APES Chapter 7-8
Temperate desert
Daytime temperatures are high in summer and low in winter and there is more precipitation that in tropical deserts
slowly
Heat is absorbed and released more _______ by water than by land.
cultural eutrophication
Human inputs of nutrients from the atmosphere and from nearby urban and agricultural areas can accelerate the eutrophication of lakes, a process called _______. This process often puts excessive nutrients into lakes.
electricity
Humans have built dams and levees along most of the world's rivers to control water flows and provide _____ (from hydroelectric power plants).
providing recreation
Inland wetlands provide a number of free ecological and economic services, such as ________ for birdwatchers, nature photographers, boaters, anglers, and waterfowl hunters.
supplying valuable products
Inland wetlands provide a number of free ecological and economic services, such as _________ such as fishes and shellfish, blueberries, cranberries, wild rice, and timber.
filtering and degrading
Inland wetlands provide a number of free ecological and economic services, such as ______________ toxic wastes and pollutants.
recharge; aquifers
Inland wetlands provide a number of free ecological and economic services, such as helping to _____ groundwater _______.
Desert disturbance recovery rate
Their soils take from decades to hundreds of years to recover from disturbances
temperate grasslands two types
Two types of temperate grasslands are the short-grass prairies and the tall-grass prairies (which get more rain).
vertically
Water also moves _________ in the oceans as denser water sinks while less dense water rises
salinity; stresses
Organisms living in the intertidal zone must also survive changing levels of ____ when heavy rains dilute saltwater. To deal with such ______, most intertidal organisms hold on to something, dig in, or hide in protective shells.
swept away or crushed
Organisms living in the intertidal zone must be able to avoid being _______ by waves, and must deal with being immersed during high tides and left high and dry (and much hotter) at low tides
filter feeders
Other abyssal-zone organisms such as oysters, clams, and sponges are _______, which pass water through or over their bodies and extract nutrients from it.
60
Sea grass beds consist of at least __ species of plants that grow underwater in shallow marine and estuarine areas along most continental coastlines
flood control levees and dikes
Second major human impact on freshwater systems is that __________________ built along rivers disconnect the rivers from their floodplains, destroy aquatic habitats, and alter or reduce the functions of nearby wetlands.
Chesapeake Bay
Since 1960, the ______ — the largest estuary in the United States—has been in serious trouble from water pollution, mostly because of human activities.
nutrients
Streams receive many of their (1)______ from bordering land ecosystems. Such (1)______ come from falling leaves, animal feces, insects, and other forms of biomass washed into streams during heavy rainstorms or by melting snow. Thus, the levels and types of (1)______ in a stream depend on what is happening in the stream's watershed.
"natural disasters."
Such real estate is so scarce and valuable that coastal developers frequently remove the protective dunes or build behind the first set of dunes, and cover them with buildings and roads. Large storms can then flood and even sweep away seaside construction and severely erode the sandy beaches. Some people incorrectly call these human-influenced events ______
aquatic life zones
The aquatic equivalents of biomes are called _________—saltwater and freshwater portions of the biosphere that can support life
terrestrial systems
The earth's ______ provide important ecological and economic services.
unnatural disasters
The inland wetland loss of natural capital has been an important factor in increased flood damage in the United States, which are examples of _______. Many other countries have suffered similar losses. For example, 80% of all inland wetlands in Germany and France have been destroyed.
Pacific
The largest ocean is the _____, which contains more than half of the earth's water and covers one-third of the earth's surface.
abyssal zone
The lowest ocean zone, called the , is dark and very cold. There is no sunlight to support photosyn- thesis, and this zone has little dissolved oxygen. Nevertheless,
ocean currents are affected by winds in the atmosphere, and heat from the ocean affects atmospheric circulation.
The ocean and the atmosphere are strongly linked in two ways:
calcium carbonate "condominiums"
The resulting elaborate network of crevices, ledges, and holes (that where left behind from the polyps) serves as ________ for a variety of marine animals.
shift in location
When the climate changes, as current climate models project is likely to happen during this century, there is usually a ______________ of areas where food can be found or grown and where species can live.
Coastal deltas, mangrove forests, and coastal wetlands
_______ _________ ________ provide considerable natural protection against flood and wave damage from coastal storms, hurricanes, typhoons, and tsunamis.
Tropical deserts abiotic factors
are hot and dry most of the year. They have few plants and a hard, windblown surface strewn with rocks and some sand.
human surface vulnerabilities of deserts
disruption from vehicles such as SUVs
phytoplankton
first group is of plankton, Greek for "drifting plants", called tiny drifting pants, which includes many types of algae. this plankton and various rooted plants near shorelines are the primary producers that support most aquatic food webs.
lotic
flowing systems such as streams and rivers.
barrier beaches
gently sloping ______, or sandy shores, that support other types of marine organisms, most of which keep hidden from view and survive by burrowing, digging, and tunneling in the sand. These sandy beaches and their adjoining coastal wetlands are also home to a variety of shorebirds that have evolved in specialized niches to feed on crustaceans, insects, and other organisms
climate and vegetation latitude and elevation change example
if you hike up a tall Andes mountain in Ecuador, your trek will begin in a tropical rain forest and end up on a glacier at the summit.
density
mass per unit volume
irregular; removed or altered
mosaic patches occur mostly because of the _______ distribution of the resources needed by plants and animals and because human activities have ________ the natural vegetation in many areas.
vertical zones
primarily on the basis of the penetration of sunlight, this deep blue sea is divided into three _____
desert vegetation
soils have little vegetation and moisture to help store the heat and the skies above are usually clear. This explains why you may roast during the day but shiver at night.
rocky shores
steep____ are pounded by waves. The numerous pools and other habitats in these intertidal zones contain a great variety of species that occupy different niches in response to daily and seasonal changes in environmental conditions such as temperature, water flows, and salinity
continental shelf
the submerged part of the continents
To determine the climate of the area where you live and how it has changed, second
you would have to note whether these numbers have generally gone up, stayed the same, or gone down.
Human activities in the arctic tundra
—mostly on and around oil drilling sites, pipelines, mines, and military bases—leave scars that persist for centuries.
polyps
Coral reefs are formed by massive colonies of tiny animals called _______ (close relatives of jellyfish)
zooxanthellae
Coral reefs are the result of a mutually beneficial relationship between the polyps and tiny single-celled algae called _______ that live in the tissues of the polyps
Mark Twain
"Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get."
tropical, polar, temperate
three major types of climate
decomposers
(mostly bacteria), which break down organic compounds in the dead bodies and wastes of aquatic organisms into nutrients that aquatic primary producers can use.
Uneven heating of the earth's surface by the sun
. Air is heated much more at the equator, where the sun's rays strike directly, than at the poles, where sunlight strikes at an angle and spreads out over a much greater area. These differences in the input of solar energy help explain why tropical regions near the equator are hot, why polar regions are cold, and why temperate regions in between generally have warm and cool temperatures. The intense input of solar radiation in tropical regions leads to greatly increased evaporation of moisture from forests, grasslands, and bodies of water. As a result, tropical regions normally receive more precipitation than do other areas of the earth.
deserts created by
A combination of low rainfall and varying average temperatures
58%
About 1.2 billion people (17% of the world's population) live in mountain ranges or in their foothills, and 4 billion people (___of the world's population) depend on mountain systems for all or some of their water.
significantly reduce; acidic; warm
According to a 2007 study by Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and 16 other scientists, unless we take action soon to _____ carbon dioxide emissions, the oceans may be too _____ and too ___ for most of the world's coral reefs to survive this century, and the important ecological and economic services they provide will be lost
poorly
According to aquatic scientists, the scientific investigation of _____ understood marine and freshwater aquatic systems could yield immense ecological and economic benefits.
human-enhanced
According to current climate models, this rapid _________ warming of the atmosphere during this century is likely to cause climate changes in various places on the earth that could last for centuries to thousands of years.
