NATS 1940 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Temperate Forest, Moodle, Speciation
22 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
Swallowtail butterfly species richness in the old and new worlds. The energy hypothesis: amount of solar energy captured by photosynthesis (a functi of both water availability and sunlight) accounts for latitudinal species richness gradient. Rate of photosynthesis increases with increasing temperature - up to a point. Max. rate of photosynthesis is high, and occurs at a higher temperature, for tropical than for temperate plants. Increase plant biomass -> increase complexity of vegetation structure (stratification. Multitudes of habitats for animals to live in, different temperatures > specialized for animals to live in ical ation). d for. Temperate forest: fewer layers; more open space under upper canopy. Presence of canopy layers alters conditions by influencing light intensity, humidity, range and extremes of temperature. More complex structure -> more ecological niches -> greater animal diversity supported. Number of bird species in relation to number of vegetation layers. However, diversity in some groups is not correlated with environmental complexity.
