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Chapter 19 “Ecosystem Essentials”

Chapter 19 “Ecosystem Essentials”. Geosystems 6e An Introduction to Physical Geography. Robert W. Christopherson Charles E. Thomsen. What is this an example of?. Ecosystem. Figure 19.2. Plants (Vegetation). Critical biotic link between solar energy and the biosphere

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Chapter 19 “Ecosystem Essentials”

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  1. Chapter 19 “Ecosystem Essentials” Geosystems 6e An Introduction to Physical Geography Robert W. Christopherson Charles E. Thomsen

  2. What is this an example of?

  3. Ecosystem Figure 19.2

  4. Plants (Vegetation) • Critical biotic link between solar energy and the biosphere • Base of vast majority of food webs • About 20 species of plants provide 90% of the human food supply • Wheat, corn (maize), and rice are half • Convert carbon dioxide to oxygen • Transpiration elevates atmospheric humidity

  5. Photosynthesis and Respiration Figure 19.5

  6. Distribution of Vegetation • Five major factors: • Climate (temperature and precipitation) • Topography (elevation, slope) • Soils (nutrients, minerals) • Biotic Influences (dispersal mechanisms) • Disturbance (natural or anthropogenic)

  7. Climate Figure 19.8

  8. Life Zones Figure 19.9

  9. Carbon and Oxygen Cycle

  10. Climate Change Figure 19.23

  11. What’s limiting these distributions? Figure 19.12

  12. Soils – nutrients, minerals Serpentine http://www.cfr.washington.edu/Classes.esc.520B/ImagesNorthFork/Serpentine6SM.jpg http://www.krisweb.com/krisnavarro/krisdb/ac/dscn2166_sm.jpg http://nrs.ucdavis.edu/mclaughlin/images/plants/Seep.jpg

  13. Dispersal Mechanisms – Fruit and Seed http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/pages/fruit-seed-dispersal.htm

  14. What about this fruit? • Osage orange (Hedge apple) • These huge fruits ooze sticky, white latex when bruised.  • They are large and hard - what would want, or be able to eat them?   Probably were once dispersed by extinct megafauna (large mammals) that died out soon after humans arrived in North America.    http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/pages/fruit-seed-dispersal.htm

  15. Extinct Megafauna Mammoth Tooth Gomphothere http://sscl.berkeley.edu/~anth122/mammoth.gif http://www.intersurf.com/~chalcedony/gomp.jpg http://mishilo.image.pbase.com/u36/zidar/upload/23675731.pbtooth1.jpg

  16. Disturbance • Natural • Water, wind, volcano, fire… • Anthropogenic (human-caused) • Deforestation, fire, development…

  17. Succession • Ecological succession – when newer communities replace older communities of plants and animals • Primary succession – an area of bare rock or disturbed site with no previous community • Secondary succession – some aspects pf a previously functioning community are present

  18. Succession

  19. End Chapter 19 Geosystems 6e An Introduction to Physical Geography Robert W. Christopherson Charles E. Thomsen

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