0.2%
Although coral reefs occupy only about ____ of the ocean floor, they provide important ecological and economic services.
nutrient content
Ecologists classify lakes according to their _____ and primary productivity.
Highly Productive
Estuaries and Coastal Wetlands Are
No one knows. But there are increasing signs that we need to come to grips with this vital issue.
How long can we keep eating away at these terrestrial forms of natural capital without threatening our economies and the long-term survival of our own and many other species?
Disrupting and Degrading Marine Ecosystems
Human Activities Are
degrading and disrupting
Human activities are _____and______ many of the ecological and economic services provided by the earth's terrestrial ecosystems
coastal marshes, shorelines, mangrove forests, and coral reefs
Human activities are disrupting and degrading some ecological and economic services provided by marine aquatic systems, especially
flooding; flood protection
Human built dams helps to reduce ______ along rivers, but it also reduces _______ provided by the coastal deltas and wetlands
alter; raise; shift
If the projected warming intensifies, climate models project that it is likely to ___ precipitation patterns, ____ average sea levels, and ___ areas where we can grow crops and where some types of plants and animals (including humans) can live
integrated coastal management
In 1983, the United States implemented the Chesapeake Bay Program. In this ambitious attempt at _______, citizens' groups, communities, state legislatures, and the federal government worked together to reduce pollution inputs into the chesapeake bay.
many more
In 2007, a team of scientists led by J. Craig Venter released a report that dramatically challenged scientists' assumptions about biodiversity in the open sea. After sailing around the world and spending 2 years collecting data, they found that the open sea contains ______ bacteria, viruses, and other microbes than scientists had previously assumed.
reefs
In 2009, researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and at the College of William and Mary reported that several protected experimental ___ created in 2004 are now home to a significant population of oysters. This research suggests that creating thousands these as oyster sanctuaries would help to raise the overall oyster population. This could also help to clean the water and provide more habitat for crabs, fish, and other forms of marine life.
45%
In 2010, about ____ of the world's population and more than half of the U.S. population lived along or near coasts and these percentages are increasing rapidly.
19%
In a 2008 report by the Global Coral Reef Monitor- ing Network, scientists estimated that ____ of the world's coral reefs had been destroyed
euphotic or photic zone,
In deep aquatic systems, photosynthesis is largely confined to the upper layerxthrough which sunlight can penetrate
replenish; dry
Inland wetlands provide a number of free ecological and economic services, such as helping to ______ stream flows during ______ periods.
maintain biodiversity
Inland wetlands provide a number of free ecological and economic services, such as helping to ________ ______ by providing habitats for a variety of species.
quite low
Net primary productivity (NPP) is _____ in the open sea, except in upwelling areas. However, because the open sea covers so much of the earth's surface, it makes the largest contribution to the earth's overall NPP.
60%
Nonpoint sources in the chesapeake bay—mostly runoff of fertilizer, animal wastes from urban, suburban, and agricultural land, and deposition of pollutants from the atmosphere—account for ___ by weight of the nitrates
microclimates
Cities create distinct
60%
Point sources in the chesapeake bay, primarily sewage treatment plants and industrial plants (often in violation of their discharge permits), account for ____ by weight of the phosphates.
burrows
Desert animals have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as Some beat the heat by hiding in cool ______ or rocky crevices by day and coming out at night or in the early morning.
fat; cool; sweat
Desert animals have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as Some larger animals such as camels can drink massive quantities of water when it is available and store it in their ___ for use as needed. Also, the camel's thick fur actually helps it to keep ____ because the air spaces in the fur insulate the camel's skin against the outside heat. And camels do not _____, which reduces their water loss through evaporation.
limestone (calcium carbonate)
Polyps slowly build reefs by secreting a protective crust of _________ around their soft bodies. When the polyps die, their empty crusts remain behind as a platform for more reef growth.
surface water
Precipitation that does not sink into the ground or evaporate is
roughly circular patterns
Prevailing winds and irregularly shaped continents interrupt these currents and cause them to flow in _________ between the continents
ocean currents
Prevailing winds blowing over the oceans produce mass movements of surface water (Driven by prevailing winds and the earth's rotation, the major ones help redistribute heat from the sun, thereby influencing climate and vegetation, especially near coastal areas.)
biodiversity
Rain forest species occupy a variety of specialized niches in distinct layers, which help to enable these forests' great ______ (high species richness).
ecological and economic
The earth's aquatic systems provide important ______ services.
warm and cold
This heat and differences in water density create ________ ocean currents
loop of deep and shallow
This vertical movement of water in the ocean creates a connected _______ ocean currents
plankton, nekton, benthos, decomposers
We can divide aquatic life forms into several major types:
cold deserts weather
Winters are cold, summers are warm or hot, and precipitation is low.
The natural greenhouse effect
Without this the earth would be a very cold and mostly lifeless planet
69
__ different mangrove tree species that can grow in salt water. They have extensive root systems that often extend above the water, where they can obtain oxygen and support the trees during periods of changing water levels
Phosphate and nitrate
____ levels have risen sharply in many parts of the chesapeake bay, causing algal blooms and oxygen depletion.
Undisturbed
_____ barrier beaches generally have one or more rows of natural sand dunes in which the sand is held in place by the roots of plants, usually grasses. These dunes are the first line of defense against the ravages of the sea
transition zone
_______, headwater streams merge to form wider, deeper, and warmer streams that flow down gentler slopes with fewer obstacles. This zone can be more turbid (from suspended sediment), slower flowing, and can have less dissolved oxygen than headwater streams. The warmer water and other conditions in this zone support more producers as well as cool-water and warm-water fish species (such as black bass) with slightly lower oxygen requirements.
desert precipitation
annual precipitation is low and often scattered unevenly throughout the year.
temperate rain forests (Coastal coniferous forests)
are found in scattered coastal temperate areas with ample rainfall or moisture from dense ocean fogs. Dense stands of these forests with large conifers such as Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, and redwoods once dominated undisturbed areas of these biomes along the coast of North America, from Canada to northern California in the United States.
Forests
are lands dominated by trees. The three main types of this are—tropical, temperate, and cold (northern coniferous, or boreal)—result from combinations of varying precipitation levels and varying average temperatures
Lakes
are large natural bodies of standing freshwater formed when precipitation, runoff, streams, rivers, and groundwater seepage fill depressions in the earth's surface
polar
areas near the earth's poles, receiving the least intense sunlight, where it is generally cold during both winter and summer seasons
tropical
areas near the equator, receiving the most intense sunlight, where the climate is generally warm throughout the year
Adaptations for survival in the desert have two themes:
beat the heat and every drop of water counts.
temperatures
change with depth of the ocean and we can use them to define ocean zones that help to determine species diversity in these layers
irregular
convection cells lead to an _________ distribution of climates and the resulting deserts, grasslands, and forests
Three
convection cells north of the equator
Coral Reefs
form in clear, warm coastal waters of the tropics and subtropics These stunningly beautiful natural wonders are among the world's oldest, most diverse, and most productive ecosystems.
atmosphere
greenhouse gasses allow mostly visible light and some infrared radiation and ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun to pass through the
carbon cycle
human activities, especially the burning of carbon-containing fossil fuels, have added carbon dioxide to the atmosphere faster than it is removed by the
short
in most areas of the open ocean, nitrates, phosphates, iron, and other nutrients are often in _____ supply, and this limits net primary productivity (NPP)
marine aquatic systems
include many different ecosystems, which host a great variety of species, genes, and biological and chemical processes, thus helping to sustain the four major components of the earth's biodiversity
rain shadow effect
is a reduction of rainfall and loss of moisture from the landscape on the side of mountains facing away from prevailing surface wind
topographic features example
mountains interrupt the flow of prevailing surface winds and the movement of storms. When moist air blowing inland from an ocean reaches a mountain range, it is forced upward. As it rises, it cools and expands and then loses most of its moisture as rain and snow that fall on the windward slope of the mountain (the side facing the area from which the wind is blowing). As the drier air mass passes over the mountaintops, it flows down the leeward slopes (facing away from the wind), and warms up. This increases its ability to hold moisture, but the air releases little moisture and instead tends to dry out plants and soil below. Over many decades, the resulting semiarid or arid conditions on the leeward side of a high mountain, or rain shadow effect
watershed
or drainage basin, is the land area that delivers runoff, sediment, and dissolved substances to a stream.
