Living Planet Episode 3 - Concept study questions,
Living Planet 2024-2025 NEWEST EXAM WITH 200
REVIEW QUESTIONS & CORRECT VERIFIED
ANSWERS ALREADY GRADED A+/ WESTERN
GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY D027 ACTUAL EXAM
(LATEST)
Explain the difference between deciduous trees and conifers with respect to how long they
keep their leaves and why deciduous trees drop their leaves in autumn. - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-- Deciduous
trees lose all their leaves for part of the year, usually during the winter. Broad-leaved trees produce their
seeds inside flowers. They are much more closely related to other flowering plants, such as daisies and
roses, than to conifers.
Typically, their leaves are thin and broad, which means more light can strike the leaf(more
photosynthesis). The reproductive cycle of a typical broad-leaved tree, such as an oak tree, is completed
in a much shorter time than in conifers.
- Evergreen trees always have leaves. They do lose leaves, but only a few at a
time. (conifers, leaves shaped like needles). The leaves have a thick waterproof layer (called a rind in the
videotape) that protects them from drying out. So, adaptations for dry conditions, such as the structure
of their leaves, help the conifers survive the winters. Most of the conifers live in regions just south of the
tundra. The summers are very short, so the plants may have as little as 90 days to grow. Because the
conifers are evergreen, they do not waste time in making new leaves in the spring.
Briefly describe the reproductive cycle of a typical conifer. - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-- eggs are located within
the cone
- The male cones release their pollen, which is carried by the wind to the female cones. Since the pine
relies on the wind to spread its pollen, the male cones produce abundant pollen. Most of the pollen
never reaches a female cone. The wind carries it everywhere (including our noses) instead of directly and
efficiently to the female cones. The male cones must make enormous amounts of pollen to be sure some
of it will reach a female cone.
,Briefly describe the reproductive cycle of a typical broad-leaved tree. - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔--Broad-leaved
trees produce their seeds inside flowers. They are much more closely related to other flowering plants,
such as daisies and roses, than to conifers. Typically, their leaves are thin and broad, which means more
light can strike the leaf
(more photosynthesis). The reproductive cycle of a typical broad-leaved tree, such as an oak tree, is
completed in a much shorter time than in conifers. Oak trees in the Austin area, for instance, produce
flowers in the spring (March and April) and produce fruits (acorns) by September and October. Thus,
broad-leaved trees can reproduce in a matter of months instead of years.
-Although most flowering plants use animals to transfer pollen from flower to flower, most temperate
broad-leaved trees rely on the wind instead. The wind-pollinated flowers of broad-leaved trees are
inconspicuous with green petals. And they produce enormous amounts of pollen, just like in the conifers,
and for the same reasons. Some broad-leaved trees have large, brightly colored flowers, such as peach
trees and magnolias. These trees rely on bees and other animals to transfer pollen instead of wind.
Brightly colored flower petals are signals used to attract animals.
Explain how these organisms are related to each other in terms of food chains:
a. Producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer
b. Plants, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, scavengers, decomposers - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-- Primary
consumers eat living plants. You can also call them herbivores. Think of a cow or a deer or a rabbit or a
flamingo from the Rift Valley (Episode 1). Secondary consumers eat primary consumers. Tertiary
consumers eat secondary consumers.
And so forth. So, what do you call a consumer who eats another consumer? You can either call them
predators or carnivores. grass mouse snake hawk
Describe the function of decomposers. - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-- breaks down long-dead plant and animal
matter.
- since the dead tissues will ultimately be broken
down into small molecules such as carbon dioxide, nitrate and phosphates.
-Decomposers include fungi and bacteria.
-Decomposers are critical to an ecosystem
because they return the nutrients that were "trapped" in the body of a plant or animal to
the soil. Once in the soil, new producers can reincorporate them into living tissue or the
nutrients can run off the soil into water where algae and water plants can use them.
,Describe zonation in a typical temperate forest. - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-Because of their location, they
experience four seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall. The climate is not cold year-round like the
polar regions or hot year-round like the tropics. One major feature of temperate forests is the presence
of multiple layers of vegetation. A mature, established temperate forest usually has five layers: canopy,
understory, shrub layer, ground layer and forest floor.
