CEE 210 Environmental Biology for Engineers

1. Lecture: Global Perspectives on Ecology CEE 210 Environmental Biology for Engineers Instructor: L.R. Chevalier Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Southern Illinois University Carbondale

2. Objectives • Describe the different biomes found on earth • Review the findings of the study on global ecology commissioned by the United Nations • Identify facts and challenges of global ecology • Understand the role of civil and environmental engineering in global ecology

3. What is Ecology?The study of • Adaptation of life to the environment • The cycle of materials and energy through living communities • Changing environments • Abundance and distribution of biodiversity in context of the environment.

4. Biomes: Our ecological communities

5. Freshwater • Water, is a major natural resource. • Freshwater biomes supply us with our drinking water and water for crop irrigation • Countless species live in it for all or part of their lives.

6. Freshwater: Ponds and Lakes A view across Manzanita Lake toward Mt. Lassen, California A forest pond near Donnelly, Idaho Great Blue Heron Paranagat Lake, southeastern Nevada

7. Freshwater: Streams and rivers McArthur-Burney Falls State Park, California Trout Green River, Utah Brooks River, Alaska.

8. Freshwater: Wetlands Pescadero Marsh, California Coastal marsh at Umpqua Dunes, Oregon Trees and bogs on Esther Island, Alaska.

9. Marine • The world's oceans have an even greater effect on global climate than forests do. • Water has a high capacity for heat, and because the Earth is mostly covered with water, the temperature of the atmosphere is kept fairly constant and able to support life. • In addition to this climate-buffering capacity, the oceans contain several billion photosynthetic plankton which account for most of the photosynthesis occurring on Earth. • Without these, there might not be enough oxygen to support such a large world population and complex animal life.

10. Marine: Ocean Ocean: mussels, worms, and a spider crab at a hydrocarbon seep community in the Gulf of Mexico A sea fan and brain coral in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary A school of Atlantic amberjack off North Carolina.

11. Marine: Coral Reefs Reef life in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea Reef at Fanning Island atoll in the central Pacific Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

12. Marine: Estuaries Mangrove roots, south Florida Wetlands and tidal streams in the Ashe Island area, ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve, South Carolina Salt marsh in Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, South Carolina

13. Desert • Deserts cover about one fifth of the Earth's surface and occur where rainfall is less than 50 cm/year. • Most deserts, such as the Sahara of North Africa and the deserts of the southwestern U.S., Mexico, and Australia, occur at low latitudes, • Cold deserts, occur in the basin and range area of Utah and Nevada and in parts of western Asia. • Most deserts have a considerable amount of specialized vegetation, as well as specialized vertebrate and invertebrate animals. • Soils often have abundant nutrients, they need only water to become productive

14. Desert

15. Average Rainfall in Different Land Biomes

16. Desert: Hot and Dry Baja, Mexico Uluru National Park, Australia Kofa Mountains, Arizona

17. Desert: Semi-arid Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, southern Nevada Sagebrush near Bridger, Montana Castle Valley, Utah, east of Arches National Park.

18. Desert Coastal Desert Namibia’s coastal desert

19. Desert: Cold Lichen growing on Torgerson Island, Antarctica Kangaroo rat

20. Forest • Occupy approximately one-third of Earth's land area • Account for over two-thirds of the leaf area of land plants • Contain about 70% of carbon present in living things • Threatened by deforestation, product demand, and pollution

21. Tropical Forest Olympic Peninsula rain forest, Washington Patria River, Costa Rica Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar Hawaiian forest.

22. World Map of Tropical Forest

23. Forest: Temperate Deciduous Wisconsin woods Forest along California's north coast Forested hills of the Adirondacks, New York.

24. World Map of Temperate Deciduous Forest

25. Forest: Boreal forest (taiga) Taiga in Jasper National Park, Alberta Canada; forest west of Stockholm, Sweden.

26. World Map of Taiga

27. Grasslands • Grasslands are characterized as lands dominated by grasses rather than large shrubs or trees • Savannas • Cover almost half the surface of Africa (about five million square miles, generally central Africa) and large areas of Australia, South America, and India. • Temperate grasslands • veldts of South Africa, the • puszta of Hungary, the • pampas of Argentina and Uruguay, the • steppes of the former Soviet Union, • plains and prairies of central North America. Temperate grasslands have hot summers and cold winters.

28. World Map of Grasslands

29. Grassland: Savannah Savanna in the Samburu Game Preserve, Kenya

30. Grassland: Temperate Colorado prairie

31. Tundra • Tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning treeless plain • Characteristics • Extremely cold climate • Low biotic diversity • Simple vegetation structure • Limitation of drainage • Short season of growth and reproduction • Energy and nutrients in the form of dead organic material • Large population oscillations

32. World Map of Tundra

33. Tundra: Arctic tundra Churchill, Manitoba, Canada Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

34. Tundra: Alpine tundra Alpine tundra in Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington Dall Sheep in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

35. Global Perspective: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment • Commissioned by the United Nations • Assessed the consequences of ecosystem change • Study conducted from 2001 to 2005 • Involved the work of more than 1,360 experts worldwide. • Report provides a global view of ecosystems • State-of-the-art scientific research • Trends • Human demands • Sustainability • http://www.maweb.org/en/Index.aspx

36. References • The World’s Biomes • University of California Museum of Paleontology • On-Line Exhibit • http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/index.php • Accessed April 2010 • Millennium Ecosystem Assessment • http://www.maweb.org/en/Index.aspx

37. Images • The World’s Biomass • University of California Museum of Paleontology • On-Line Exhibit • http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/index.php • Accessed April 2010 • Namibia Desert • NASA Earth Observatory Collection • Maps of Land Biomes • Missouri Botanical Gardens • http://www.mbgnet.net/index.html • Accessed April 2010

38. Sources of photographs and images in sidebar • Human brain • http://www.healthnak.com/mind/ • X-rays images • http://martingallerycharleston.com/index.html • Cold Virus (altered in Photoshop) • http://medphoto.wellcome.ac.uk/ About the Instructor • Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering • Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) • Diplomat, Water Resources Engineering, American Academy of Water Resources Engineering (AAWRE) • Board Certified Environmental Engineer, American Academy of Environmental Engineers (AAEE) • Licensed Professional Engineer, State of Illinois