algal blooms
resulting from nutrient overloads, causing excessive algal growth
nekton
strongly swimming aquatic animals or consumers such as fish, turtles, and whales
temperate deserts daytime
temperatures are high in summer and low in winter and there is more precipitation than in tropical deserts.
population and development
the Chesapeake Bay Program had failed to meet its goals because of increased _______, a drop in state and federal funding, and lack of cooperation and enforcement among local, state, and federal officials.
cold deserts examples
the Gobi Desert in Mongolia
Tropical deserts examples
the Sahara and the Namib of Africa (They are the deserts we often see in the movies)
mutualism example
the algae provide the polyps with food and oxygen through photosynthesis, and help produce calcium carbonate, which forms the coral's skeleton. Algae also give the reefs their stunning coloration. The polyps, in turn, provide the algae with a well-protected home and some of their nutrients.
shallow
the chesapeake bay is so ____ that people can wade through much of it.
water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O)
the four types of green house gasses
plankton
weakly swimming, free-floating organisms, which can be divided into three groups
temperate grassland weather
winters can be bitterly cold, summers are hot and dry, and annual precipitation is fairly sparse and falls unevenly throughout the year.
Properties of air, water, and land
. Heat from the sun evaporates ocean water and transfers heat from the oceans to the atmosphere, especially near the hot equator. This evaporation of water creates giant cyclical convection cells that circulate air, heat, and moisture both vertically and from place to place in the atmosphere
arctic tundra (Cold grasslands)
(Russian for "marshy plain"), lie south of the arctic polar ice cap. During most of the year, these treeless plains are bitterly cold, swept by frigid winds, and covered with ice and snow. Winters are long with short days, and scant precipitation falls mostly as snow.Under the snow, During the brief summer, the permafrost layer keeps melted snow and ice from draining into the ground. As a consequence, many shallow lakes, marshes, bogs, ponds, and other seasonal wetlands form when snow and frozen surface soil melt on the waterlogged tundra. Tundra is a fragile biome. Most tundra soils formed about 17,000 years ago when glaciers began retreating after the last Ice Age.
Rotation of the earth on its axis
. As the earth rotates around its axis, the equator spins faster than regions to its north and south. As a result, heated air masses, rising above the equator and moving north and south to cooler areas, are deflected to the west or east over different parts of the planet's surface. The atmosphere over these different areas is divided into huge regions called cells, distinguished by the direction of air movement. The differing directions of air movement are called prevailing winds—major surface winds that blow almost continuously and help to distribute heat and moisture over the earth's surface and to drive ocean currents.
temperate deserts examples
the Sonoran Desert in southeastern California, southwestern Arizona, and northwestern Mexico
10 feet; Dams and levees; Katrina; 20 feet
the U.S. city of New Orleans, Louisiana, has long been ____ below sea level. _____ were built to help protect the city from flooding. However, the powerful winds and waves from Hurricane _____ overwhelmed these defenses. They are being rebuilt, but the geologic processes described here will probably put New Orleans _______ below sea level in the not too distant future. Add to this the reduced protection of coastal and inland wetlands and barrier islands, and you have a recipe for a major and much more damaging unnatural disaster if the area is struck by another major hurricane.
Salinity
the amounts of various salts such as sodium chloride (NaCl) dissolved in a given volume of water.
desert day
the baking sun warms the ground and evaporates water from plant leaves and the soil
major life zone
the deep ocean floor, in the abyssal zone, is teeming with life—so much that it is considered a _______—because it contains enough nutrients to support a large number of species.
biodiversity; atmospheric warming
the destruction of tropical rain forests will reduce the earth's ______ and could help accelerate ______ and the projected climate change that could follow by eliminating large areas of trees that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
food production
the early melting of mountaintop snow packs and glaciers can lower ______ in certain areas, because much of the water needed during the summer to irrigate crops has already been released.
Ample
the high net primary productivity of costal zone aquatic systems is the result of the zone's _____ supplies of sunlight and plant nutrients that flow from land and are distributed by wind and ocean currents.
Weather
the short-term atmospheric conditions that often change from hour to hour and day to day (is a set of physical conditions of the lower atmosphere such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, and other factors in a given area over a period of hours or days)
arctic tundra (Cold grasslands) vegitation
this biome is carpeted with a thick, spongy mat of low-growing plants, primarily grasses, mosses, lichens, and dwarf shrubs. Trees or tall plants cannot survive in the cold and windy tundra because they would lose too much of their heat. Most of the annual growth of the tundra's plants occurs during the 7- to 8-week summer, when the sun shines almost around the clock. soils usually are nutrient poor and have little detritus. Because of the short growing season, tundra soil and vegetation recover very slowly from damage or disturbance.
forests, grasslands, and deserts
three major types of terrestrial ecosystems
permafrost
underground soil in which captured water stays frozen for more than 2 consecutive years.
cold deserts adaptations
vegetation is sparse. plants and animals have adaptations that help them to stay cool and to get enough water to survive.
To determine the climate of the area where you live and how it has changed, first
you would have to find out and plot the average temperature and average precipitation of your area from year to year over at least the last three decades.
Coastal development (destroys and pollutes coastal habitats), Runoff of nonpoint sources of pollutants (such as silt, fertilizers, pesticides, and livestock wastes), Point-source pollution (such as sewage from cruise ships and spills from oil tankers), Pollution and degradation of coastal wetlands and estuaries, Overfishing (which depletes populations of commercial fish species), Use of fishing trawlers (which drag weighted nets across the ocean bottom, degrading and destroying its habitats),Invasive species (introduced by humans, that can deplete populations of native aquatic species and cause economic damage) Climate change (enhanced by human activities, which is warming the oceans and making them more acidic; this could cause a rise in sea levels during this century that would destroy coral reefs and flood coastal marshes and coastal cities)
Major threats to marine systems from human activities include:
70%
Mangrove forests are found along some ___ of gently sloping sandy coastlines in tropical and subtropical regions, especially Australia and Southeast Asia. The dominant organisms in these nutrient-rich coastal forests are mangroves
mesotrophic lakes
Many lakes fall somewhere between the two extremes of nutrient enrichment. They are called
islands of biodiversity
Many mountains are ________ surrounded by a sea of lower-elevation landscapes transformed by human activities.
farmland
Many of the world's natural temperate grasslands have been converted to______, because their fertile soils are useful for growing crops and grazing cattle.
barrier islands
Many of these same species that live in barrier beaches also live on ____low, narrow, sandy islands that form offshore, parallel to nearby coastlines.
important habitats
Many wetlands are _______ for game fishes, muskrats, otters, beavers (which as foundation species build dams to create wetlands for their use), migratory waterfowl, and many other bird species.
reservoirs
Marine aquatic systems are enormous ______ of biodiversity
the coastal zone, the open sea, and the ocean bottom
Marine life is found in three major life zones:
high
Most coastal zone aquatic systems such as estuaries, coastal marshes, mangrove forests, and coral reefs have a ______ net primary productivity
small
Most desert animals are _____
marine snow
Most organisms of the deep waters and ocean floor get their food from showers of dead and decaying organisms—called ______—drifting down from upper, lighted levels of the ocean.
heat and pollutants
Motor vehicles and the heating and cooling systems of buildings release large quantities of
endemic species
Mountains are often habitats for ____________ found nowhere else on earth.
forests
Mountains play important ecological roles. They contain the majority of the world's ______, which are habitats for much of the planet's terrestrial biodiversity.
