Transcript Biosphere

 The living part of the world
 Why should we care about the biosphere?
 It’s the food we eat, the plants that we grow, provides oxygen
for us to breathe, pets for comfort
 Why should we take care of the biosphere?
 Without the services that the biosphere provides, we would
be dead.
 Biosphere The living part of the world
 Biomes Specific types of ecosystems and
environments that have certain types of climates and
biotic factors
 Ecosystems The combination of the living and non
living parts of an environment
 Community Different types of animals and plants
that interact with each other in an ecosystem
 Population A group of animals/plants that live in one
community
Species A single type of organisms
Organism An individual life form
 Abiotic Factors Non
living or never lived parts
of an ecosystem
 These materials will
provide the nutrients
and materials needed to
support the living part
of an ecosystem
 Examples of Abiotic
Factors:
 Examples: Air, Water,
Soil, Rocks
 Samples of living factors
that need nonliving
factors:
 Plants need water and
nutrients and carbon
dioxide
 Animals need water and
oxygen and vitamins
 Samples of what happens
 Biotic Factors Living
parts of an ecosystem
 These are organisms
that exist in nature and
balance the living world
 If part of the biotic part
of an ecosystem dies,
what happens to the rest
of the system?
Increases and Decreases in
organisms
 Examples of Biotic
factors: Animals, Plants,
Bacteria, dead
organisms
when a biotic factor dies
out:
 If a forest fire moves
through a forest, the
birds fly off, the trees
would be burnt, the air
would be smoky, but the
soil would be enriched
with nutrients
Organize the following words into TWO lists,
Abiotic and Biotic Factors:
A cell
 Because all of the organisms in an ecosystem are
connected, they are all joined together in large food
webs of interconnectedness.
 Food webs are defined as collections of food chains,
where one species is eating another, which eats
another, which eats another until you reach a top
predator
 Each species in a food web is in a population
 A population is defined as a collection of the same
species living the same area
 Minor to major changes in food webs can lead to
ripples that can flow from one part of the web to
the next
 If a top predator dies, then there will be an increase
in the population that it eats
 If a drought occurs, then your producers (plants) die
off which means a lot of animals that each plants is
have a decrease in their populations
 If the change is natural:
 It is easier for a food web
to recover from
 Consumers can change
their habits more
quickly to prevent
starvation
 In most cases, the
change is slow
 If the change is
unnatural:
 Food webs are disturbed
greater
 Producers are the ones
that feel the change the
most
 In most cases, the
change is faster and
food webs do not
recover as fast
 Specific types of
ecosystems and
environments that have
certain types of climates
and biotic factors
 Types
 Tundra
 Desert
 Taiga(Boreal Forest)
 Grassland
 Temperate Deciduous
Forest
 Tropical Rainforest
 Biomes will shape the types of organisms that are
found in them
 Organisms are adapted to the ecosystems and biomes
that they live in
 Different biomes have different amounts and types of
organisms for reasons:
 Tropical biomes will have increased amounts of animals
and plants
 Why? Animals and plants tend to grow and reproduce more
in warmer, wetter climates and good soils
 Tundra biomes will have decreased amounts of animals
and plants
 Why? Colder climates are harsh conditions for plants to grow
in, which means less food for animals
 Temperate forest biomes have larger human populations
 Why? Humans prefer the milder climates
 The total amount of species living in a given area
 This accounts from the single celled bacteria to the
largest of the top consumers
 Higher biodiversities are found in your biomes that have
warm temperatures and wetter conditions
 Examples?
 Tropical Rainforest
 Boreal Forest (Taiga)
 Lower Biodiversity biomes
would be cooler and/or dry
 Examples?
 Desert
 Tundra
 Why are we all so different?
