bot 260

You would expect to find particularly productive fishing grounds

On a continental shelf where the prevailing winds blow from the shore to the ocean

Organism of the Day: Orangutan in Sumatra

One of the four great apes. Indonesian language name of 'man of the forest'. Spend almost all of their time in trees. Average life span is about 50-60 years. Very heavy: females- 90 lbs. males -200 lbs. Solitary: will move together and intentionally avoid each other. Young males will force the females to mate. Majority of their food is fruit. 1,000 left in the wild. Buket Lawng rehabilitation center. Swamp forest= field iste. contains many more oranguatans than anticipated because of large abundance of fruit.

Sindh Desert, Pakistan

One of the four places where civilization started. Diverse language groups and ethnicity. After 1947, was among one of the largest irrigation projects in the world. Using the water to plant sugarcane. In some areas, the salt content of the soil has become so high that sugarcane can no longer be grown in those areas, productivity going down.

Organism of the Day: Desert Locust

One of the plagues. They are tremendously destructive. Green and red locusts are of the same species. There is a switch from the solitary to the gregarious phase. Eggs require 3/4 inches of rain to hatch. Eggs take 10-70 days to hatch. From there they can either go into the solitary or gregarious phases. They fly downwind so their eggs can hatch.

Coral Reefs

Only occur in tropical waters. High productivity. High diversity--contain about 25% of all marine species while they make up about 0.17% of the ocean area. Even more extreme than tropical rainforest. Vary rare.

Which one of the following is not a reason why rainforests are so valuable as a source of new drugs?

Plants have chemicals that help extract more nutrients from unproductive rainforest soils

Low Humus

(decaying plant matter in soil) Humus is really good at holding and absorbing nutrients What makes soil rich is the decomposing matter in the soil

What role does fire play in the maintenance of prairies?

-fire releases nutrients bound up in dead plants -fire kills tree seedlings -fire sterilizes soil and kills insects

Resistance to drought conditions is particularly important for plants

-growing as epiphytes on rainforest trees -during winter in the arctic tundra -growing in rock crevices in deserts

Coco plants do well in the tropics (one of the few things)

...

Ultimate causes of deforestation

1. Population growth 2. Economic and policy: people wanting to make money, or governments has politics that allow people to make money by cutting down forests.

plants accommodate for the lack of nutrients

1. Root mats 2. Mycorrhizal fungi 3. Rood nodules: nitrogen-fixing bacteria 4. Tree buttresses 5. Eishuangbanna China

Countries with the most tropical rainforests

1. South Africa 2. Asia 3. Australia

Rood nodules: nitrogen-fixing bacteria

1. Take atmospheric nitrogen and convert it to a form that the plant can use 2. Nitrogen is a very common element, but plants can't take it in is gaseous form and turn it into a form that they can use --> need nodules 3. Not unique in the tropics, but very important in the tropics

Agriculture Problems

1. Technological/biological limits to productivity (huge increase in the productivity of hybrid crops. But biological and technological limit of how productive crops can be) 2. Limited arable land 3. Limited water 4. Land degradation. Land becoming less productive through time

Tree buttresses

1. Tree roots in the tropics stay fairly close to the surface to grab nutrients before they wash away 2. We don't have many trees with buttresses in this area because we have fairly good soils

Why do cacti have spines?

1. all of the water in the plants is saltier than sea water, so it is unlikely that this is a protection from animals 2. Spines slow down air motion 3. Similar to hair: traps the hair close to the skin as a mechanism to keep you warm. 4. Helps prevents plants from drying out 5. Using spines that cannot loose water because there is no water in them to begin with

Mycorrhizal fungi

1. common for plants all over the world but most important for plants in the tropics 2. found in the root system of plants 3. good at absorbing nutrients quickly and effectively.

Organism of the day: African elephant

2 distinct species of elephants in Africa (African forest, African savanna) Some can eat up to 800lbs of food a day If they walk abruptly they could break their legs Social groups of related females- occur in groups and dominated by females. Adult males are solitary. Many are very social. Have long distance communication, low frequency sounds emitted can travel long distances. Males go through musht which is when males have high testosterone levels and become very aggressive. Males in musht have dominance over even larger males. Larger elephants maintain musht for a longer period of time. Have great memories. They remember that they are killed by humans, so some will kill humans when they have the chance.

