GEOG 1125 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Permafrost, Succulent Plant, Temperate Rainforest
10 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Geog 1125 - unit 5: biosphere - ecological concepts. Biosphere: the complex system of abiotic and biotic components that sustain earth"s biodiversity: abiotic: nonliving, biotic: living. Ecosystem: a self-sustaining assemblage of living plants and animals and their nonliving physical environment: is an open system, abiotic aspect: solar energy (insolation) is the chief input to any ecosystem. Plants convert solar energy to biomass (plant matter) through photosynthesis, animals eat plant matter (cycle) Habitat: environment in which an organism lives and/or is biologically adapted to live: subset of an ecosystem, many species interact with numerous habitats. Biodiversity: the variety of life forms, ecological roles they perform, and genetic diversity they contain: types of diversity: species, genetic, and ecosystem. Extinction: the complete disappearance of living species from earth: background extinction: normal rates of extinction (slow process, mass extinction: occurs in a geologically short timespan, mass depletion: widespread, higher-than-normal rates of extinction.