 Differences in our genetic code are what make us unique
and look so different
 This is called genetic variation
 These are mutations in the genetic code that cause
similar structures, but different ways to look at it
 This genetic variation is found in all living organisms,
which is believed to be the driving force of evolution
 The better showing of genes are the ones that survive
better
 Tundra Animals will have more insulation (fur and fat)
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and plants are low and shrubby
Desert Animals are cold blooded; most organisms can
survive with small amounts of water
Taiga(Boreal) Plants can survive the colder weather (pine
needles)and animals can survive with more insulation
Grassland Animals are mostly herbivores and plants are
low and dry
Temperate Deciduous Forest All animals and plants have
seasonal changes and adapt to a variety of temperatures
and climates
Tropical Rainforest Animals are brightly colored and are
insectivores; plants have broad leaves and absorb water out
of the air.
 The biomes that are filled with trees.
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(3)________________________________________________
The biomes that would have a lot of snakes because of higher temperatures
for the cold-blooded reptiles (2) _______________________________
The biomes where you would find a lot of bears (3)
____________________________________________________________
Biomes that would NOT have mountain ranges in them usually (2)
___________________________
The biomes that would not be good for growing soil (2)
___________________________________
Best biome for growing agriculture crops (1)
_______________________________
Biomes with the best soils (3)
________________________________________________________
 Because of the extinction of 3-4 species a day, we are
losing many different resources that we could use in
the future
 Resources that are being lost
 Cures for diseases
 Food resources
 Building resources
 Chemicals for safer pesticides and fertilizers
 We need to slow this loss or the next species that goes
extinct maybe be one that would have saved the human
race in the future
 Human Population
Growth (Urban Sprawl)
 We people need space to
live, we would rather use
new land and spread out
than build up and tear
down old buildings
 Plants are animals are
cleared to make way for
humans
 Habitat Alteration
 Even if we do not clear
the land completely, we
can change the type of
ecosystem that exist
there
 Forests are changed to
farm lands
 Deserts have more water
placed in them to make
them into farmlands
 Habitat Fragmentation
 Organisms become
separated into pockets
of their ecosystems
 Examples:
 Housing Developments
 Logging (deforestation)
 Highways
 Many human activities
 Invasive Species
 A new, foreign species
that is introduced into
an ecosystem that can
destroy the ecosystem
that it is in
 It is always harmful to
the new environment
 Wisteria wood climbing vines
that choke the trees
 Kudzu Vines Climbing vines that
can destroy life under the trees and
block out the sun; can also hide predators.
 Hemlock Wooly Adelgid 
These small insects eat hemlock
trees and slowly destroys forests
in the taiga
 Fire Ants Their sting can cause anything from skin
irritation to scars from infected bites
 Nonnative Species
 A new species that is
introduced to an
ecosystem that does not
harm the new
environment
 This new species usually
will fit into the new
ecosystem fairly well
 Clear
Cutting/Deforestation
 Deforestation is taking a
normal forest and
cutting everything in
sight, whether or not it
is going to be used.
 Overharvesting
 When too many animals
or plants are removed
from the ecosystems,
the chance for a genetic
mutation is shrunken
because the organism is
not there to reproduce
that genetic mutation
 Examples:
 Fishing (trout and
salmon)
 Deforestation
 Finding the ability to change a problems outcome
 How can we fix the problems with the environment that
we created?
 -Increase availability of
contraceptives, sex education, offer
tax breaks for smaller families, and
help families to plan new additions.
 -Utilize existing buildings
 -Build ‘green’ by using responsibly
sourced materials, adding gardens to
rooftops, paving with permeable
material instead of asphalt.
 -Replanting native plants in green
space.
 -Using alternative energy instead of
fossil fuels
Replant native plants
Reintroduce native species
Clean up toxins
Stop the addition of toxins
Restore natural water flow
 -Create corridors to reconnect
fragmented habitats
 -This allows safe passage of animals
between natural habitats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzbgurbNn
MU
 -There is currently NO effective way to remove an invasive
species once it has established itself in an environment.
 -Efforts include: physical removal, chemical treatments,
biocontrol (introducing it’s natural predator…this has NEVER
ended well).
 The BEST method is to be careful when traveling and to not
bring in invasive species
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF2oRFicH
ds
 -- Since nonnative species cause no harm to the new
ecosystem they are now a part of, there is no need to
remove them from the ecosystem
Selective cutting takes down
useful trees, leaving young ones to
mature and babies to sprout up.