Locust Swarm

40 million locusts per km squared 1,000 kilometers squares= 40 billion locusts 80,000 tons of locusts Eat as much food as 20 million people

Lichen

A fungus, usually of the class Ascomycetes, that grows symbiotically with algae, resulting in a composite organism that characteristically forms a crust-like or branching growth on rocks or tree trunks.

Exxon Valez Oil Spill

Alaska 1989. The boast split and released oil

Which one of the following statements is false?

Arctic tundras are more productive than boreal coniferous forests

Lichens

Are useful indicators of some types of environmental pollution

Shallow Benthos

Area of the ocean that are shallow, light can penetrate to the ocean floor. Moderate productivity, moderate benthos (sea cucmbers, geoducks)

Why do tropical rainforests have more vegetation layers between the canopy and the ground than most other kinds of forest?

Because there is intense competition for light

Some of the most productive areas of the oceans are found in polar regions because

Cold water at the surface and shallow ocean bottoms together increase the mixing of surface water and water from the ocean depths

Which one of the following statements is false?

Chaparral generally has higher productivity than you would expect based on the average temperature and rainfall over the course of a year

Chaparral

Coastal. Low productivity. Low, but variable diversity. Cool, wet winters: rains when it is cool, plants do get water, but at the wrong time of the year for productivity and growth. Hot, dry summer: have a very long summer period where there is no rain. Plants designed to contain as much water for as long as possible. Get burned every 15-20 years or so: fires are really important, certain (most) plants only germinate and bloom after a fire, fire releases the nutrients that are locked in the woods, concern about the fires not ecologically, but because of human habitation of the chaparrals

Based on chapters from "the flight of the iguana" which one of the following statements if FALSE?

Complex communities, like tropical rain forests and coral reefs are stable against even strong disturbances. FALSE

Largest Known Aquifer

Contains enough water to cover lower 48 states, 1.5 feet deep. Supports $32 billion per year in agriculture. Water pumped out 8 times faster than recharged, 25% gone by 2020.

A characteristic of desert plants is that they have a spine

Convergence evolution. Different lineages have evolved to share traits because they share the same environmental pressures. ex. Euphorb and cactus

Which oceanic zone has both high productivity and high diversity?

Coral reefs

Agricultural practices in many areas of the USA over the last 50 years have resulted in all of the following except

Decreases in the loss of topsoil

Tube worms

Deep sea vents produce hydrogen sulfide. You then get primary production from hydrogen sulfide. 75% fo their bodies are bacteria

Desert

Dry. Hot or cold. Low productivity: things grow slowly, so if there is damage, the damage lasts for a long time. Low, but variable diversity. Full of flowers and life at the right time of the year (spring) if there has been a rainfall. Usually a lot of bare ground: too dry for simple grasses to survive, plants have extensive root systems to absorb as much water around them as possible. Palm springs: drops humidity and temperature about 15 degrees: permanent water that creates a different type of community. Severe thunderstorms and floods: even though the average rainfall might be 2 inches per year, it usually all comes at once. Long periods without water, and then a short time with large amounts of water.

Palouse Hills

Eastern Washington State. Fairly dry and also very windy. Soil erosion 1948: Man standing by field that has lost 4-5 ft. of topsoil. Grasses keep soil in place, plow an annual crop, basically a lot of bare ground showing, wind erosion and water erosion. Al lot of topsoil loss.

Which of these continents contains the largest area of boreal forest?

Eurasia

Phytoplankton Dinofalgellates

Famous for the species that produce things like red tides.

Organism of the Day: Lions

Females do the hunting. Males will then eat before the females. Not effective predators: at night, the lions are the scavengers. Prides are composed of related females and one unrelated male. Male reach sexual maturity at age 3. Females won't release eggs unless they have a physical copulation. Takes 600 copulations for every cub. All females go into estrus at the same time.

Why are people starving?

Frequency in famines in China, hasn't changed at all in 1000 years. Starvation isn't driven by food production but by politics and wars. In China, combination of events that kicked 10s of million of people out of their homes. Famine today is horrible in N. Korea Issues coming from the distribution of wealth Many poor people don't have money to buy food

One a forest is cut down and the area turns into grassland, why is it often difficult to re-establish the forest?

