ZOL 355 Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 12 Lecture 1 What is population community and ecosystem ecology What is the relevance to human life Population ecology is the study of each individual species Community is the interactions between species living in a defined area Symbiosis competition and predation come into play here Ecosystem is the study of biological and abiological interactions together Human life has changed ecosystems by changing habitats which affects the animals and land itself We change landscapes with causes more fertilizer use which causes more crop higher human population and high GDP Lecture 2 What are the major biomes and the primary controls of them Tropics 20C Rainforest 250cm Desert 50cm Savannah in between Temperate 5 20C Rainforest 225cm Seasonal forest 150 250cm Savanna 50 150cm Grassland 50cm High Latitude 5C Boreal 50 200cm Tundra 100cm Lecture 3 4 What is the solar equator and its affects on our seasons What are Hadley cells The solar equator is where the suns rays are perpendicular to the earth and it affects our seasons not the distance between sun and earth The ITCZ is usually here also Hadley cells are convection cells that occur at 0 30 60 and 90N S and affect temperature and precipitation The tropopause causes them to stay in our atmosphere Lecture 5 6 What causes high and low pressure and what are the effects of them What is the ITCZ and its effects on our climate Low pressure comes with high precipitation and cloud cover Wet biomes are associated with it High pressure is caused by sinking cold dense air and it associated with dry biomes The ITCZ follows the solar equator and creates cloud cover precipitation It too changes throughout the year Lecture 7 How do oceans and hurricane affect heat transfer What drives gyres and currents Know the currents of the N Atlantic and Pacific gyres Ocean currents and gyres move transfer heat along which prevents equatorial heat build up Global wings density differences and continents affect their travel Hurricanes evaporate over the ocean pulling heat out of the ocean and they carry that heat to land and other areas of the ocean This also prevents equatorial heat build up They are a necessary natural phenomenon Islands and wetlands prevent erosion and take a huge hit from the direct force of the hurricane Lecture 8 Why is photosynthesis respiration important important Know the substrates and products Photosynthesis is conducted by autotrphs It reduces CO2 to organic compounds and produces O2 from the oxidation of water Energy 6CO2 6H2O C6H12O6 6O2 Respiration takes organic compounds and oxidizes them to CO2 O2 is reduced to water Autotrophs and heterotrophs use this C6H12O6 6 O2 6 CO2 6 H2O energy Without the above reactions life on earth would not exist Autotrophs need CO2 and O2 to survive and heteotrophs need O2 to survive Lecture 9 Know what GPP NPP and R are and know how to calculate them Also understand how they are measured What is standing crop SC GPP is gross primary product and is NPP R This can be measured by using the light dark bottle experiments It measures all the biomass produced in an unchanged environment NPP is GPP R It is the net primary product profit It would be what we see with our eyes i e a bunch of grapes It is the gross minus O2 used for respiration and minus any biomass that has been consumed R is the respiration of the plant It is the amount of O2 left after photosynthesis It is measured in the dark bottle SC is the amount of crop using minus any farming or grazing done on the area Hard to determine though due to the large amount of biomass in the underground root system Lecture 10 Know the plants needs for photosynthesis and respiration Know the affects of aqueous environments What light wavelength do plants use O2 CO2 light and nutrients are necessary for photosynthesis In aquatic environments CO2 solubility is low and much is transformed into bicarbonate This can be used for photosynthesis but diffuses much slower making it less efficient It s a very large molecule Plants also need light and use the visible spectrum from 400 700nm violet to red After 50m in water 50 of the light is gone with blue green reaching the deepest depths Some plants absorb violet blue green and emit orange red Others absorb violet orange red and emit green Lecture 11 Why do plants need Nitrogen Where do they get it and in what forms can they use it Know nitrification denitrification ammonification and haber bosch What are the effects on the environment Nitrogen is a main nutrient for plants It is very abundant in the atmosphere as N2 but plants can only use NH4 NO3 NH2 NH3 and NO2 Only bacteria can conduct N2 fixation Not plants N uptake synthesis plants bacteria and fungi uptake NH4 NO3 or urea and synthesize these compounds into amino acids Uptake synthesis NH4 or NO3 or Urea cell amino acids N2 fixation only bacteria conduct N2 fixation N2 NH4 amino acids proteins NH4 Ammonification Amino acid Decomposition of amino acids by bacteria fungi Yields energy Nitrification oxidation of NH4 yields energy for a type of autotrophy called chemoautotrophy NH4 NO2 NO3 energy Denitrification nitrate is used instead of oxygen for respiration Nitrate is reduced and organic compounds are oxidized 4NO3 5C6H12O6 N2 CO2 4HCO3 3H2O energy Environmental Impacts of Increased N Global warming via N2O production Decreases in terrestrial productivity Soil and lake acidification nitric acid HNO3 Harmful algal blooms Degradation of sea grass coral Increased oxygen demands anoxia Changes in community structure Lecture 12 Importance of water distribution on earth How are lakes formed What is stratification Do the seasons affect it Off water 97 is oceans the other 3 is broken into 1 lakes and streams 22 ground water 77 glaciers inland seas Most lakes are glacially formed or by plate movements of the earth There are Cirque Karst and Oxbow lakes Stratification is when different zones or layers of the lake are separated from temperature and density differences The top layer is epilimnion middle metalimnion and bottom hypolimnion In the epilmnion the water is freely circulating and photosynthesis occurs There is no circulation and low photosynthesis in hypolimion 4 c is the heaviest densest water and will sink to the bottom This happens in winter causing density to drive the mixing of lakes vs wind in other seasons It s called inverse stratification when the top layer of water is 1 C and the bottom is 4 C in winter months