Tropical rain forests animals
Much of the animal life in this biome, particularly insects, bats, and birds, lives in the sunny canopy layer, with its abundant shelter and supplies of leaves, flowers, and fruits. To study life in the canopy, ecologists climb trees, and build platforms and boardwalks in the upper canopy. Dropped leaves, fallen trees, and dead animals decompose quickly in tropical rain forests because of the warm, moist conditions and the hordes of decomposers
ecological and economic
Oceans provide enormously valuable _____ services
Asian; bigger and faster
Officials in the states of Maryland and Virginia are evaluating whether to help rebuild the Chesapeake's oyster population by introducing an ____ oyster that appears resistant to two parasites that have killed off many of the bay's native oysters. These oysters grow _____ and taste as good as native oysters. But introducing nonnative species anywhere is unpredictable and usually irreversible. And some researchers warn that this nonnative oysters may not be able to help clean the water because it needs to have clean water before it can flourish.
Temperate deciduous forests human effects
On a global basis, this biome has been disturbed by human activity more than any other terrestrial biome. However, within 100-200 years, areas cleared of their trees can return to a deciduous forest through secondary ecological succession.
$12 trillion
One estimate of the combined value of the oceans ecological and economic goods and services from all marine coastal ecosystems is over _____ per year, nearly equal to the annual U.S. gross domestic product.
El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
One example of the interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere.
population
One problem for the chesapeake bay is _____ growth, Between 1940 and 2007, this grew from 3.7 million to 16.8 million, and could reach 18 million by 2020, according to 2009 estimates by the Chesapeake Bay Program.
land-use regulations
One strategy of the Chesapeake Bay Program was to establish _____ to reduce agricultural and urban runoff in the six states that form the bay's drainage area
adjoining wetlands
Other strategies of the Chesapeake Bay Program included banning phosphate detergents, upgrading sewage treatment plants, and monitoring industrial discharges more closely. In addition, some _____ were restored and large areas of the bay were replanted with sea grasses to help filter out excessive nutrients and other pollutants.
eutrophication of lakes
Over time, sediment, organic material, and inorganic nutrients wash into most oligotrophic lakes, and plants grow and decompose to form bottom sediments changing the lake to a eutrophic lake, Because of an excess of plant nutrients, its surface is covered with mats of algae.
Human effect on the alpine tundra
People like living in this biome because of its moderate, sunny climate with mild, wet winters and long, warm, and dry summers. As a result, many people live in such areas and have modified this biome significantly.
grasslands; biodiversity; vegetation
An important concern that we need to come to grips with the issue of how long can we keep eating away at these terrestrial forms of natural capital without threatening our economies and the long-term survival of our own and many other species, is that if we increase the stresses on some of these biomes, such as by clearing tropical forests, they could be replaced by _____ in many areas. This would represent a massive loss of ______. It would also reduce the ________ needed to remove some of the excess carbon dioxide that we add to the atmosphere, mostly be burning fossil fuels. This would lead to higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which would accelerate projected climate change.
alpine tundra
Another type of tundra, occurs above the limit of tree growth but below the permanent snow line on high mountains. The vegetation is similar to that found in arctic tundra, but it receives more sunlight than arctic vegetation gets. During the brief summer, alpine tundra can be covered with an array of beautiful wildflowers. In some areas, especially in coastal regions that border on deserts, we find fairly small patches of a biome known as temperate shrubland or chaparral . It consists mostly of dense growths of low-growing evergreen shrubs and occasional small trees with leathery leaves that reduce evaporation. However, during the summer season, its vegetation becomes very dry and highly flammable; in the late summer and fall, fires started by lightning, The fires are often followed by mudslides during rainy seasons.
24; sinking; rising; flooding
As a result of deltas not getting their normal inputs of sediment to build them back up, ____ of the world's 33 major river deltas are ____ rather than ____ and their protective coastal wetlands are ______
weather and climates
As a result of heat being absorbed and released differently by water and land, the world's oceans and large lakes moderate the ___________ of nearby lands.
leveled; cut deep
As streams flow downhill, they shape the land through which they pass. Over millions of years, the friction of moving water has _____ mountains and _______ canyons, and rocks and soil removed by the water have been deposited as sediment in low-lying areas.
river sediments
Because human build dams retain _______, the river deltas do not get their normal inputs of sediment to build them back up as they naturally sink into the sea.
eroded
Because of the steep slopes, mountain soils are easily _____ when the vegetation holding them in place is removed by natural disturbances such as landslides and avalanches, or by human activities such as timber cutting and agriculture.
temperate grassland vegitation
Because the aboveground parts of most of the grasses die and decompose each year, organic matter accumulates to produce a deep, fertile topsoil. This topsoil is held in place by a thick network of the drought-tolerant grasses' intertwined roots (unless the topsoil is plowed up, which exposes it to being blown away by high winds found in these biomes). The natural grasses are also adapted to fires that burn the plant parts above the ground but do not harm the roots, from which new grass can grow.
Temperate deciduous forests soil
Because they have cooler temperatures and fewer decomposers, these forests have a slower rate of decomposition than tropical forests have. As a result, they accumulate a thick layer of slowly decaying leaf litter, which becomes a storehouse of nutrients.
absorb and hold; block
Bricks, concrete, asphalt, and other building materials ______ heat, and buildings ____ wind flow.
air circulation and ocean currents; heat and precipitation
Climate varies in different parts of the earth mostly because, over long periods of time, patterns of global ______________ distribute _____________ unevenly between the tropics and other parts of the world
natural capital
Coastal deltas and wetlands as well as inland wetlands and floodplains are important parts of the earth's ______. They absorb and slow the velocity of floodwaters from coastal storms, hurricanes, and tsunamis.
fallen sharply
Commercial harvests of the chesapeake bay's once abundant oysters and crabs, as well as several important fish species, have _______ since 1960 because of a combination of pollution, overfishing, and disease.
leaves; fleshy tissue; at night
Desert plants have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as Succulent (fleshy) plants like the saguaro cactus have three adaptations: they have no _____, which can lose water to the atmosphere through transpiration; they store water and synthesize food in their expandable, ______; and they reduce water loss by opening their pores only ______ to take up carbon dioxide (CO2).
spines
Desert plants have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as The _____ of many desert plants guard them from being eaten by herbivores seeking the precious water they hold.
seeds; germinate
Desert plants have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as annual wildflowers and grasses store much of their biomass in (1)___ that remain inactive, sometimes for years, until they receive enough water to (2)_____. Shortly after a rain, these (1)_____ (2)_____, grow, and carpet some deserts with dazzling arrays of colorful flowers that last for up to a few weeks.
deep roots
Desert plants have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as some desert plants use ___ ___ to tap into groundwater.
wax-coated
Desert plants have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as some plants found in deserts conserve water by having ____ leaves that reduce water loss.
one-fifth
Despite their ecological and economic importance, in 2008, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that between 1980 and 2005, at least ___ of the world's mangrove forests were lost mostly because of human coastal development.
climate; temperature and precipitation
Differences in _____, based mostly on long-term differences in average ______ and ______, largely determine the types and locations of the earth's deserts, grasslands, and forests.
climate
Differences in _______, mostly in average annual precipitation and temperature, lead to the formation of tropical (hot), temperate (moderate), and polar (cold) deserts, grasslands, and forests
Mountain water
During winter, precipitation is stored as ice and snow. In the warmer weather of spring and summer, much of this snow and ice melts and is released to streams for use by wildlife and by humans for drinking and irrigating crops
dams and canals fragment; 40%
First major human impact on freshwater systems is that _____________ about _____ of the world's 237 largest rivers. They alter and destroy terrestrial and aquatic wildlife habitats along these rivers and in their coastal deltas and estuaries by reducing water flow and increasing damage from coastal storms
inland wetlands
Fourth major human impact on freshwater systems is that many (1)______ have been drained or filled to grow crops or have been covered with concrete, asphalt, and buildings. More than half of (1)_____ estimated to have existed in the continental United States during the 1600s no longer exist. About 80% of lost wetlands were destroyed to grow crops. The rest were lost to mining, logging, oil and gas extraction, highway construction, and urban development. The heavily farmed U.S. state of Iowa has lost about 99% of its original (1)______.
