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Ecology and Biomes - General Biology

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  • What is Ecology?

    Ecology is the study of interactions between organisms and the living and nonliving components of their environment, determining organism distribution and abundance.

  • Levels of ecological research

    Organismal, Population, Community, Ecosystem, Landscape, and Global ecology are levels of ecological research focusing on different biological hierarchies.

  • Organismal Ecology

    Studies how an organism's structure, physiology, and behavior meet environmental challenges, including physiological, evolutionary, and behavioral ecology.

  • Population Ecology

    Analyzes factors affecting population size and changes over time within a group of individuals of the same species in an area.

  • Community Ecology

    Examines interactions among populations of different species in an area and their impact on community structure and organization.

  • Ecosystem Ecology

    Focuses on energy flow and chemical cycling between a community of organisms and the physical environment they interact with.

  • Landscape Ecology

    Studies mosaics of connected ecosystems and exchanges of energy, materials, and organisms across multiple ecosystems.

  • Global Ecology

    Examines the biosphere, the sum of all ecosystems and landscapes, focusing on global energy and material exchanges affecting organism distribution.

  • Four major physical components of climate

    Sunlight, Precipitation, Wind, and Temperature are the main factors influencing climate and organism distribution.

  • How does sunlight affect climate?

    Sunlight intensity varies with latitude due to Earth's tilt, causing temperature variations and influencing evaporation and air/water circulation.

  • What causes high precipitation in the tropics?

    Warm, moist air rises near the equator, cools, and releases water, causing high precipitation in tropical regions.

  • Global wind patterns

    Trade winds blow East to West near the equator; prevailing westerlies blow West to East in mid-latitude zones due to Earth's rotation.

  • Seasonality causes

    Seasonal changes in day length, solar radiation, and temperature result from Earth's axial tilt and orbit around the sun, increasing toward the poles.

  • Impact of mountains on climate

    Mountains cause moist air to release precipitation on windward sides and create dry rain shadows on leeward sides, affecting local climates.

  • How does vegetation affect climate?

    Forests absorb more solar energy, increase transpiration, cool surfaces, and raise precipitation, while deforestation leads to hotter, drier climates.

  • Microclimate

    Localized climate patterns influenced by environmental features that alter shade, evaporation, and wind, affecting abiotic and biotic factors.

  • Difference between weather and climate

    Weather is short-term atmospheric variation; climate is long-term average weather patterns over about 30 years.

  • Major terrestrial biomes

    Biomes are major life zones characterized by temperature and precipitation, including forests, deserts, grasslands, and tundra.

  • Aquatic biomes characteristics

    Aquatic biomes are influenced by light penetration, depth, temperature, and chemical environment, with zones like photic, aphotic, and benthic.

  • Species distribution factors

    Species distributions result from ecological interactions and evolutionary history, influenced by environmental factors and interspecies relationships.