1.
30. Higher latitudes are, on average, colder than equatorial latitudes. Why is this so?: Solar energy/area decreases with altitude, due to Earth's sphereicity
2.
47. What role does topography play as a small/fine scale factor in biodiversity?: Topography produces the environmental gradients that favor formation of new niches
3.
54. Why do the world climate and soils maps look similar?: Climate plays a major role in soil formation. A climate map is a (for the most part) a soils map is a vegetation map
4.
Although biogeographers rarely study single organisms, what is the exception?: The exception is rare and/or endangered species, such as the California Condor.
5.
Biological pathogens are also part of our biosphere. What is the chief reason modern-day pathogens spread much more rapidly than, for example, the Plague that 'plagued' 14th Century Europe?: People living in the 14th century crossed water by boat, slowly; today we fly across water quickly. Disease acquired by human-to-human contact can thus as a consequence spread much more rapidly in modern times.
6.
Give two examples of how changes in abiotic domains can affect biotic distributions: 1) fire disturbance creates new niches, producing a mosaic of biodiversity
2) erosion creates new niches along environmental gradients
7.
We have said the age of Earth was important to species biodiversity and distribution. What role did 20th century paleontologists play in the understanding of our diverse biosphere?: Paleontologists used the fossil record to determine the timings of origins, dispersal/radiation and extinction of species.
8.
What are biomes and what determines the spatial distribution of biomes?: A biome is a collection of communities. Biomes are distributed typically along large/broad scale climatic gradients (Hence the term a climate map is a vegetation map)
9.
What are the abiotic and biotic constrains on populations?: Abiotic: Light, Temperature; Moisture. Biotic: Competition, Predation, Parasitism. (NOTE: Mutualism and Commensalism are POSITIVE interactions, thus would not be constraining.
10.
What are the abiotic domains: Hydrosphere (the water environment: fresh and salty) Atmosphere (the thin canopy of air) Lithosphere (the rocks and dirt that coat the planet)
11.
What are the six scales of biogeography?: Organism, Population, Species, Community, Biome, Ecosystem.
12.
What do you think of Earth's age (i.e., about 4.4 billion years) key to the ideas of Darwin, Hooker, Sclater and Wallace.: Biodiversity and distribution both take significant time to increase (i.e. biogeography is a slow science) The age of Earth has thus been critical to the diversity and distributions of biota.
13.
What has been/is the role of climate change in biome distributions?: Climate change has driven radical changes in biome distributions over long time scales.
14.
What is a community: A group of interacting populations
15.
What is biogeography?: The study of the spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of biotic distributions, and the biotic and abiotic factors and processes underlying these patterns and dynamics.
16.
What is meant by 'biota'?: The sum of all life on Earth.