Mountains to the Oceans
Freshwater Streams and Rivers Carry Water from the
lentic and lotic
Freshwater life zones include , and
arctic tundra (Cold grasslands) animals
Hordes of mosquitoes, black flies, and other insects thrive in these shallow surface pools. They serve as food for large colonies of migratory birds (especially waterfowl) that return from the south to nest and breed in the bogs and ponds. Animals in this biome survive the intense winter cold through adaptations such as thick coats of fur (arctic wolf, arctic fox, and musk oxen) and feathers (snowy owl) and living underground (arctic lemming). In the summer, caribou migrate to the tundra to graze on its vegetation.
Differences in long-term average annual precipitation and temperature lead to the formation of tropical, temperate, and cold deserts, grasslands, and forests, and largely determine their locations.
How does climate affect the nature and location of biomes?
Human activities threaten biodiversity and disrupt ecological and economic services provided by freshwater lakes, rivers, and wetlands.
How have human activities affected freshwater ecosystems?
Human activities threaten aquatic biodiversity and disrupt ecological and economic services provided by saltwater systems.
How have human activities affected marine ecosystems?
In many areas, human activities are impairing ecological and economic services provided by the earth's deserts, grasslands, forests, and mountains.
How have we affected the world's terrestrial ecosystems?
failed
However, by 2008, despite 25 years of effort costing almost $6 billion, the Chesapeake Bay Program had _____ to meet its goals.
freshwater
Human activities are disrupting and degrading many of the ecological and economic services provided by _______ rivers, lakes, and wetlands in four major ways.
carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide
Human activities such as burning fossil fuels, clearing forests, and growing crops release ________ into the atmosphere
biodiversity; aquatic systems
Human activities threaten _____ and disrupt ecological and economic services provided by _____.
very poor; 21%
In 2008, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation reported that the bay's water quality was "_____" and only ___ of the established goals had been met.
17
In 2008, the U. S. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) used computer models to analyze and provide the first-ever comprehensive map of the effects of ___ different types of human activities on the world's oceans.
ample
In shallow systems such as small open streams, lake edges, and ocean shorelines, ____ supplies of nutrients for primary producers are usually available
prairies
In temperate grasslands all ______, winds blow almost continuously and evaporation is rapid, often leading to fires in the summer and fall. This combination of winds and fires helps maintain such grasslands by hindering tree growth and adding ash to the soil.
tropical rain forests
In terms of biodiversity, coral reefs are the marine equivalents of __________
41%
In the 2008, the U. S. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) 4-year study, an international team of scientists found that human activity has heavily affected ____ of the world's ocean area. No area of the oceans has been left completely untouched, according to the report.
Runoff
In the Chesapeake bay ____ of sediment, mostly from soil erosion, harms the submerged grasses needed by crabs and young fish. ___(same word as first blank) also increases when trees near the bay are cut down for development.
reducing flooding and erosion
Inland wetlands provide a number of free ecological and economic services, such as _________________ by absorbing storm water and releasing it slowly, and by absorbing overflows from streams and lakes.
coral bleaching
It occurs when stresses such as increased tempera- ture cause the algae, upon which corals depend for food, to die off. Without food, the coral polyps then die, leaving behind a white skeleton of calcium carbonate.
oligotrophic lakes
Lakes that have a small supply of plant nutrients (poorly nourished). This type of lake is often deep and has steep banks. Glaciers and mountain streams supply water to many such lakes, bringing little in the way of sediment or microscopic life to cloud the water. These lakes usually have crystal-clear water and small populations of phytoplankton and fish species (such as small mouth bass and trout). Because of their low levels of nutrients, these lakes have a low net primary productivity. Because of the low density of plankton, its water is quite clear
organisms that populate euphotic zone
Large, fast-swimming predatory fishes such as swordfish, sharks, and bluefin tuna
daily and seasonal
Life in these coastal ecosystems is harsh. It must adapt to significant _____ changes in tidal and river flows, water temperatures and salinity, and runoff of eroded soil sediment and other pollutants from the land. Because of these stresses, despite their productivity, some coastal ecosystems have low plant diversity composed of a few species that can withstand the ____(same as first blank) variations.
three-fourths
Saltwater and freshwater aquatic life zones cover almost _____ of the earth's surface, and oceans dominate the planet.
71%
Saltwater covers about ___ of the earth's surface
stabilize, reduce
Sea grass beds are highly productive and physically complex systems support a variety of marine species. They also help to_____ shorelines and ____ wave impacts.
29%
Since 1980, about ____ of the world's sea grass beds have been lost to pollution and other disturbances.
Tropical rain forests human effects
So far, at least half of these forests have been destroyed or disturbed by human activities such as farming and raising cattle, and the pace of this destruction and degradation is increasing. Ecologists warn that without strong protective measures, most of these forests, along with their rich biodiversity and other very valuable ecological services, will probably be gone within your lifetime.
deposit feeders
Some abyssal-zone organisms, including many types of worms, are ____, which take mud into their guts and extract nutrients from it.
the natural greenhouse effect
Some of the solar energy that was absorbed by molecules of greenhouse gases and emitted into the lower atmosphere as even longer-wavelength infrared radiation, released energy radiates into space, and some warms the lower atmosphere and the earth's surface. This natural warming effect of the troposphere is called
space
Some solar energy heat escapes into ______, but some is absorbed by molecules of greenhouse gases and emitted into the lower atmosphere as even longer-wavelength infrared radiation
seasonal wetlands
Some wetlands are covered with water year-round. Others, called ______, remain under water or are soggy for only a short time each year. The latter include prairie potholes, floodplain wetlands, and bottomland hardwood swamps. Some can stay dry for years before water covers them again. In such cases, scientists must use the composition of the soil or the presence of certain plants (such as cattails, bulrushes, or red maples) to determine that a particular area is a wetland.
deserts
Sometimes the interruption of mountain to the flow of surface winds and storms leads to the formation of ____ such as Death Valley(lies in the rain shadow of Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the Sierra Nevada range), a part of the Mojave (found in parts of the U.S. states of California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona)
1%
The Chesapeake bay receives wastes from point and non- point sources scattered throughout a huge drainage basin in parts of six states and the District of Columbia and has become a huge pollution sink because only ____ of the waste entering it is flushed into the Atlantic Ocean
intertidal zone
The area of shoreline between low and high tides is called the
benthic zone
The bottom layer of a deep lake is called the _____, inhabited mostly by decomposers, detritus feeders, and some species of fish (benthos), is nourished mainly by dead matter that falls from the littoral and limnetic zones and by sediment washing into the lake.
giant conveyer belt
The connected loop of deep and shallow ocean currents acts somewhat like a __________ that moves heat to and from the deep sea and transfers warm and cold water between the tropics and the poles
warning; threats
The decline and degradation of coral reefs, these colorful oceanic sentinels, should serve as a ____ about ____ to the health of ocean ecosystems, which provide us with crucial ecological and economic services.
algal growths
The depth of the euphotic zone in oceans and deep lakes is reduced when the water is clouded by excessive
salinity
The distribution of many aquatic organisms is determined largely by the water's
the source zone, the transition zone, and the floodplain zone
The downward flow of surface water and groundwater from mountain highlands to the sea typically takes place in three aquatic life zones characterized by different environmental conditions:
convection cells
The earth's air circulation patterns, prevailing winds, and configuration of continents and oceans are all factors in the formation of six giant
solar energy
The earth's surface absorbs much of the ________ and transforms it to longer-wavelength infrared radiation (heat), which then rises into the lower atmosphere.
reducing
The executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that was signed by barack obama also called for _____ inputs from agriculture and for development of a strategy to deal with threats from projected climate change during this century. However, this is a tall order and will require considerable funding from federal and state governments.
