2

So why does this appear in

PNAS??
1.  Magnitude of declines (amphibians 70% overall)

2.  Significant declines in entire community

3.  Such a pattern did not support prevailing hypotheses

They propose a new microhabitat explanation

Biomes, Climate, Adaptations
Chapters 2-6
ECOLOGY? WHY STUDY THIS FIELD?

Study of Life = Biology

 Determine the ‘Natural Laws’ that

govern
  patterns seen in nature

  interactions (effects?)

  origins and dispersal of diversity

Why Study ECOLOGY?

• Study of Life = Biology = Ecology

  No living thing exists in isolation

NATURAL SELECTION

A PROCESS OF EVOLUTIONARY
CHANGE THAT RESULTS FROM
PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL
FACTORS INFLUENCING SURVIVAL
AND REPRODUCTION OF
ORGANISMS

structure and
Environment shapes
function
Natural Selection affects all aspects of living things
Why are there so many kinds of
organisms?
What is the balance of Nature? Is
there one?
What causes populations to behave
as they do?
 What determines the length of food
chains, or the complexity of food webs?
Are there upper
and/or lower
limits to the
number of
species that can
occur at one
place?
Why do some organisms reproduce
once in their lifetimes and others
many times?
What determines how many mates
an organism has?
Why do some organisms specialize
and others not?
Individuals
Populations
Communities
Ecosystems
Landscapes
Biomes
ECOLOGY? WHY STUDY THIS FIELD?

1. I’m curious; a scientist. Academic field

at the root of all natural sciences
2.  Discovery of ‘Practical’ knowledge.
3. CONSERVATION/MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL SYSTEMS

>> 50% of the entire Global Net Primary Productivity

utilized/controlled by humans
Case Study: Climatic Variation and Salmon

Grizzly bears Rhondonia,

Deforestation, feed on
Brazil
spawning salmon.
Salmon are
anadromous: They
return to streams
from the ocean to
spawn.

Figure 2.1 A Seasonal Opportunity

Case Study: Climatic Variation and Salmon

Grizzly bears Rhondonia,

Deforestation, feed on
Brazil
spawning salmon.
Salmon are
anadromous: They
return to streams
from the ocean to
spawn.

Figure 2.1 A Seasonal Opportunity

Case Study: Climatic Variation and Salmon

Salmon are also an important food

source, and a central part of the culture
of Native Americans.
Salmon are also fished commercially.
Many threats to streams, such as
damming, pollution, and overfishing,
have decreased the spawningClimate
and changes
reproductive success of salmon.
BIOMES
Latitudinal Vegetations patterns: ‘Pole to Pole’

o  No terrestrial vegetation
o  Low lying shrubs
o  Tall needle-leaf evergreens; trees widely spaced but
abundant globally
o  Deciduous trees / grasslands / Deserts
o  Topical savannahs and drought-deciduous forests
BIOMES - POLE TO POLE
o  Dense broadleaf evergreen trees (rainforests)
BIOMES

BIOME (landscape-level diversity)

United by similarities in

Plant
growth
forms
BIOMES, CLIMATE, AND ADAPTATIONS

BIOME (landscape-level diversity)

United by similarities in

growth
climate adaptations
forms
BIOMES, CLIMATE, AND ADAPTATIONS

BIOME (landscape-level diversity)

United by similarities in

growth
climate adaptations
forms
Biomes show CONVERGENT EVOLUTION

Cactus Euphorb
Figure 3.4 Biomes Vary with Mean Annual Temperature and Precipitation
Figure 3.5 Global Biome Distributions
Tropical Rain Forest

o  bands within 15° NS

Latitude
o  High mean
annual temps and
rainfall (climate)
Tropical Rain Forest

o  bands within 15° NS Latitude

o 

BIOMES - POLE TO POLE

o  11% vegetative cover; 50% all species
o  Hyperstratified canopy; adaptations of growth,
competition for light