Transcript Diversity - Londonderry School District

U11 ECDCICA: Diversity –
the most unique feature of Earth
I. Abiotic factors influence biotic organisms
Sunlight energy and essential
chemical/nutrients are present in
different amounts and quality in different
places. This results in varied conditions for
life.
Ex: Amounts of sunlight and nutrients in
rainforest vs. arctic tundra.
 Both
the number and type of plants and
animals found in the area are influenced
by the availability of sunlight and nutrients.

Ex: Different plants and animals that can live in
desert vs. temperate forest
These changing conditions of sunlight
energy and building matter (nutrients)
support a variety or diversity of life.
This diversity or variety results in an
overall sustainability (endurance or the
ability to for life to keep going)
Grasslands
Deciduous or
Temperate Forest
Tundra
Taiga –
Boreal Forest
Which biome has the most
sunlight (and warmest
temperatures day and night)?
Which biome has the least
sunlight (and coolest
temperatures day and night)?
Desert
Tropical
Rainforest
How temperature & precipitation
affect plant and animal life
1. What do you notice about the
temperature range of the desert?
2. What do you notice about the
precipitation of the desert?
3. How is the tropical rainforest
temperature range different than the
desert?
4. How is the tropical rainforest
precipitation range different than a
desert?
5. Which biome has the least
precipitation and coldest
temperatures?
6. Give an example of an animal that
can only live in the desert and one for
the tropical rainforest. WHY?
II. What is the number one factor that
influences diversity?
Diversity is the variety of abiotic and biotic
factors within an ecosystem. Abiotic factors
determine which plant species will survive in the
ecosystem, which in turn determine the animals
(consumers) that will be able to survive there.
Some Abiotic Factors
Sunlight
Water
Soil & Rocks
Precipitation
Temperature
Wind
Humidity
Atmospheric Gases
Nutrients – N & P
 III.
Sustainability
 Diversity of life assures that organisms can
take advantage of almost any change
(growth, fire, floods, natural disasters) in
the surrounding conditions.
What is
happening
to this forest
over time?
 This
variety of life or diversity guarantees
that life will persist. If one organism can not
resist change, another organism is sure to be
prepared. Generally the more diverse an
ecosystem, the more sustainable it is.
Do all the warbler species
occupy the same niche
(do they all live and help
disperse the tree seeds in a
certain area of the tree)?
What would happen if the
Black-throated green
warbler went extinct in this
ecosystem?
Sustainability
 Generally
the more diverse an ecosystem
the more sustainable it is.
A sustainable rainforest has the most diversity
although an unsustainable rainforest may still have a
higher diversity than a sustainable desert.
Unsustainable
Rainforest
Sustainable rainforest
Sustainable
Desert
Desert Sustainable or
Unsustainable?
More diverse
Unsustainable rainforest More diverse than a desert
Sustainable desert
Less diverse
IV. Monocultures
 Monocultures
are generally undesirable in
a natural ecosystem.
 All of one species – crops of corn, cotton
or apple orchards.
Monocultures

Are like putting your eggs in one basket, if
one thing goes wrong, you will loose the
whole batch due to disease.
Monoculture tragedyPotato famine - fungus

25% of the population or 1 million people in
Ireland died in 1840.
 Hundreds of thousands emigrated from Ireland
to Ellis Island.
1. Diversity or Monoculture?
2. Diversity or Monoculture?
3. Diversity or Monoculture?
What now?
 1.
You will be reading and answering
questions about monocultures and index
species
 2.
You will learn how to calculate how
diverse an ecosystem is by doing a lab
activity and calculating a diversity index
 3.
You will apply what you learned in the lab
on diversity index to a case study of a
town’s ecosystem.
Bibliography
http://images.google.com/imgres?i
mgurl=http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.
ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/D/Dane