•Introduction to Earth`s Diverse Environments

The Biosphere
•Introduction to
Earth's Diverse
Environments
•Ecologists
•
- study how organisms interact with
environment at several levels
Organism
- individual organisms - how do they cope, their
adaptations (anatomy, physiology, behavior)
Population
- group of same species individuals living in a particular
area and sharing genes
Community
all the populations of different species which
inhabit a particular area
Ecosystem
all the biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living)
Biosphere
total of all earth’s ecosystems and the most difficult
to study.
Who were early ecologists?
Who were early ecologists?
• Charles Darwin,
Aldo Leopold and
Rachel Carson
Who were early ecologists?
(The Voyage of the Beagle," "The Origin of the Species," and "The Descent of Man,
Sand County Almanac (1949) & Silent Spring (1962)
•
Charles Darwin,
Aldo Leopold
and
Rachel Carson
Distribution of Water
Oceans 97.6%
Polar Ice & Glaciers 2.1%
Groundwater 0.7%
Lakes 0.2% (0.1-0.3)
Streams 0.0001%
Water: 90 – 80 – 70 - 60
90% Commerce Is Transported on Water
80% Humanity Lives Within 60 miles of water
Oceanus 70% of Earth
AQUATIC BIOMES
Oceans occupy
70% surface area
1 m of the oceans
evaporates every
year
AQUATIC BIOMES
and
Most of this
falls back on
oceans as rain
The Water Cycle
1
1 – ground water seeps into first order streams (springs)
Mountain ranges produce rain (lack of rain) shadows on downwind sides
Oceans are 70% earth’s surface, but 99%+ of BIOSPHERE
Biosphere extends only an average of several meters into soil, but all the way
to bottom of lakes, seas and oceans.
Photic zone:
- illuminated regions
- photosynthesis
Aphotic zone:
- vast, dark region
– Intertidal zone
Continental Shelf < 130m deep
Only 10% Ocean but 90% of Fishing Grounds
Man's greedy take from the sea may not have caused the demise
in the 1950s of “Cannery Row” - California's sardine-canning
business and subject of John Steinbeck's 1945 novel.
A natural, 5-decade Pacific Ocean cycle (Pacific Decadal Oscillation,
or PDO) may have been to blame. Opposite effect on anchovies.
Peruvian Anchovy Fisherman Coined Dec
warming the term “El Nino” (5-7 years)
Cool, nutrient-rich
Waters stimulates
Food web which
Anchovies follow.
– Intertidal zone is subset of continental shelf
Continental shelf
The oceans most
Productive
Fishing grounds
– Phytoplankton Intertidal zone and photic pelagic
– Sunlight is basis of this food web
– Zooplankton Intertidal zone and photic pelagic
– Zooplankton in aphotic; mostly detritus eaters
Depth greatly reduced densities
of zooplankton
– Deep sea vents or smokers
– (basis of food web is chemosynthesis by bacteria)
January 1960
Trieste 35,000 deep in Marianas
Trench
Pressure = 1100 times
Sea level
In perpetual darkness
Saw a Flatfish
Imagine you are about to start
a dive into the abyss (profundal) off East
Africa
Your descend
Where there is perpetual
darkness
Pygmy Shark - 400 m to surface at night
and luminescent
tsuranagakobitozame
Cigar Shark
Adaptations to life in perpetual darkness
The upper
2 meters of
ocean stores more
heat than entire
atmosphere!
epilimnion
hypolimnion
… and waters of different densities resist mixing!
The upper
2 meters of
ocean stores more
heat than entire
atmosphere!
epilimnion
hypolimnion
Upwelling can bring deep water toward
surface
Strong thermoclines
Coral reef:
- found in warm water (80 F)
- 150 feet or shallower
- Grow only 1” year
Coral reef:
- found in warm water (80 F)
- 150 feet or shallower
- Grow only 1” year
Coral reef:
- found in warm waters
Gulf Stream
Loop current
Loop current
Estuary:
- area where freshwater stream or river
- Salinity ranges from near 1 ppt to 35 ppt (text uses 1-3%)
- Plants and animals which live here have to adapt to changing salinity
Saltwater Wetlands:
- typically fringe the edges of estuaries
Saltwater Wetlands:
- typically fringe the edges of estuaries
Saltwater Wetlands:
- nursery grounds for 100s of fish and invertebrates
(shrimp, crabs)
- the surface area of the vegetation and the
attached community is almost beyond estimation
as is it role in purifying watert which passes through
on way to sea
Inland Lakes cover less than 2% earth’s
surface
-Yet some are so large we call them seas
-Provide different habitat than rivers
vertical temperature and dissolved gas
stratification
food webs autotroph-based
Great Lakes of U.S. have 21% earth’s freshwater
Almost all lakes in southeast, excluding FL are manmade
Mountain Lake Virginia – one of only two natural lakes (it has crack in bottom)
Astronauts who went to moon reported they could make out the Great Lakes
Lake Baikal
20% earths freshwater
Mono Lake CA/NV
Mark Twain didn't think much of California's
Mono Lake.
"It lies in a lifeless, treeless, hideous desert,”
he wrote in his 1872 travelogue, Roughing It.
"This solemn, silent, sailless sea
--this lonely tenant of the loneliest spot on earth
--is little graced with the picturesque."
30 species of bacteria
Where vascular plants
Stop growing typically
Marks
Euphotic zone
For now, only that food web in lakes and reservoirs driven by sun
(more about this latter in food webs and productivity)
Greater
Density
difference
… and waters of different densities resist mixing!
Southern reservoir
North temperate lake – upper midwest & canada
Longitudinal view of reservoir
In food webs
and productivity
we will talk about
oxygen voids in
southern reservoir’s
hypolimnions
How many ways does a reservoir serve our domestic needs?
Longitudinal view of reservoir
How many ways does a reservoir serve our water and energy needs?
1. Hydro-electric 2. Cooling water for nuclear and fossil fuel
Energy plants, 3. Pumped Storage for Peak energy needs,
4) Water storage for domestic and agricultural needs
Pumped Storage
Generator
That can run in
Reverse!
How many ways does a reservoir serve our water and energy needs?
1. Hydro-electric 2. Cooling water for nuclear and fossil fuel
Energy plants, 3. Pumped Storage for Peak energy needs,
4) Water storage for domestic and agricultural needs
5) Flood Control???????????????????????
An alternative to returning warmer water to river or lake is to
Evaporative cool using huge cooling towers
Water which is heated to steam to spin turbine must be cooled
In order to be re-used. The heat is transferred to cooling water.
Longitudinal view of reservoir
What are the drawbacks of reservoirs?
1. Destroys riverine habitat, 2) impacts water characteristics
downstream, 3) prevents migration of fish, 4) fragments
populations of aquatic animals
100’s or 1000’s of miles of fast-flowing streams
inundated to still deep water
Bamenging Reservoir, Cameroon, Africa
The aquatic life adapted to a stream or small river are not
adapted to lake-like conditions of a reservoir.
What if dam were built on Little River in Abbeville County, SC?
How many miles of streams would be lost?
Lake Nyos, @ 600 feet deep
9:30 p.m. on August 12, 1986
1700 people died
Streams and Rivers
They do not stratify vertically
They do change as they
progress downstream
Their food webs derived
from terrestrial detritus
Little sun which makes it through overstory
FPOM
Freshwater Aquatic Invertebrates
Detritus based food web of small to medium stream
FPOM FPOM
Huge Export of FPOM and Inorganic Particles
Downstream (eroding soils contain sand
– your future beaches)
FPOM FPOM
FPOM
FPOMFPOM
FPOM
FPOM
FPOM