tides
The gravitational pull of the moon and sun causes ____ to rise and fall about every 6 hours in most coastal areas
Tropical rain forests soil
The rapid recycling of scarce soil nutrients explains why there is so little plant litter on the ground. Nutrients that do reach the ground are soon leached from the thin topsoil by the almost daily rainfall. Instead of being stored in the soil, about 90% of plant nutrients released by decomposition are quickly taken up and stored by trees, vines, and other plants. The resulting lack of fertile soil helps to explain why rain forests are not good places to clear and grow crops or graze cattle on a sustainable basis.
limnetic zone
The second layer of a deep lake is the _____, the open, sunlit surface layer away from the shore that extends to the depth penetrated by sunlight. The main photosynthetic zone of the lake, this layer produces the food and oxygen that support most of the lake's consumers. Its most abundant organisms are microscopic phytoplankton and zooplankton. Some large species of fish spend most of their time here, with occasional visits to the littoral zone to feed and reproduce.
open sea
The sharp increase in water depth at the edge of the continental shelf separates the coastal zone from the vast volume of the ocean called the
temperate deserts vegitation
The sparse vegetation consists mostly of widely dispersed, drought-resistant shrubs and cacti or other succulents adapted to the lack of water and temperature variations.
littoral zone
The top layer of deep lakes, called the ____ , is near the shore and consists of the shallow sunlit waters to the depth at which rooted plants stop growing. It has a high biological diversity because of ample sunlight and inputs of nutrients from the surrounding land. Species living here include many rooted plants, animals such as turtles, frogs, and crayfish, and fish such as bass, perch, and carp.
biodiversity; natural capital
The variety of terrestrial biomes and aquatic systems is one of the four components of the earth's ______ a vital part of the earth's _______.
Clean Water Act
There are some signs of hope for the Chesapeake Bay. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take charge of a new federal effort to revitalize the Chesapeake and to use its full authority under the _____ to help clean it up.
boreal forests/taigas (Evergreen coniferous forests)
These cold forests have subarctic climate, winters are long, dry, and extremely cold; in the northernmost part, winter sunlight is available only 6-8 hours per day. Summers are short, with cool to warm temperatures, and the sun shines up to 19 hours a day.
sanctuaries
They also serve as ________ for animal species that are capable of migrating to higher altitudes and surviving in such environments if they are driven from lowland areas by human activities or by a warming climate.
boreal forests/taigas (Evergreen coniferous forests) animals
This biome contains a variety of wildlife. Year-round residents include bears, wolves, moose, lynx, and many burrowing rodent species. Caribou spend the winter in taiga and the summer in arctic tundra. During the brief summer, warblers and other insect-eating birds feed on hordes of flies, mosquitoes, and caterpillars.
Temperate deciduous forests vegetation
This biome is dominated by a few species of broad-leaf deciduous trees such as oak, hickory, maple, poplar, and beech. They survive cold winters by dropping their leaves in the fall and becoming dormant through the winter. Each spring, they grow new leaves whose colors change in the fall into an array of reds and golds before the leaves drop.
Tropical grassland Savannah weather
This biome usually has warm temperatures year-round and alternating dry and wet seasons.
Turbidity
This cloudiness, called _____, can occur naturally, such as from algal growth, or can result from disturbances such as clearing of land, which when it rains, causes silt to flow into bodies of water
El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
This large-scale weather phenomenon occurs every few years when prevailing winds in the tropical Pacific Ocean weaken and change direction. The resulting above-average warming of Pacific waters alters the weather over at least two-thirds of the earth for 1 or 2 years
Uneven heating of the earth's surface by the sun; Rotation of the earth on its axis; Properties of air, water, and land
Three major factors determine how air circulates in the lower atmosphere:
biodiversity; protect; restore; controversial
To help preserve _____ and to slow projected climate change, many environmental scientists call for a global effort to ______ the world's remaining wild areas from development. In addition, they call for us to ___ many of the land areas that we have degraded. However, such efforts are highly _____ because of timber, mineral, fossil fuel, and other resources found on or under many of the earth's remaining wild land areas.
net primary productivity
Tropical rain forests have a very high ________. They are teeming with life and possess incredible biological diversity. Although tropical rain forests cover only about 2% of the earth's land surface, ecologists estimate that they contain at least half of the earth's known terrestrial plant and animal species. For example, a single tree in these forests may support several thousand different insect species. Plants from tropical rain forests are a source of chemicals used as blueprints for making most of the world's prescription drugs.
expansion; volume
a rise in sea level would put New Orleans and other areas of Louisiana's present-day coast under water. Most of this projected rise would be due to the _____ of the oceans' water and the added ______ of water from melting glaciers and other land-based ice caused by the projected warming of the atmosphere.
coral reef economic services example
coral reefs act as natural barriers that help to protect 15% of the world's coastlines from erosion caused by battering waves and storms.
greenhouse gasses
absorb and release heat that warms the atmosphere, thus playing a role in determining the earth's average temperatures and its climates.
Coral Reef economic services example
coral reefs produce about one-tenth of the global fish catch—one-fourth of the catch in less-developed countries—and they provide fishing and ecotourism jobs for some of the world's poorest countries
coral reef ecological services example
coral reefs provide habitats for one-quarter of all marine organisms.
thrive only
coral reefs________ in clear and fairly shallow water of constant high salinity, and runoff of soil and other materials from the land can cloud the water and block sunlight needed by the reefs' producer organisms
90%
costal zone contains ___ of all marine species and is the site of most large commercial marine fisheries
10%
costal zone makes up less than ____ of the world's ocean area
85%; 50%; 500 million
according to a 2009 study by geologist James Syvitski and his colleagues. The study found that _______ of the world' sinking deltas have experienced severe flooding in recent years, and that global delta flooding is likely to increase ____ by the end of this century. This is because of dams and other human activities that reduce the flow of silt and because of the projected rise in sea levels resulting from climate change. It poses a serious threat to the roughly ____ people in the world who live on river deltas.
delta
an area at the mouth of a river that was built up by deposited sediment and contains coastal wetlands and estuaries
climate
an area's general pattern of atmospheric conditions over periods of at least three decades and up to thousands of years (the average atmospheric or weather conditions in a given region during a time frame of several decades to thousands of years)
Mississippi River
an example of the negatively effects of human dams, and other human activities that reduce the flow of silt into deltas, the ______ once delivered huge amounts of sediments to its delta each year. But the multiple dams, levees, and canals built in this river system funnel much of this sediment load through the wetlands and out into the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of building up delta lands, this causes them to subside
upwelling zones
an exception to euphotic zones low nutrient levels, ocean currents driven by differences in temperature or by coastal winds bring water up from the abyssal zone. Upwellings carry nutrients from the ocean bottom to the surface for use by producers, and thus these zones contain high levels of nutrients.
saltwater (marine life zones) and freshwater life zones
aquatic life zones are classified into two major types:and .
Sea grass beds
are another component of coastal marine biodiversity
Tropical rain forests vegetation
are dominated by broadleaf evergreen plants, which keep most of their leaves year-round. The tops of the trees form a dense canopy that blocks most light from reaching the forest floor. For this reason, there is little vegetation on the forest floor. Many of the plants that do live at the ground level have enormous leaves to capture what little sunlight filters through to the dimly lit forest floor. Some trees are draped with vines (called lianas) that reach for the treetops to gain access to sunlight. Once up into the canopy, the vines grow from one tree to another, providing walkways for many species living there. When a large tree is cut down, its network of lianas can pull down other trees.
Tropical rain forests
are found near the equator, where hot, moisture-laden air rises and dumps its moisture. These lush forests have year-round, uniformly warm temperatures, high humidity, and almost daily heavy rainfall. This fairly constant warm and wet climate is ideal for a wide variety of plants and animals. These forests are often called jungle, but that word refers to the thickest and most dense parts of it.
