BIO 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Hadley Cell, Tropical Rainforest
5 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Ecology: evolution in the present moment: what is ecology, why talk about ecology in an evolution course, adaptations are affected by the biotic and abiotic environment. Large scale climate patterns: global patterns in temperature and precipitation, seasons. Variations in climate patterns: local variation in climate, global variation in climate, stochasticity. Evolution in the present moment: competition, predation. Climate is controlled by three factors: variation in light intensity, the angle of the earth, variation in local conditions. Toward the poles the sun"s rays are absorbed because they must travel a longer distance through the atmosphere. At and near the equator, sunlight strikes the earth at a steep angle, delivering more heat and light per unit of area. Toward the poles, the sun"s rays strike earth at an oblique angle and are spread over a larger area, so that their energy is diffused. When the southern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, it is summer there and winter in the northern hemisphere.
