This document discusses several key topics relating to biomes and ecosystems: - It describes different biomes like tundra, forests, grasslands, and oceans, and how plant and animal communities are distributed within biomes. - It explains factors that influence species diversity and distribution, such as latitude, climate, geography, and elevation. - It discusses human impacts on ecosystems like deforestation, habitat fragmentation, pollution, and eutrophication.

1. Tundra Biome:

2. Biomes: focus
on Ecotones:

3. Biomes: Moisture and Temperature Limitations:
Fig. 5.6

4. Geographical Isolation and Scale: Plant Communities:
Fig. 5.7: Prairie potholes where aquatic communities occupy small,
discrete spaces within a larger, grassland biome.

5. Geographical Isolation and Scale: Plant Communities:
Fig. 5.7: Mixed temperate forest biome where communities and
associations overlap and merge together and cover vast areas.

6. Biogeography:
• A branch of geography that focuses on the
geographic distribution of plants and
animals over the surface of the Earth.

7. Biogeography:
• Ecological biogeography: Concerned with
how the distribution patterns of plants and
animals is affected by the environment
(both physical and biological).
• Historical biogeography: Focuses on how
the spatial distribution of plants and
animals evolve over time and space.

8. Species Diversity by Latitude:
Table 5.1: Species diversity is generally greatest at lower latitudes.

9. 5.5: Ecosystem Patterns and
Distributions:
• Cartographic review of biomes,
• Global terrestrial patterns,
• Global marine patterns,
• Altitudinal zonation, and
• Exotic rivers.

10. Global Distribution of Terrestrial Biomes:
Fig. 5.8: Biomes generally correspond to climate regions.

11. Human Alteration of
Terrestrial Biomes:
• Temperate forests in China, Europe, and
North America,
• Tropical forests in South America, Africa,
and Asia, and
• Grasslands throughout all continents
(except for Antarctica).

12. Productivity within the World’s Oceans:
Fig. 5.9: Based on phytoplankton activity, ecological activity is
moderate in equatorial latitudes, low in subtropical latitudes, and
surprisingly high within the higher latitudes.

13. Relative Distribution of Marine Productivity:
Fig. 5.10

14. Global Marine Patterns:
• Significant variation related to water depth
and ocean circulation,
• Productivity, biomass, and species
diversity are greatest in shallow waters,
especially within the coastal (littoral) zone,
and
• Irregular coastal zones with deltas, and
mixtures of fresh, brackish, and salt water
are most productive.

15. Mixture of Cold and Warm Ocean Currents:
Fig. 5.11

16. • Mechanisms of Heat Transfer and
Intense Biological Productivity
– The Gulf Stream-
North Atlantic
Drift Ocean
Current
• Fig. 5.11

17. Fig. 5.11: Scanning electron micrograph of marine phytoplankton.
Phytoplankton: Base of Marine Ecosystems:

18. Global Distribution of
H-type Climates:

19. Highland Climographs:

20. Altitudinal Zonation:

21. Altitudinal Zonation:
Fig. 5.12: Note the effect of elevation, slope, and aspect on terrestrial
ecosystems. Temperatures grow cooler with increasing elevation.

22. Drainage Network: Watershed, Floodplain, and Delta:
Fig. 5.12: Note the geography of headwater, main trunk, and delta.

23. Exotic Streams within Desert Biomes:
Fig. 5.12: Exotic streams like the Colorado and Nile Rivers result in complex ecosystems.

24.  Running Water in Waterless Regions
• Significance of Running Water
– Aeolian processes less significant
– Sparse vegetation
• Overland flow erosion
• Surface Water in Deserts
– Exotic Streams
– Fig. 5.12

25. •Nile River (an exotic stream) and Nile Delta:
- Fig. 5.12

26. 5.6: Models of Spatial Dynamics
in Ecosystems:
• Succession,
• Successional stage,
• Climax community,
• Disturbance theory,
• Environmental management, and
• The human factor.

27. Ecological Succession:
• A change in plant and animal
communities.
• Describes the way in which biotic
communities succeed one another on the
way to a (meta) stable endpoint (the climax).

28. Ecological Succession:
• Primary succession: Succession on a newly-
deposited mineral sediment (e.g. sand
dune, beach, volcanic lava and ash
deposits, and river deposits).
• Secondary succession: Succession on a
previously vegetated area that has been
recently disturbed by fire, flood, storm, or
human activities.

29. Ecological
Succession:

30. Evolution:
• Change in the genetic makeup of a
population of a species in successive
generations.
• If continued long enough, it can lead to the
formation of a new species.
• Note that populations - not individuals -
evolve.

31. Natural Selection:
• Process by which a particular beneficial
gene (or set of genes) is reproduced in
succeeding generations more than other
genes.
• The result is a population that contains a
greater proportion of organisms better
adapted to certain environmental
conditions (“survival of the fittest”).

32. Natural
Selection:
Which genetic
adaptations
have allowed
this moth
species to
survive?

33. Species:
• Group of organisms that resemble one
another in appearance, behavior, chemical
makeup and processes, and genetic
structure.
• Organisms that reproduce sexually are
classified as members of the same species
only if they can interbreed with one
another and produce fertile offspring.

34. 5.7: Land Use as Ecosystems:
• Modern land uses require large amounts of
energy and material inputs,
• The resource base (soil and water) is
progressively depleted over time, and
• Land use continues to be pushed into
marginal environments where risk of
disturbance is greater.

35. Volcanic Eruption and Environmental Disturbance:
Fig. 5.13

36. Volcanic Eruption and Environmental Disturbance:
Fig. 5.13

37. 5.8: Human Impact and
Disturbance of Ecosystems:
• Reduction,
• Fragmentation,
• Substitution,
• Simplification,
• Contamination (persistent chemicals and
biomagnification), and
• Overgrowth (eutrophication).

38. Endemic Species:

39. Fragmentation of Habitats along a Stream:
Fig. 5.14

40. Human Impact: Contamination:
Fig. 5.15: Increase in
DDT via
biomagnification within a
food chain. Consider
DDT as an example of a
persistent chemical.
DDT, PCB, and dioxin
are environmental
contaminants that may
culminate in synergism.

41. Human Impact: Overgrowth:
Fig. 5.16: Graph illustrating the concept of cultural eutrophication in
an inland lake. Infilling accelerates over time with nutrient loading
from development in the watershed around the lake.