Grasslands burn frequently, and fires kill tree seedlings

Ocotillo

Have long roots to tap into water sources

Introduction to the green industry in India

Historically a great tourist stop. In a state of civil war. Tibetan plateu gets about as much water as the Sahara Desert. Barely was the main crop. Hybrids between yaks and cows because yaks survive better in the winter, but cows produce more milk. Fertilizers decreased the human labor, but also decreased the quality of crops and soils.

Which of the following characteristics are shared by both temperate grasslands and tropical savannas?

Historically, they both supported a large number of large-bodied mammal species

Irrigation

Irrigation represents about 1/3 of the green revolution increase in food production

Plant communities in northern Wisconsin are different from those in southern Wisconsin because

It snows more in the north, and the snow-cover lasts longer in the winter

Kangaroo rats

Kangaroo rats are among the most water efficient of the mammals. Most of the water they need comes from the food that they eat.

Cacit and euphorbs are an example of convergent evolution. Which of the following environmental factors do you think drove the evolution of convergence?

Lack of water

Changes in the Southwest water availability due to Climate Change, 2070-99

Less than 10% change in total precipitation. Most change in snow accumulation. Rainfall wont decrease all that much, but the amount of snowfall will decrease drastically. Snowfall is very important for summer water supplies because snow melts up in the mountains and trickles down to provide water

Which one of the following biomes has the greatest efficiency of biomass production

Midwestern US prairies

Organism of the Day: 3-toed sloth

Most common herbivore in parts of the tropical rainforest. Have a greenish tint. They are very difficult to see. The only defense that they have is simply not to be seen. They are basically cows that live in the trees. They eat leaf material, which have chemicals that make them hard to digest. It takes a long time for them to digest anything: 3 days for food to pass. They have 30% of their body in their stomachs. Metabolic weight is the lowest of all mammels. Their body temperature is the same as the air temperature. They come out of the treetops once a week to urinate and poop.

The story of the teosinte, the perennial maize Zea diploperennis, teaches us that

Natural areas may contain useful plant species that have not yet been discovered

Green Revolution

New crops varieties: hybrid varieties. Fossil fuels: amount of energy that goes into producing food is much greater than the amount of energy we get from out food. Irrigation: has both increased the productivity of land by providing water and allowed more land to be put into agriculture. Chemicals: Fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides.

suppose you own a large logging company and you are planning to establish a pine tree plantation. Pine trees can grow in all of the following locations. Which location would you choose to maximize timber production per acre?

Northern Russia

Eishuangbanna China

Poor soils that are farms Cut up tropical rain forests and burned it which rapidly released the nutrient content into the soil, but these nutrients only remained for about two years

Which one of the following explains why rhinos are close to extinction?

Rhino horns are very valuable on the black market

which one of the following habitats has experienced the greatest amount (percent of area) of human destruction in the last 200 years?

Tropical deciduous forests

Grand Banks

Scientists said in the early 70s that Grand Bank is being over fished, it's going to collapse. They were right. They fishery crashed in the 1990s, has yet to recover. There is a question as to why it hasn't recovered. Same thing happened with the anchovy fishery off the coast of Peru. 75% of fisheries are fully overexploited.

Rocky Benthos

Sea anemone, crown-of-torns starfish

Organism of the Day: Black Rhino

Second largest of the land mammals, after elephants. Really dumb and mean. White rhinos are larger, black rhinos are smaller. White rhino mostly in grasslands, black rhino will be in jungles. Almost all of the decline in rhino population is due to poaching.

Which one of the following statements is false?

Small islands often have more species of animals on them than large islands because small islands have more endemic species

Saguaro cactus

Swell up, have adaptions to get as much water as possible when it is available.

Which one of the following statements is false?

Temperate grasslands often have poor soils

Which one of the following statements is false?

The diversity of tree species in boreal forests supports a great diversity of birds and insects

Mutualism

The fungus provides nutrients, and the trees provide proteins for the fungi

Suppose that while looking in an old museum attic, you discover an unlabelled 200-year-old stuffed fox belonging to an unknown species. The fox has an unusually long muzzle, large ear, and relatively long legs for its size. Based on these characters, where would you say the specimen came from?

The hot Tarim Basin deserts of Central Asia

Angular fish

The males of this speices have turned into parasites.

