Ecosystem DynamicsSarah Jones
rgallagherphoto.com
de.wikipedia.org
Lithosphere
www.radford.edu
de.wikipedia.org
hdcoolwallpaper.com
Biogeochemical Cycles - Abiotic
www.anselm.edu/
www.anselm.edu
Nitrogen Cycle
www.biofortified.org
www.anselm.edu
www.anselm.edu
Food Webs
www.uic.edu
sites.google.com
www.anselm.edu
Trophic Levels
http://upload.wikimedia.org
www.ck12.org
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sciencelearn.org.nz
Biomass Pyramid
galleryhip.com
www.anselm.edu
www.anselm.edu
Ecological Niche
http://naturedocumentaries.org/
voices.nationalgeographic.com
Keystone Species
urbanrabbits.eu
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• Removal of predator (sea star – keystone species) lead to a population explosion of mussels.
• Mussels outcompeted other organisms for space on the rocks - Barnacles, snails, algae.
sites.google.com
Gases in the Atmosphere
abctechnolab.com
Changing Climate
thestandard.org.nz
Global Warming
glacierchange.wordpress.com
Evidence for Climate Change
Glaciers
Ice Cores
Pollen Analysis
Sea Level Change
Loss of Ice
igreenhero.com
Human Influence
www.wwf.org.br
Loss of Biodiversity
www.bailiffafrica.org
www.anselm.edu
Introduced Species
Ecosystem Measurements
Population
A group of living organisms of the same kind living in the same place at the same time.
en.wikipedia.org
Population EstimatesYou make population estimates in the field because it is difficult to describe in detail any large area.
It is impractical to count every living thing (we also try to minimise possible damage to the environment).
kingfisherbayresort.wordpress.com
Measuring DistributionDrawing Transects
biological-diversity.info
Measuring Abundance
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Plant AbundanceA good method is to estimate the percentage cover or randomly choose areas of vegetation in quadrants and count or estimate the percentage cover.
en.wikipedia.org
Animal AbundanceCapture-recapture is a good way of studying animals that are constantly on the move. You capture and tag samples (e.g. 5 animals), then release them. After they have had time to mix, you recapture a sample (e.g. 10 animals) and count the number of tagged animals. If only one of the recaptured animals is tagged you can expect that the original 5 animals represents 10% of the total population. Therefore, the population is about 50 animals.
Abundance = number captured x number recaptured
number marked in recapture
www.pomaceaproject.org
www.capturerecapture.co.uk
cdip17fws.wordpress.com
southernsharkecologygroup.com
www.marinecsi.org
Measuring Abiotic Factors
www.businessinsider.com
• Climate - light duration, intensity, cloudiness, humidity, temperature, wind direction and speed.
• Temperature of habitats
• Slope - LWM (lowest water mark) to HWM (highest water mark)
• Salinity
• Soil - profile
www.arizona-leisure.com
Ecological Succession
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
galleryhip.com
How Ecosystems Respond to Change
• Wildfires are a relatively common event inAustralia. Many Australian plants have the ability to survive regular burning.
• Banksias – this plants ripe seeds can stay on the tree for years waiting for a fire to release them.
http://anpsa.org.au
• Over time as Australia became warmer and drier - both plants and animals evolved with adaptations to enable them to survive this increasing aridity.
• Australia’s vegetation is dominated by two groups of flowering plants which have successfully evolved to colonise a wide variety of habitats – acacias (wattles) and eucalypts.