Mountains
are places where dramatic changes in altitude, slope, climate, soil, and vegetation take place over a very short distance
Estuaries
are where rivers meet the sea. They are partially enclosed bodies of water where seawater mixes with freshwater as well as nutrients and pollutants from streams, rivers, and runoff from the land.
temperate
areas between the equatorial region and the earth's two poles, where the climate is not extreme and typically changes in four different annual seasons
haze and smog; higher; lower
as a result of having more buildings and motor vehicle in a more condensed area, on average, cities tend to have more __________, _____ temperatures, and ______ wind speeds than the surrounding countryside.
increasing acidity of ocean water
as it absorbs some of the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced mostly by the burning of carbon-containing fossils fuels. The CO2 reacts with ocean water to form a weak acid, which can slowly dissolve the calcium carbonate that makes up the corals.
breezes
because heat is absorbed and released differently by water and land it creates land and sea
climate matters
because it determines where humans and other species can live and thrive
uniform
biomes are not
mosaic of patches
biomes consist of a_______, each with somewhat different biological communities but with similarities typical of the biome.
coastal marshes
called salt marshes in temperate zones
benthos
consists of bottom-dwellers such as: oysters and sea stars, which anchor themselves to ocean bottom structures; clams and worms, which burrow into the sand or mud; and lobsters and crabs, which walk about on the sea floor; as well as sea stars attached to coral in the Red Sea.
Tropical grassland Savannah vegitation
contains widely scattered clumps of trees such as acacia, which are covered with thorns that keep some herbivores away. plants, like those in deserts, are adapted to survive drought and extreme heat; many have deep roots that can tap into groundwater.
three
convection cells south of the equator
Tropical deserts human effects
dissruption from vehicles and SUV, This is because deserts have slow plant growth, low species diversity, slow nutrient cycling (due to low bacterial activity in the soils), and very little water. Also, off-road vehicle traffic in deserts can destroy the habitats for a variety of animals that live underground in this biome.
Causes of lakes
glaciation (L Louise in Alberta, Canada), displacement of the earth's crust (L Nyasa in East Africa), and volcanic activity (Crater L in the U.S. state of Oregon)
0.3; 1; 0.3-0.9; 1-3
global sea levels have risen almost ____ meters (___ foot) since 1900 and are projected to rise ____ meter (_____ feet) by the end of this century.
Temperate deciduous forests
grow in areas with moderate average temperatures that change significantly with the seasons. These areas have long, warm summers, cold but not too severe winters, and abundant precipitation, often spread fairly evenly throughout the year.
Tropical grassland Savannah animals
home to grazing (mostly grass-eating) and browsing (twig- and leaf- nibbling) hoofed animals, including wildebeests, gazelles, zebras, giraffes, and antelopes, as well as their predators such as lions, hyenas, and humans. Herds of these grazing and browsing animals migrate to find water and food in response to seasonal and year-to-year variations in rainfall and food availability.
groundwater, oil, and natural gas
human processes that are increasing degradation of deltas, wetlands, and rising sea levels include extraction of _______ ________ ________. As freshwater wetlands are lost, saltwater from the Gulf has intruded and killed many plants that depended on river water, further degrading this coastal aquatic system.
temperature, dissolved oxygen content, availability of food, and availability of light and nutrients required for photosynthesis [carbon (as dissolved CO2 gas), nitrogen (as NO3-), and phosphorus (mostly as PO43-)]
in most aquatic systems, the key factors determining the types and numbers of organisms found in these layers are:
global ocean
is a single and continuous body of water, geographers divide it into four large areas—the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, and Indian—separated by the continents
euphotic zone
is the brightly lit upper ocean zone, where drifting phytoplankton carry out about 40% of the world's photosynthetic activity, Nutrient levels are low and levels of dissolved oxygen are high here
bathyal zone
is the dimly lit middle ocean zone, which receives little sunlight and therefore does not contain photosynthesizing producers. Zooplankton and smaller fishes, many of which migrate to feed on the surface at night, populate this zone.
coastal zone
is the warm, nutrient-rich, shallow water that extends from the high-tide mark on land to the gently sloping, shallow edge of the continental shelf
freshwater life zones
lakes, rivers, streams, and inland wetlands
biomes
large terrestrial regions, each characterized by certain types of climate and dominant plant life
desert night
most of the heat stored in the ground radiates quickly into the atmosphere.
hydrologic cycle
mountains play a critical role in the _______ by serving as major storehouses of water.
Grasslands
occur mostly in the interiors of continents in areas that are too moist for deserts to form and too dry for forests to grow, persist because of a combination of seasonal drought, grazing by large herbivores, and occasional fires—all of which keep shrubs and trees from growing in large numbers.
Convection
occurs when warm, wet air rises, then cools and releases heat and moisture as precipitation. Then the cooler, denser, and drier air sinks, warms up, and absorbs moisture as it flows across the earth's surface to begin the cycle again.
clockwise
ocean currents in the northern hemisphere flow
counterclockwise
ocean currents in the southern hemisphere flow
saltwater or marine life zones
oceans and their bays, estuaries, coastal wetlands, shorelines, coral reefs, and mangrove forests (Although some systems such as estuaries are a mix of saltwater and freshwater, we classify them as marine systems for purposes of discussion)
topographic features
of the earth's surface can create local and regional climatic conditions that differ from the general climate of some regions.
Drainage areas
on surrounding land supply lakes with water from rainfall, melting snow, and streams.
turbidity
one of the problems plaguing coral reefs, as excessive _____ due to silt runoff prevents photo- synthesis and causes the corals to die.
habitats
places where these species can live.
coastal wetlands examples
river mouths, inlets, bays, sounds, coastal marshes, and mangrove forests
natural surface vulnerabilities of deserts
sandstorms driven by winds that can spread sand from one area to another.
significantly enhance; change
scientific evidence, combined with climate model projections, indicate that it is likely that the large inputs of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from human activities will _________ the earth's natural greenhouse effect and _______ the earth's climate during this century.
zooplankton
second group is of plankton,Greek for "drifting animals", drifting animals that feed on each other and on phytoplankton, It consists of primary consumers (herbivores), which feed on phytoplankton, and secondary consumers, which feed on others of its kind. The members of this group range from single- celled protozoa to large invertebrates such as jellyfish
live near a coast
some people are unwittingly destroying or degrading the aquatic biodiversity and the ecological and economic services that make coastal areas so enjoyable and valuable In their desire to _____
aquatic
species that live in water-covered habitats such as rivers, lakes, and oceans
terrestrial
species that live on land habitats such as deserts, grasslands, and forests
lentic
standing bodies of freshwater such as lakes, ponds, and inland wetlands
mountains
steep or high lands which cover about one-fourth of the earth's land surface
20%
studies indicated that another ____ of all coral reef ecosystems had been degraded by coastal development, pollution, overfishing, warmer ocean temperatures, increasing ocean acidity, and other stresses.
runoff
surface water becomes ____ when it flows into streams
2.2%
Freshwater covers about ___ of the earth's surface
dew; food they eat
Many spiders and insects in the desert get their water from ____ or from ______.
97%
The salty oceans contain ___ of the earth's water.
oysters
A century ago, ____ were so abundant that they filtered and cleaned the Chesapeake's entire volume of water every 3 days. This important form of natural capital provided by these keystone species helped remove or reduce excess nutrients and algal blooms, both of which lead to decreased levels of dissolved oxygen. Now the this species population has been reduced to the point where this filtration process takes a year and the keystone role of this species has been severely weakened.
eutrophic lake
A lake with a large supply of nutrients needed by producers is (well-nourished). Such lakes typically are shallow and have murky brown or green water with high turbidity. Because of their high levels of nutrients, these lakes have a high net primary productivity.
25-33%
A study showed that ____ of all reefs could be lost within 20-40 years.