Symbiotic dinoflagelates

There are whole bunch of them. But there is one group that have a great relationship with coral. This is kind of like a lichen, in this cause it's an animal and an algae that live in a symbiotic relationship.

The quality of soils for agriculture in tropical rain forests is most similar to the quality of soils in boreal forests

They are really productive, but the quality of the soil isn't that good Poor soils-low nutrient content-due to two things: 1. High rainfall 2. Rapid decomposition of plant material in the soil

What is the main reason that the giant lobelia, a plant species in the alpine tundra of East Africa, has bowl-shaped area filled with water?

To protect against freezing at night

CAP- Central Arizona Project

Tried to use it as drinking water. Tasted horrible, now is used only for agriculture

Which of the following gives the correct order of tree species diversity (from greatest to least)?

Tropical rainforest> tropical deciduous forest> temperate rainforest> boreal forest

Which one of the following explains why land with tropical rainforests is often not very useful following deforestation

Tropical rainforests contain plants that are specially adapted to low nutrient availability in soils

Which one of the following statements is false?

Tropical rainforests have high plant diversity because of rich soils

Atolls

Typically what you have is a volcano, through time it slowly sinks. Through time the volcanic area is settlign, the coral is gorwing and eventually you have coral on top.

Soil Loss

US is the only country that does detailed inventory on soil loss. 44% of agriculture here is being affected by loss of topsoil

Tropical Rain Forests

Vegetation structure: competition for light. Gaps are formed when a tree falls, the seedlings grow rapidly in a race to fill that gap.

Biodiversity (Number of species per hectare)

WI Boreal- 6 WI Deciduous- 15 Eastern USA Deciduous Forest- 30 Tropical Rainforest Africa-70 Indonesia-150 South America-280 Record (Atlantic Coast of Brazil)-440

Alfalfa Fields in Arizona

Water is pretty cheap in Arizona and also the sun is very bright and warm so alfalfa grows all year round.

Oceans

What is driving productivity in oceans is the availability of nutrients (and light), regardless of temperatures. Also if it's shallower it is better for productivity. Nutrients primarily come from runoff from the continents

Key questions about food

Will there be enough food in 2050? That is when the human population is expected to peak at 9 billion people? Need 70% food production. In order to get beef, meat, pork, we need more grain crops to feed animals to feed people. 150% food production increase in the last 40 years

Upwelling

Wind drives water away from the surface. Upwelling occurs and the water below is pushed up to replace the surface water

Ogallala Aquifers

With open aquifers, you dig until you find water. Can access water from sources that are far away. Huge source of water of eastern United States, charge sight is the Rocky Mountains.

Which one of the following do you think is the most important ramification of the "green revolution"?

Worldwide there is more food produced per person now than there was 50 years ago

Primary Productivity

a measure of the rate at which new organic matter is developed through photosynthesis and chemosynthesis in producer organisms based on the oxygen released and carbon taken in; the transformation of chemical or solar energy to biomass

Knowing that frogs are killed by salt water, on which of the following islands would you most likely find frogs?

a small landbridge island in the Mediterranean Sea

Productivity

amount of plant matter produced in a year in the forests

In the desert, birds have an advantage compared to mammals because...

birds produce uric acid

Deep Sea

categorized by absence of light. Below 600 ft. Cold and dark. Abundance of benthic organisms with depth, the abundance drops down a lot as the oceans get deeper. There isn't much down there.

Temperate grasslands and tropical savanna

have historically supported large populations of large mammals

The ultimate causes of deforestation in tropical rain forests as discussed in class include economics and

human population growth

Primary productivity in terrestrial biomes

is the rate at which solar energy is transformed into biomass depends in part on the availability of nutrients to plants Varies by a factor of more than ten among different biomes

Pelagic (open ocean)

low productivity, low diversity, phytoplankton (photosynethic, doesn't have enough power to control where it goes), zooplankton (small herbivores and predators)

Epiphytes

plants that live on trees. Lianas and strangler figs

what is the reason for the population declines of many species of warbler (a migratory group of songbirds) in the eastern USA?

predation during the breeding season by species of small predators that are associated with humans lack of undistrubed "deep" forest habitat habitat destruction in the areas in the tropics where they spend the winter

biomass

the total number of living organisms in a given area, expressed in terms of living or dry weight per unit area

Which of the following biomes does not occur in Wisconsin?

tundra