Climates and biomes lab answer key

Name: Af.A: v(Cl \<..J Date: _____________ Laboratory Section: - - - - - - Score/Grade:---------- LAB EXERCISE Video Exercise 29 Pre-Lab Video Scan to view the Pre-Lab video Biomes: Analyzing Global Terrestrial Ecosystems The Earth systems science approach embodied in physical geography synthesizes content from across the disciplines to create a holistic perspective. Exciting progress toward an integrated understanding of Earth's physical and biological systems is under way. Physical geography plays an important role in mapping and analyzing Earth's terrestrial ecosystems. The diversity of organisms is a response to the interaction of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere, producing diverse conditions within which the biosphere exists. A first-ever-international attempt to protect biodiversity (species richness) is now ratified through the auspices of the United Nations. The biosphere includes myriad ecosystems from simple to complex, each operating within general spatial boundaries. An ecosystem is a self-regulating association of living plants and animals and their non-living physical environment. In an ecosystem. a change in one component causes changes in others, as systems adjust to new operating conditions. Interacting populations of plants and animals in an area form a community. Each plant and animal occupies an area in which it is biologically suited to live-its habitat-and within that habitat it performs a basic operational function-its niche. Earth itself is the largest ecosystem within the natural boundary of the atmosphere. Natural ecosystems are open systems for both energy and matter, with almost all ecosystem boundaries functioning as transition zones rather than as sharp demarcations. Plants are the most visible part of the biotic landscape. a key aspect of Earth's terrestrial ecosystems. In their growth. form, and distribution. plants reflect Earth·s physical svstems: its energy patterns: ,: opyrighc ,e 2015 Pearson Educatio n, Inc. I atmospheric composition; temperature and ·winds; air masses; water quantity, quality, and seasonal timing; soils; regional climates; geomorphic processes; and ecosystem dynamics. The net photosynthesis for an entire plant community (photosynthesis minus respiration) is its net primary productivity. This is the amount of stored chemical energy (biomass) that the community generates for the ecosystem. Biomass is the net dry weight of organic material and varies among ecosystems. A large, stable terrestrial ecosystem is known as a biome. Specific plant and animal communities and their interrelationship vvith the physical environment characterize a biome. Each biome is usually named for its dominant "·egetation. We can generalize Earth's wide-ranging plant species into six broad biomes: forest, savanna, grassland, shrubland, desert, and tundra. Because plant distributions are responsive to environmental conditions and reflect variation in climatic and other abiotic factors , the world climate map and the global terrestrial biome map are presented together inside the cover of this lab manual. Earth's diversity is expressed in 300,000 plant species. Despite this complexity of diverse plant and anir,1al communitias and their interrelationships, we can generalize Earth"s ecosystems into 10 global terrestrial biome regions on the global terrestrial ecosystem map (inside back cover of this lab manual) and in the comprehensive Table ~9.1. The table synthesizes many aspects of physical geography. integrating them under the 10 biomes. These biomes are included in the glossary and are presented on the biome map and integrative table. Lab Exercise 29 features four sections and one optional Google Earth""' activity. Lab Exercise 29 295 Key Terms and Concepts arctic tundra biodiversitv biogeograph y biomass biome community ecosystem equatorial and tropical rainforest formation class habitat island biogeography life zone Mediterranean shrubland midlatitude broad.leaf and mixed fo rest midlatitude grasslands montane forest niche needleleaf forest temperate rainforest terrestrial eco ·vstem tropical savanna tropical seasonal fo rest and scrub After com pletion of this lab. y ou should be able to: 1. Identih· a nd d~fferentiate various terrestrial ecosystem formation classes a.; they relate to patterns of precipitation and temperature. "