Producers
• Organisms that can produce
Vegetation Regions
•
their own food
Plants
– Form the basis of most food
chains/webs
– Photosynthesis
• Process by which green plants
Chapter 2, Section 2
manufacture their own food
• Uses solar energy to combine
CO2 and water to produce
carbohydrates
• 6 CO2 + 6 H2O Æ C6H12O6 + H2
Consumers
Decomposers
• Do not produce their own food and rely on
• A.k.a. detrivores
• Feed on dead frag.
frag. of plant and animal matter
other living organisms
• Rely directly or indirectly on plants
(producers)
– Breaking it down into inorganic nutrients
• Types
T
off consumers
– Herbivores
• “Plant eaters”
• Primary consumers that feed directly on living plants
– Carnivores
• “Flesh eaters”
• Secondary consumers that feed only on herbivores or
tertiary consumers that feed on other carnivores
– Omnivores
• “Everything eaters”
• Consumers that feed on plants or other consumers
Transfer of Energy
• Only 1% of the sun’s energy
•
is converted thru photosynphotosynthesis into food and energy.
O l about
Only
b t 10% off the
th energy
present in one level is
transferred to the next level.
– The rest is lost to the
environment.
– Explains why there are fewer
organisms in the higher levels of
the food chain/web.
1
Plant Communities and Biomes
• Plant Community
– Mix of interdependent plants that generally grow in one
place or type of environment
• Natural Vegetation
– Type of vegetation in areas where humans have not
modified the landscape significantly
– Has mostly been destroyed by human activities
• Such as farming, logging, and grazing
• Biome
– Region in which the environment and plant and animal life
are suited to one another.
another.
– For example, a temperate forest biome
• Moderate temps.
temps. and rainfall
• Oak and/or maple trees
• Deer, squirrels, raccoons, owls, etc.
etc.
Types of Forest Biomes
• Tropics
– Tropical Rain Forest
• Subtropics
–M
Mediterranean
dit
Scrub
S b Forest
F
t
• A.k.a. Chaparral
• Temperate
– Deciduous Forest
• Subarctic
– Taiga
• A.k.a. Boreal Forest
Tropical Rain Forest
• Found in the Tropics
– Located btw. the Tropics of Cancer and
• Found in areas where rainfall exceeds 80”/yr. w/
less than one dry month
Tropical Rain Forest
• Composed of very diverse plant
and animal life
– Cover only 7% of the earth’s surface,
but contain 70% of the world’s 1.3
million known species.
– May have 100100-200 different species
w/in a single acre of rain forest.
• Only 180 species exist in the state of IL.
• Only 80 species exist in the state of Wis.
– Only about 1% of the animals in the
rain forest have been studied.
2
Tropical Rain Forest
• Stratification
– Distribution of plant mass on a vertical scale
– Rain forests have at least 5 different layers
of plant mass.
• Oak forests have just 3 layers.
• Rain
R i Forest
F
t vs. JJungle
l
– Rain Forest
• Has little vegetation along the forest floor
– B/c of the dense canopy letting little sunlight
penetrate to the floor
– Jungle
• Has very dense vegetation along the floor
• May coincide w/ rain forests where there is a
break in the canopy
– Such as along the perimeters or where rivers
flow thru
3
Mediterranean Scrub Forest
• A.k.a. chaparral
• Specially Adapted to the
Mediterranean climate
regions
i
– Warm and/or hot yr. round
– Most precip
precip.. Comes during
winter months
• Composed of small
evergreen trees and low
bushes or scrub
Deciduous Forest
• Forest composed of
deciduous trees
– Are green in the summer
but shed their leaves w// the
approach of winter
– E.g., oak and maple
Taiga
• A.k.a. Boreal Forest
• Found in colder parts of the middle latitudes
• Composed of coniferous trees
– A.k.a. “evergreens
“evergreens””
– Have needles rather than leaves
• Exposes
E
only
l a smallll surface
f
to
t the
th cold
ld
• Can remain on the trees in winter w/o freezing
– Haves cones to protect the seeds
– E.g., pine, spruce, fir
4
Types of Grassland Biomes
Savanna
• Tropical
• Grasslands found in the
– Savanna
• Temperate
tropical zone
• Found in areas of low
– Prairie
– Steppe
•
precip.. where rainfall
precip
occurs during only a
few months of the yr.
Contain an occasional
tree that dots the
landscape of the
savanna
– Mostly the acacia tree
Temperate Grasslands
• Generally lack trees except
along rivers
• Prairie
– Composed of tall grasses
• Often
f
growing 6’’ to 8’’ in h
height
h
– Found in areas w/ wetter climates
• Steppe
– Composed of shorter grasses
• Usually measuring ½’ to 1½’ in
height
– Found in areas w/ drier climates
• Have been transformed into the
world’s most productive grain
grain-producing regions
5
Desert Biomes
• Regions that get less than
•
10”/yr. of precip.
precip.
Contain plants that have
been specially adapted to
life w/ little water
Adaptations of Desert Plants
• Store water
– Such as cacti, which
store water in their stem
• Small leaves
– Less surface area to lose
water thru transpiration
• Waxy coating on stem
and/or leaves
– Also helps reduce the
amount of water loss
Adaptations of Desert Plants
Adaptations of Desert Plants
• Shallow roots spread
• Thorns
over a large area
– To receive as much
water as possible when
it does rain
• Very deep roots
– To seek moisture at or
near the water table
– To protect from animals,
who could damage the
plant and cause water
loss
• Seeds that survive for
long periods
– To survive until they
receive enough water to
germinate
Tundra Biomes
• Found in areas in the upper
middle latitudes where the
temp. is always cold or cool
• Permafrost
– Layer of soil just below the
surface that remains
permanently frozen
throughout the yr.
• Composed of small
flowering plants and mosses
– Usually w/ shallow root
systems b/c of the permafrost
6