Describe the process of decomposition on the forest floor. - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-Leaf litter is composed of
dead leaves from all the plants that extend above the forest floor. As the leaf litter decomposes it is
turned into humus that adds texture and nutrients to the soil. The texture of the soil is important
because it determines how
much space there is between soil particles and that determines the ability of plant roots to grow and
obtain oxygen. The more space there is between soil particles, the easier it is for the roots to grow
deeper into the soil, and more air can get into the soil for the roots to use. (We're talking about soil
humus, not a yummy Middle Eastern dish more commonly spelled as hummus.)
Describe and compare these types of temperate forest: boreal conifer - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-Boreal
Coniferous Forest = Taiga
Most of the coniferous forests belong in this category, also called northern
coniferous forests or the taiga. This type of forest is found south of the Arctic tundra
throughout North America and Eurasia. The climate is always cold and is wet during
the short summers, which last for only one to three months. Of all the forest types, the
northern coniferous forest has the lowest diversity, and consists mostly of large,
monotonous expanses of spruces and firs. According to Attenborough (Planet Earth),
one-third of all of the world's trees are in these forests. Look for this ecosystem in the
video.
Describe and compare these types of temperate forest: montane conifer - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-The
coniferous forests extend south from the boreal forest along the major mountain ranges, such as the
Rocky Mountains in Canada and the US, and to the Alps in Europe. In these areas, the forest is called the
montane coniferous forest. Below the alpine vegetation is a region that looks similar to the boreal forest,
although it contains different species of spruce and fir. At lower elevations, the number of conifer and
other plant species (aspen, pine) increases, so the lower montane coniferous forests are more diverse
than the boreal forest. The increase in diversity is due to a less rigorous climate and to the longer
growing season in these more southern regions.
, Describe and compare these types of temperate forest: temperate rain forest - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-Along
the west coast of Alaska and British Columbia, extending down into Washington, Oregon, and northern
California, is a very special kind of coniferous forest, the temperate rain forest (also called the north
coast temperate coniferous forest). This region experiences high rainfall (200-300 cm per year) and cool,
but rarely cold, temperatures (2-20 degrees C). This area has a lot of fog. These trees are unusual
because they can absorb water directly out of the air. Because of the abundant rainfall and relatively
mild climate, the trees here grow to be giants. The canopy trees are
commonly 50-75 m tall. In the redwood groves of California, the trees grow to 100 m and are over 2000
years old. Look for redwoods in the video.
Describe and compare these types of temperate forest: pine savanna, - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-On the coastal
plain of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, the vegetation consists of pine trees scattered over a wide
area of grassland. The trees do not grow close enough together to form a closed canopy, and that lets in
enough light for the
grasses to grow luxuriously. This type of vegetation is called pine savanna. These are the forests of
Florida and Georgia described in the video. Pine savannas are maintained by fire. Broad-leaved tree
seedlings are quickly destroyed by fire. But pine seedlings and grasses are protected from the fire by
their structure. The growing buds of pines are protected within tufts of leaves.
Describe and compare these types of temperate forest: temperate deciduous forest - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-
The temperate deciduous forests of the Northern Hemisphere once covered northeastern North
America, most of Europe, and northeastern China and the Korean peninsula. Both deciduous broad-
leaved trees and conifers can be found in these
forests, although these forests are dominated by the broad-leaved trees. The tree species that make up
the greatest proportion of plants in the forest differs in different areas. For example, in the northeastern
United States, the deciduous forest is
dominated by maple and beech trees. To the south, the dominant trees were oak and chestnut. (Most of
the chestnut trees have disappeared, wiped out by an introduced fungus, the chestnut blight.) To the
west, the dominant trees are oak and hickory. This type of forest is what Attenborough calls the broad-
leaved forest.
What happened to most of the chestnut trees in the United States? - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔-cut down by
humans
Describe mycorrhizae (also known as mycorrhizal associations). - ✔✔ANSWER✔✔--Symbiotic
relationship of a fungus and the roots of a plant
