Geology Chapter 3 Biosphere

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Nicolaus Steno

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field work in the Italian Alps led him to form two major principles: Principle of Original Horizontality & Law of Superposition

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Principle of Original Horizontality

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layers of sediment are generally deposited in a horizontal position

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Law of Superposition

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Each layer is older than the one above....or....Each layer is younger than the one below

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James Hutton

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father of modern geology; Principle of Uniformitarianism

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Principle of Uniformitarianism

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The present is the key to the past

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environment

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everything that surrounds you, including the air, the land, the oceans and all living things

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Traditionally, our Earth is divided into four great spheres

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Lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere

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Lithosphere

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the physical Earth

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Atmosphere

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the gaseous envelope

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Hydrosphere

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the oceans and all water

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Biosphere

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all living things

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biomass pyramid

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provides a basic understanding of energy flow

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hydrologic cycle

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The movement of water around the surface of the Earth

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TEST: What % of water on the earth is fresh uncontaminated water?

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Only about 0.0015% of all the water on Earth is available as fresh, uncontaminated drinking water

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ecology - word introduced by Ernest Haeckel

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scientific term in biology to mean the study of organisms and their interactions with each other and their physical environment

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ecologist

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a scientist who studies ecology

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three distinct phases of species population

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growth, stability, decline

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Growth

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occurs when available resources exceed the number of individuals able to exploit them

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Stability

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occurs when population growth levels off, as the environment becomes saturated with individuals of that population

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Predators can be divided into 3 major categories

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Carnivores, which prey on animals
Herbivores, which prey on plants
Omnivores, which prey on both

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Decline

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refers to the inevitable decrease in abundance that leads to extinction

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eutrophication

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excessive nutrients in a lake or other body of water, usually caused by runoff of nutrients (animal waste, fertilizers, sewage)

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Habitat disruption

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occurs when people disturb the physical environment

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Ivory-billed Woodpecker

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second largest woodpecker in the world, and the largest in the United States

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Dr. James T. Tanner

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Department of Ecology at UTK spent 2 years studying the Ivory-bill in the Singer Forest in Louisiana

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Secondary extinctions

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occur when a population is lost due to the extinction of another population on which it depends, such as a food species

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community

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consists of all populations that inhabit a certain area (this area can range from a puddle of water to a continent in size)

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ecosystem

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a community plus its physical environment

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functional view

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Because ecosystems include both organisms and their physical environment, the study of ecosystems tends to have a functional viewby focusing on the flow of energy and the cycling of matter thru the system

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structural view

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the study of communities tends to have a structural view that focuses on describing how organisms are distributed in communities in time and space

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ecotones

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a transition area between two adjacent ecological communities (ecosystems)

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Diversity

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refers to how many kinds of organisms occur in a community and is often express in terms of species richness

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latitudinal diversity gradient

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describes how species richness in most terrestrial groups steadily decreases going away from the equator

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four major factors that favor increase diversity in a community

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Increasing environmental stability
Age
Growing season
Nutrients

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Ecological time

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focuses on community events that occur over tens to hundreds of years

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Geologic time

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focuses on community events that range from short-lived (volcanic erupts) to very long-term, such as thousands to millions of years

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Human time

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is more in tune with ecological time, but human events can be very quick, such as chemical spills

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Community succession

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the sequential replacement of species in a community by immigration of new species and the local extinction of old species

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pioneering community

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The initial community of colonizing species

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climax community

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the last, stable and relatively diverse community

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monoculture

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Human simplification of a community down to a single crop

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two fundamental processes found in all communities

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Energy flow
Matter cycling

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TEST: Must all organisms eat? yes

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All organisms must eat (take in energy & matter)
All energy and matter ultimately comes from and must return to the physical environment

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food web

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describes the complex inter-relationship by which organisms consume other organisms

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producers

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create the food that all other organisms use (plants)

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first order consumers

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directly consume the producers

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second order consumers

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feed on the first order consumers

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matter cycling

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matter is not lost as it cycles thru the environmentMatter is composed of atoms, which cannot be destroyed by any biological, chemical or geologic process

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biogeochemical cycles

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cycles of chemical elements thru the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere

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oxygen

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accounts for 62% of the weight of the human body and 77% of the weight of the alfalfa plant

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Carbon

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the second most common element in life; tenth most abundant found on Earth

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Oxygen

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the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust as in life

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silicon

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second most abundant element in the Earth's crust, absent in the human body

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three important factors that significantly influence biogeochemical cycles as a group

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Cycle’s pathways
Rate of cycles
Degree of human disturbance