100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached
logo-home
Summary Eduqas a-level geography notes: a-level $9.67
Add to cart

Summary

Summary Eduqas a-level geography notes: a-level

1 review
 76 views  2 purchases
  • Course
  • Institution
  • Book

Revision notes for all of ecosystems (from eduqas/wjec geography a-level)

Preview 4 out of 32  pages

  • Yes
  • August 25, 2021
  • 32
  • 2019/2020
  • Summary

1  review

review-writer-avatar

By: dansweeting225289 • 2 year ago

avatar-seller
3.2.1: The value and distribution of ecosystems

Ecosystems

Ecosystem - a community of living organisms sharing an environment made up of
biotic and abiotic components
Abiotic - soil, sunlight, water
Biotic - plants, animals

Biome - a global scale ecosystem with similar ecological and environmental traits

4 components of an ecosystem which are in equilibrium
1. Climate
2. Vegetation
3. Soil
4. Animals

The value of ecosystems

● Ecosystems are valued on the basis of the services they supply
● 4 types of service - supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural
● 4 constituents of wellbeing - security, material for life, health and social
relations
● A healthy and biodiverse ecosystem is needed to maintain human wellbeing

Cultural services
● Arguably the most important - high coastal population
○ Identity - the Bajau Sea Gypsies (Indonesia) rely on corals for a sense
of place
○ R&D
○ Education - great barrier reef

Provisional services (tangible goods)
● Products directly obtained from the ecosystem (goods)
● Some are sustainable (fruit) and some are not (timber)
○ Resources / building materials (corals)
○ Income
○ Food - 20% of animal protein consumed comes from the oceans
○ Medicine - naturally occurring substances (bioactive compounds) form
the basis of 50% of medications
○ The aquarium trade
○ 500 million use coral reefs for tourism, fishing, pearls...

,Regulating services (for the planet)
● Services vital to the functioning of the earth’s systems
○ Co2 sequestering
○ Shoreline protection - corals / protection from tsunamis
● May be more important in the future

Supporting services (for other organisms)
● The primary functions of an ecosystem (nutrient cycling, soil production)
○ Habitats
○ Increasing biodiversity - corals are home to ¼ of the world’s fish
○ Soil formation and nutrient cycling

Types of ecosystem

Terrestrial ecosystems

Found anywhere apart from heavily saturated places

The forest ecosystem
● Abundance of flora with a high density of organisms
● Tropical evergreen forest - dense vegetation with tall trees (Kapok tree) and
many different animals
○ Most biodiverse as has the highest temperatures / rainfall
○ Has ecological niches
● Temperate evergreen - few trees with mosses and ferns
○ Trees have spiked leaves to minimise transpiration
● Tropical deciduous - shrubs, dense bushes and trees
○ Found globally with a large variety of plants
● Temperate deciduous - in moist places with clearly defined seasons
○ Growing season of 140-200 days
○ Temperature ranges from -30 to 30°C
○ Fertile soil with decaying litter
○ Oak / hickory / maple
● Taiga / boreal forest - just below the arctic regions with evergreen conifers
○ Migratory birds / insects - temperatures are below 0 for ½ the year
○ Account for 29% of the world’s forest
○ Found in Canada and Russia
○ 40-100 cm of precipitation (snow) annually
○ 130 day growing season with adapted vegetation (little sunlight)
○ Vegetation is mainly coniferous trees (pines) but there are some
deciduous trees (elm)

,The desert ecosystem
● Annual rainfall of < 250 mm
● Temperatures range from 18-49℃
● 17% of all land
● Fauna / flora are poorly developed due to low precipitation and high
temperatures
● Poorly developed soils with little organic matter due to low plant productivity
○ Intense evaporation brings dissolved salts to the surface - leading to
saltpans where few plants can grow
● Vegetation is mainly shrubs with few grasses and rare trees
● Highly adapted plants - cacti are xerophytic and halophytic
● Animals include insects, birds, camels and reptiles

The grassland ecosystem
● In tropical and temperate regions
● Mainly grasses, plants and legumes with few trees / shrubs e.g. lemongrass
● Animals include insectivores and herbivores
● Savanna - tropical grasslands which are dry seasonally and have few trees
○ Many predators and grazers
○ Rainfall ranges from 50-130 cm per year - concentrated in 6/8 months
○ Has a wet and dry season with violent thunderstorms
● Prairies - temperate grassland with no shrubs / trees
○ Can be mixed, tall or short grass
○ Temperatures ranging from -40 to 38℃

The mountain ecosystem
● Diverse habitats
● High altitudes - alpine vegetation, hibernating animals with thick fur
● Lower slopes - coniferous forests

Aquatic ecosystems

Marine ecosystem
● Biggest ecosystem - covers > 70% of the earth’s surface and 97% of water
● Water has high amounts of minerals and salts
● There are different divisions:
○ Oceanic - shallow part of the oceans on the continental shelf
○ Profundal - deep water with no light
○ Benthic - bottom substrates
○ Inter-tidal
○ Estuaries
○ Coral reefs and salt marshes

, ○ Hydrothermal vents with chemosynthetic bacteria
● Cold environments tend to be more biodiverse

The freshwater ecosystem
● Covers 0.8% of the earth’s surface
● 3 kinds:
○ Lentic - slow moving / still water
○ Lotic - fast moving water
○ Wetlands - saturated soil. Home to reptiles, amphibians and 40% of
fish
● Faster moving water has greater biodiversity as it has more dissolved oxygen

Distribution of biomes

There is a strong correlation between distribution and global climate zones
● They have similar ecological and environmental traits
● Further from the equator (North) = lower primary productivity
○ Anomaly - the desert
● Climate determines the vegetation that is able to grow

Rainforest
● Tropical climates
● Either side of the equator in the tropics
● 3 main areas:
○ Amazon basin (South America)
○ Congo basin (East Africa)
○ Tropical rainforests of Malaysia and Indonesia
● Nearly linear distribution (apart from Congo)

Hot desert
● Subtropical / warm temperate climate
● Northern hemisphere - follows the Tropic of Cancer
○ The Sahara (North Africa)
○ The Arabian (Middle East)
○ Thar (East India)
● Also the Outback (Australia)
● Death Valley (West USA) is in the rain shadow of the Rockies

Temperate deciduous forests
● Cold temperate climate
● Northern hemisphere (50-55° north)
● 4 main areas:

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller bethwalton03. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for $9.67. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

53068 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now

Start selling
$9.67  2x  sold
  • (1)
Add to cart
Added