62%
According to the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, about _____ of the world's major terrestrial ecosystems are being degraded or used unsustainably, as the human ecological footprint gets bigger and spreads across the globe
90%; nearly half
Almost all of the earth's water is in the interconnected oceans, which cover ____ of the planet's ocean hemisphere and ____ of its land ocean hemisphere
slowly; easily
Coral reefs are vulnerable to damage because they grow _____ and are disrupted _______.
18-30°C (64-86°F)
Coral reefs must also have the water in which they live in at a temperature of _____. This explains why the biggest long-term threat to coral reefs may be projected climate change, which could raise the water temperature above this limit in most reef areas.
water loss
Desert animals have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as Insects and reptiles like rattlesnakes have thick outer coverings to minimize _____ through evaporation, and their wastes are dry feces and a dried concentrate of urine.
drink water
Desert animals have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as Kangaroo rats never ______. They get this by breaking down fats in seeds that they consume.
dormant
Desert animals have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as becoming _____ during periods of extreme heat or drought.
drop their leaves
Desert plants have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as During long hot and dry spells, plants such as mesquite and creosote _____ to survive in a dormant state.
shallow roots
Desert plants have evolved strategies based on such adaptations, such as Others such as prickly pear and saguaro cacti use widely spread _____ _____ to collect water after brief showers and store it in their spongy tissues.
daily weather, climate
We know a lot about the _______ where we live but most of us have a poor or fuzzy understanding of the _______ where we live and how it has changed over the past 50 to 100 years.
moon
We know more about the surface of the ____ than we know about the oceans
nutrients
Wetland plants are highly productive because of an abundance of ______.
Key factors that determine an area's climate are incoming solar energy, the earth's rotation, global patterns of air and water movement, gases in the atmosphere, and the earth's surface features.
What factors influence climate?
Saltwater and freshwater aquatic life zones cover almost three-fourths of the earth's surface, with oceans dominating the planet. The key factors determining biodiversity in aquatic systems are temperature, dissolved oxygen content, availability of food, and availability of light and nutrients necessary for photosynthesis.
What is the general nature of aquatic systems?
self-inflicted unnatural disasters
When we remove or degrade Coastal deltas, mangrove forests, and coastal wetlands (these natural speed bumps and sponges), any damage from a natural disaster such as a hurricane or typhoon is intensified. As a result, flooding in places like New Orleans, Louisiana (USA), the U.S. Gulf Coast, and Venice, Italy, are largely _________. For example, the U.S. state of Louisiana, which contains about 40% of all coastal wetlands in the lower 48 states, has lost more than a fifth of such wetlands since 1950 to oil and gas wells and other forms of coastal development.
Freshwater ecosystems provide major ecological and economic services, and are irreplaceable reservoirs of biodiversity.
Why are freshwater ecosystems important?
Saltwater ecosystems are irreplaceable reservoirs of biodiversity and provide major ecological and economic services
Why are marine aquatic systems important?
Differences in climate result mostly from long-term differences in average annual precipitation and temperature
Why is one area of the earth's land surface a desert, another a grassland, and another a forest?
atmospheric warming
With __________, mountaintop snow packs and glaciers are melting earlier in the spring each year. Measurements and climate models indicate that an increasing number of the world's mountaintop glaciers may disappear during this century if this continues as projected. This could cause many people to have to move in search of new water supplies and places to grow their crops. Despite the ecological, economic, and cultural importance of mountain ecosystems, protecting them has not been a high priority for governments or for many environmental organizations.
source zone
_______, headwaters, or highland streams are usually shallow, cold, clear, and swiftly flowing . As this turbulent water flows and tumbles downward over obstacles like rocks, waterfalls, and rapids, it dissolves large amounts of oxygen from the air. Most of these streams are not very productive because of a lack of nutrients and primary producers. Their nutrients come primarily from organic matter (mostly leaves, branches, and the bodies of living and dead insects) that falls into the stream from nearby land. The source zone is populated by cold-water fish species (such as trout in some areas), which need lots of dissolved oxygen. Many fishes and other animals in fast-flowing headwater streams have compact and flattened bodies that allow them to live under stones. Others have streamlined and muscular bodies that allow them to swim in the rapid, strong currents. Most of the plants in this zone are algae and mosses attached to rocks and other surfaces under water.
floodplain zones
_______, streams join into wider and deeper rivers that flow across broad, flat valleys. Water in this zone usually has higher temperatures and less dissolved oxygen than water in the two higher zones. These slow-moving rivers sometimes support fairly large populations of producers such as algae and cyanobacteria as well as rooted aquatic plants along the shores. Because of increased erosion and runoff over a larger area, water in this zone often is muddy and contains high concentrations of suspended particulate matter (silt). The main channels of these slow-moving, wide, and murky rivers support distinctive varieties of fishes (such as carp and catfish), whereas their backwaters support species similar to those present in lakes. At its mouth, a river may divide into many channels as it flows through its delta
Inland wetlands
_________ are lands located away from coastal areas that are covered with freshwater all or part of the time—excluding lakes, reservoirs, and streams. They include marshes, swamps, and prairie potholes (which are depressions carved out by ancient glaciers). Other examples are floodplains, which receive excess water during heavy rains and floods, and the wet arctic tundra in summer. Some are huge while others are quite small.
latitude and elevation
climate and vegetation vary with both _________. If you climb a tall mountain, from its base to its summit, you can observe changes in plant life similar to those you would encounter in traveling from the equator to the earth's northern polar region
weather
climate is__________, averaged over a long time
coastal wetlands
coastal land areas covered with water all or part of the yea
high; rapid; ample
coastal wetlands are some of the earth's most productive ecosystems because of ____ nutrient inputs from rivers and nearby land, ____ circulation of nutrients by tidal flows, and _____ sunlight penetrating the shallow waters.
profundal zone
the third layer of a deep lake comes the _____, a layer of deep, open water where it is too dark for photosynthesis. Without sunlight and plants, oxygen levels are often low here. Fishes adapted to the lake's cooler and darker water are found in this zone.
coastal aquatic systems of mangrove forests
these ______ provide important ecological and economic services. They help to maintain water quality in tropical coastal zones by filtering toxic pollutants, excess plant nutrients, and sediments, and by absorbing other pollutants. They provide food, habitats, and nursery sites for a variety of aquatic and terrestrial species. They also reduce storm damage and coastal erosion by absorbing waves and storing excess water produced by storms and tsunamis.
boreal forests/taigas (Evergreen coniferous forests) vegetation
these forests are dominated by a few species of coniferous (cone-bearing) evergreen trees such as spruce, fir, cedar, hemlock, and pine that keep most of their leaves year-round. Most of these species have small, needle-shaped, wax-coated leaves that can withstand the intense cold and drought of winter, when snow blankets the ground. Such trees are ready to take advantage of the brief summers because they need not take time to grow new needles. Plant diversity is low because few species can survive the winters when soil moisture is frozen. Beneath the stands of trees is a deep layer of partially decomposed conifer needles. Decomposition is slow because of low temperatures, the waxy coating on the needles, and high soil acidity. The decomposing conifer needles make the thin, nutrient-poor topsoil acidic and prevent most other plants (except certain shrubs) from growing on the forest floor.
human disruption of mangrove forests and their effect
they have sustainably supplied timber and fuelwood to coastal communities. Loss of these trees can lead to polluted drinking water, caused by inland intrusion of saltwater into aquifers that are used to supply clean, freshwater.
ultraplankton
third group is of plankton, huge populations of much smaller plankton, These tiny photosynthetic bacteria may be responsible for 70% of the primary productivity near the ocean surface.
cities and farms
third major human impact on freshwater systems comes from _________, which add pollutants and excess plant nutrients to nearby streams, rivers, and lakes. For example, runoff of nutrients into a lake causes explosions in the populations of algae and cyanobacteria, which deplete the lake's dissolved oxygen. When these organisms die and sink to the lake bottom, decomposers go to work and further deplete the oxygen in deeper waters. Fishes and other species may then die off, which causes a major loss in biodiversity.
