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Ecology Final p.4, Nutrient Recycling

Terms in this set (84)

Temperatures •
Ice cover Sea level, Precipitation, Storm severity
High latitudes warming most
Geographic Variation
Sea Level Rise
4 ‐ 8 inches over last century
aldebo
amount of radiation reflected by a surface
The Dust bowl
drought while man continued land use practices.
Reasons for climate change
Are: natural, not natural, and a combination
What is a green house effect
Sunlight penetrates
lower atmosphere.
The Earth's surface absorbs much of
the incoming solar radiation.
Some of this heat escapes into space.
Some is absorbed by molecules of
greenhouse gases.
Increasing greenhouse
gases increase heat
Greenhouse Gases
Exponential increase recently
Expected to continue to increase rapidly
Green house gas includes
carbon dioxide (CO2 ****), methane (CH2), nitrous oxide (N2O)
Sources of CO2
gas, oil, coal, and cement
Solar irradiance _____ while temperature
decreases, increases
Burning trash
CO
2 and other pollutants
Cutting down trees
Trees remove CO
2 from atmosphere
Fewer trees, more CO
Agriculture
Fertilizer increases nitrous oxide
Cars
1 gallon of gas = 18.8 lbs of CO2
500 million cars in use worldwide
Repercussions 2017: $300 billion
76 wildfires in 9 western states
Hurricane;Harvey, Irma, Maria
Ecological Impacts
Species distributions
Frost‐free season
Diseases
Wildfire
Species Distributions
Precipitation influences disribution (biomes)
Center of bird abundance ;305 species in North America
Diseases
Warmer conditions can lead to:
• Increased rate of disease
• New disease
Wildfires
• Increase in severity and frequency
• Hotter temperatures
• Drier conditions
CO2 and Oceans
Increased CO2 creates more acidic oceans
CO2 Sources and Sinks
Forests are a key sink
Deforestation reduces a sink AND contributes to
atmospheric levels
Temperature and Oceans
Symbiosis: coral and algae
Temperature and Oceans affects
Algae dies‐ coral dies
Acid Rain
Pollution resulted in damage to natural systems
depostion of S.
Decrease in the acidity of the precipitation in the eastern US. are associated with emissions and ________
Stratosphere
good, blocks UV light
Troposphere
bad, damages plants & animals
Climate Change Misconceptions
"Scientists disagree about whether humans are
causing the Earth's climate to change"
• Strong scientific consensus that human activities
are changing the Earth's climate
• Scientists overwhelmingly agree that the Earth is
getting warmer and will continue
Climate Change Misconceptions CO2
• CO
2 levels are higher now than they have been at any
time in the last 650,000 years (warmer with more CO
2)
Global warming
refers to the rise in the average
temperature of the entire Earth's surface due to
increased levels of greenhouse gases
Nutrient Recycling
Nutrients required for development, maintenance,
and reproduction
Nutrient Recycling is important
physiologically; Scarcity and Influence rate of promary production
One of the most significant ecosystem processes
studied by ecologists
Nutrient Recycling
3 Nutrient Cycles include
Phosphorus Cycle, Nitrogen Cycle, Carbon Cycle
Nutrient pool
Amount of nutrient stored in a portion of the ecosystem
Nutrient flux
Movement/transfer of nutrients between pools
Cycles are dynamic
Distribution of pools and rate of nutrient flux
between them
General Nutrient Cycles
Ecosystem
A community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system
In Open Ecosystems
Nutrients can be gained/lost
Nutrient sink
Nutrient is absorbed
faster than it is released
Nutrient source
Nutrient release is faster
than it is absorbed
Phosphorus (P) Cycle
Not very abundant in the biosphere
• Most not available to plants
• Mineral deposits
• Marine sediments
Phosphorus (P) Cycle is important to
P critical for ATP, RNA, DNA
P released
by weathering of rocks
Geological uplifting
forms new land
Ocean sediment transforms
to sedimentary rocks
Phosphorus Cycle pool
dissolve into ocean water, largest sediment
Nitrogen (N)
critical for amino acids (proteins), nucleic acids
(DNA, RNA), chlorophyll, hemoglobin
Nitrogen
limits primary production
Which cycle receives the most ecological attention
Nitrogen
Nitrogen (N) Cycle Pools
Atmosphere (N2) ~90%
• Human activities- fertilizer, pollution
Nitrogen (N) Cycle Flux
Nitrogen-fixing plants
• Lightning
Humans make and add fertilizer (20% that natural cycles
through terrestrial ecosystems)
sewage and industrial
wastes, erosion
Nitrogen deposition
• Input of nitrogen from the atmosphere as gases/dust (dry deposition) and in precipitation (wet deposition
Which cycle have humans altered the most
Nitrogen Cycles more than Carbon or Phosphorus Cycles
Anthropogenic fluxes
are now dominant components
of the N cycle
Emitting Nitrogen will cause
Acid rain
Nitrogen Deposition
Alters the competitive balance
Why is carbon important
energy flow and biomass
Photosynthesis
Removes CO2 from the atmosphere
Respiration
Returns CO2 to the atmosphere
carbon
an essential part of all organic molecues
Carbon Cycle pools
sediment rocks ( fossil fuel) 99%
Carbon sinks are
oceans
Carbon Flux
Relatively dynamic and quick
forest have high
carbon low phosphorus
bare rock has low
carbon, high phosphorus
Decomposition
Breakdown of organic matter and release of CO2
arthropods help decomposition by
ingestion and
fragmentation
What is decomposition dominated by
bacteria/fungi
Higher moisture
higher decomposition rates
Higher temperatures,
higher decomposition rates
What are changing in Communities
climates and extinction
can modify distribution and cycling of nutrients
organisms
Burrowing
brings nutrient
poor soils to the surface
by burrowing and building mounds
pocket gophers increase heterogeneity in soil NITROGEN and LIGHT penetration
Higher plant biodiversity is a result of
biodiversity
increase nutrient loss from
disturbances
Nutrient sink
keeps nutrients in ecosystem
The Gulf of Mexico is a (dead zone) because of
a void of almost all marine life due to oxygen -deprivation
Nitrogen Source
Sewage
Atmospheric deposition
Agriculture
Deforestation
Eutrophication (an excess richness of nutrients in bodies of water) does what to aquatic systems
Increased primary productivity rate in which energy is converted), leads to anoxic (dissolved oxygen) conditions, reduced biodiversity
Eutrophication
Added nutrients to aquatic systems (N, P)
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