Ecosystems and Biomes

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Ecosystemsand Biomes
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Ecosystems are. . .

• A communities of species interacting with one
  another and the nonliving environment.
• Two components living or biotic and nonliving
  or abiotic

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Abiotic Components Terrestrial Ecosystems

• Sunlight
• Temperature
• Precipitation
• Wind
• latitude (distance from equator)
• altitude (distance above sea level)
• frequency of fires
• soil

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Abiotic ComponentsAquatic Ecosystems

• Water currents
• Concentration of dissolved nutrients
• Amount of suspended solid material
• Amount of dissolved oxygen
• Sunlight
• Temperature
• Salinity

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Limiting Factor Principle

• Too much or too little of an abiotic factor can
  limit or prevent growth of a population, even if
  all other factors are at or near the optimum
  range of tolerance

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Biotic Factors

• Producers, terrestrial plants, aquatic plants and
  phytoplankton
• Primary consumers are herbivores
• Secondary consumers are carnivores that feed on
  herbivores
• Tertiary consumers are carnivores that feed on
  other carnivores

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Biotic Factors continued

• Omnivores
• Scavengers (feed off dead organisms they do not
  kill)
• Detritivores (feed off dead organisms and wastes
  of living animals)
• Decomposers (feed off dead organisms by breaking
  them down)

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General Food Web
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Energy Flow Pyramid

• Representation of the energy available at each
  trophic level
• Energy is lost at each trophic level
• Explains why there is usually only 4 or 5 trophic
  levels in an ecosystem.
• Explains why there are so few top carnivores
  eagles, tigers, white sharks.
• Explains why top carnivores are the first to
  suffer due to ecosystem disruption

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Biomass Pyramid

• Representation of the total dry weight of all
  living organism at each trophic level of a food
  web.

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Nutrient Cycles

• The cycling of any atom, ion, or molecule an
  organism needs to grow or reproduce between the
  living and nonliving environment
• These cycles are driven by solar energy and
  gravity
• Cycles include water, carbon, nitrogen,
• phosphorus, sulfur, and oxygen

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Types of Ecosystems

• Estuaries, swamps and marshes, tropical rain
  forests, temperate forests, northern coniferous
  forest (taiga), savanna, agricultural land,
  woodland and scrubland, temperate grassland,
  lakes and swamps, continental shelf, open ocean,
  tundra (arctic and alpine), desert scrub and
  extreme desert

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Estuary
An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of
water with one or more rivers or streams flowing
into it, and with a free connection to the open
sea.
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Scrub Desert
Scrub Desert is an intermountain region dominated
by sagebrush
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Savanna
Savanna is a rolling grassland scattered with
shrubs and isolated trees, which can be found
between a tropical rainforest and desert biome.
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Biomes are . . .

• Terrestrial regions inhabited by certain types of
  life, especially natural vegetation
• Result primarily due to differences in climate
  and soil
• Each biome contains many ecosystems

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Types of Biomes

• Arctic tundra, boreal forests (taiga), evergreen
  coniferous forests, temperate deciduous forests,
  temperate grasslands, dry woodlands and
  scrublands, desert, tropical rainforests,
  tropical evergreen forest, tropical deciduous
  forest, tropical scrub forest, tropical savanna,
  thorn forest, semidesert, arid grassland,
  mountains and ice

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Arctic Tundra
Arctic Tundra is like a frozen desert. One
unique characteristic of the Arctic tundra is
permafrost--ground that is permanently frozen.
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Taiga
Taiga, also called a boreal forest or northern
coniferous forest, is a cold woodland or forest.
It is the largest biome.
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Desert
There are four major types of deserts Hot and
dry Semiarid Coastal Cold Hot and dry are
characterized by little precipitation.