more likely to protect them.
The most important part of climate that is important to an ecosystem are temperature and percipitation.
Temperate rain forests located near the ocean creates a moderate wet climate that allows for growth of many different forest plants.
Taiga forests are located far north where there are extrememly cold temperatures and low percipitation, with a short frost free growing season.
Tropical rain forests do not have fertile soil to support any type of agriculture, the heavy rains wash away top soil.

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GRASSLANDS, CHAPARRAL, DESTERS, AND TUNDRA - 4.2

Tundras and Deserts are similar because they are both products of severe climates, they each contain a fragile ecosystems that are slow to heal and have low species variety. Tundras are extreamly cold and dry, deserts are extreamly hot and dry.
Building a city in the desert has some challenges. A city needs more water than a desert can support, a desert ecosystem can be badly damaged by development.
Grasslands have deep rich topsoil that make it a good for farming. This is due to the roots of the grass holding down the topsoil that is full of nutrients. Trees are also scarce in grasslands making it easier to farm.
Fire can be benefical to an ecosystem. Fire kills many sprouting trees and shrubs and teh aboveground growth of grass plants. the charred remains return nutrients to thesoil. However, the roots of grass plants are specially adapted to survive fire undamaged, so after a fire the roots use the new supply of nutrients to rapidly send up new shoots.

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FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS - 4.3

In a freshwater lake the areas with the most sunlight (littoral zone), sunlight provides the energy for photosynthesis in plants which form the base for all marine food chains.
Wetlands along river bottoms have several important environmnetal functions; they provide habitat for wildlife, trapping casrbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, absorbing floodwaqters, filtering out pollutatns, and providing many commerically important products.
Most lakes found in North America were formed by glaciation that toook place during past ice ages.
Run-off can pick up fertilizers from yards, and oil and gas off streets, the water can run into a sewer system and the pollutants are then put into the water systems. If concertartions become high enough, these chemicals and other pollutants can affect plant and wildlife.

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MARINE ECOSYSTEMS 4.4

Coral Reefs can be damaged by many things; when the water temperature gets too high or too low, water drainage from freshwater sources, agricultural runoff, oil spills, sewage, ozone depleation, overfishing, dredging, careless divers, shipwrecks, and souvenir collecting.
Estuaries are very vulnerable to pollution because human development along them brings pollution. Humans depend on estuaries for many things including food and filtering.
If the sea levels were to rise significantly the coral reefs would all die, they would be too far below sea level for sunlight for photosynthesis.
Most of the ocean is poor in nutrients because the ocen floor is too far below where the sunlight can penetrate, so there is no photsynthesis, and bo base for food chains.

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