Replanting of cut trees
http://www.jandh.com/blog/learn-something-new-aboutfishing/
 -Limit how much of any one resource we take from
the environment at one time, so that the resource
will be there later.
 -Farming sea life for food is called aquaculture and
allows pressure to be taken off the wild individuals.
  -As a consumer, be conscious of where your food
comes from and how it is harvested.
http://www.tourdeturtles.org/2012/Mayan.php?page=cau
se
 From the list below, on the right hand side of your
paper, match the problems to their categories that they
would fit underneath
 Dumping of trash barges from NYC
 Near extinction of the cod fish
 Kudzu vine in NC
 Smoke stack from coal burning factories
 Low availability of birth control in developing countries
 Zebra mussels in the St Lawrence River
 Overgrazing of cattle in the Midwest US
 Leaking landfills
 Larger families
 Smog
 Deforestation
 Oils spills from tankers
 Canadian geese
 Pythons in Florida
 Global Warming leads to warmer biomes
 Improper recycling
 Stripping of orchards and no new regrowth
 Peppered moths from Europe
 Irrigation of deserts to produce more farmland
 The group of the same species living in a given area
 Herd of cows, a flock of seagulls, a murder of crows
 Can be described be several different characteristics
 Geographic Region
 Range that describes the area inhabited by a population
 Examples: Deer live in the forest
Cacti live in a desert
Whales live in the ocean
 Density
 The number of individuals living in a given
environment
 A dense population would be lots of
individuals living in the same area
 A sparse population would be a few
individuals living in the same area
 Outside factors that
control a population’s
size are called limiting
factors
 These things will
include anything that is
caused by nature or by
humans
 Density Dependent
 Density Independent
These are factors that
can be controlled by the
individuals in a
population
 Examples
These are the factors that
are outside of the control
of individuals in a
population
 Examples
 Growth Rate
 Natural populations should stabilize (remain the same)
from year to year
 Amount of births should equal the amounts of deaths
 Two Population Graph Shapes you need to know
 Exponential growth Start out slow and rapidly grow in
numbers (J-curve)
 Logarithmic Growth A population will grow until it
reaches a limits that keeps it level (S-curve)
 This could be the limiting factor of food, competition for
resources, predators, disease
 When a population reaches the largest amount that it
can while still having the resources to live and breed, it
is said to have reached it carrying capacity
 When resources start to run out, the population will
decrease
 When resources are plentiful, then the population will
increase
 If we lived off the land, human population would have
the same limiting factors as other organisms on this
planet
 Because we can manipulate our ability to obtain
resources, our population continues to grow
 The human population is growing at an exponential rate
 Density Dependent
 Density Independent
 Instead of hunting for
 In natural disasters, we
our food, we go to the
store
 Instead of making our
own clothes, we go to
the mall/store
have people evacuate
the areas of danger
 If someone gets sick,
then we send them to a
doctor
 We have exceeded Earth’s carrying capacity
 We are using too many resources to fast
 Our population graph is different because of the
ways that we have been able to manipulate our
environment and resources
 The shape that we have is a J-curve which is slowly
becoming an S-curve as we reach carrying capacity
A. Soil, minerals, grass, and oxygen
B. Carbon Dioxide, worms, beetles, and clouds
C. Water, oceans, lakes, and streams
D. Baboon, boy, bubble, and bunny
A. Some of the consumers would benefit and none
of the producers would benefit
B. None of the consumers would benefit and all of
the producers would benefit
C. Some of the consumers and some of the
producers would benefit
A. An abundant amount of food resources
B. Pleasant living conditions and shelter
C. Invasive species move in creating competition
D. Many males and females in the same area
A. There would be less predators to attach us
B. We would miss the fuzzy little creatures that are
cute in the world
C. Less bacteria to attack our immune systems
D. We would lose valuable resources
A. Snakes, hawks, and lions
B. Trees, bacteria, and fish
C. Grass, seaweed, and flowers
D. Mice, rabbits, and granola
A. No solution is needed. It is not a problem.
B. Have trees planted to regrow the forest.
C. Stop fishing practices for a few year.
D. Throw new fish into the ocean and then fish
them.