Earth: A Living Planet

Earth: A Living Planet

To care for our planet we must understand how it opperates. Ecology is the study of interactions of organisms with one another and with their physical surroundings. Scientists who study ecology are called ecologists. Earts is a biosphere, or a living globe. The biosphere is that part of the Earth in which life exists. Biospheres include all the areas of land, air, and water on the planet. The biosphere goes about eight kilometers above the Earth\\\\\\\'s surface to as far as eight kilometers below the surface of the ocean.

Ecosystems

Since the biosphere is way too large and complex for scientists to study as a whole, so they separate it into smaller units call ecosystems. There are two things that make up an ecosystem, the areas physical features (abiotic factors) and living organisms (biotic factors). The organisms living together in an ecosystem are called a community. Sometimes things in one ecosystem are affected from another ecosystems, so ecosystems are not self contained.

Ecological Succession

Ecosystems change over time. This process is called ecological succession. Sometimes ecological succession occurs where there were no living organisms before. but over time it obtains them. Lichens are organisms that produce acids that breakdown rocks and turn them into soil. Sucession can dramatically change an ecosystem. Like it might start out as a pond, but then over a period of time silt will fill it up and turn it into a into a marshland and then the marshland will dry up turning into a forest. Succession often leads to a faily stable collection of organisms called a climax community.

Land Biomes

A biome is an environment

that has a charcteristic climax community. The Earth is made up of two main biomes: land biomes and aquatic biomes. The major biomes are the tundra, taiga, temperate decidous forest, grassland, tropical rainforest, and desert.

Tundra

Tundras are the northermost biomes. They have nearly no tress and are covered with mosses, lichens, and grasses. Organisms such as caribou, reaindeer, wovles, foxes, and mosquitoes live there. The most characteristic feature of tundras is the layer of permanently frozen subsoil.

Taiga

Taiga biomes are dominated by coniferous tress, such as fir, pine, and spruce. Although winters in the taiga are cold, summers are mild enough to support a variety of organisms such as: black bears, grizzlies, wolves, moose, elk, voles, wolverines, and grouse.

Temperate Decidous Rainforest

These biomes are characterized by changing seasons and leaf fall. They are covered with

forests of oak, maple, beech, and birch. This biome goes through striking seasonal changes. Alot of the organisms that live there have been hunted to the point of near extinction. Many organisms such as deer, moose, gray foxes, chipmunks, racoons, opossums, sqirrels, and a variety of birds.

Grasslands

This biome is characterized by it\\\\\\\'s many grasses and small leafy plants. This biome receives a significant amount of rainfall, but the majority is in one season, so they are usually dry. They have hot summers and cold winters. There is little temperature change in seasons thought. Oragnisms in grasslands of Africa include impala, gazelles, wildebeasts, and elephants. When properly supported the deep rich soul of grasslands make great farming areas.

Tropical Rainforests

Tropical rainforest receive 200 to 400 centimeters of rainfall a year. There are no drastic changes in temperature. Tropical rainforest have more organisms that all the other biomes combined. Trees there can grow up to 70 meters Organisms there include insects, birds, reptiles, small mammals, and amphibians. The floor of this biome is filled with danger. Many animals that live here produce chemicaal which can be used to fight diseases.

Deserts

Deserts usually occur in areas with

less than 25 centimeters of rain a year. Desert climate is hot and dry. Oragnisms here includes many species of lizards, snakes, insects, scorpians, and birds. As well as flowers, fruits, sage brush, and small trees.

Aquatic Biomes

Aquatic biomes are water ecosystems. They include the freshwater biome, marine biome, and estuaries. Some of the abiotic factores that affect the kinds of organisms found in the aquatic biomes are light intensity, amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide dissiolved in the water, and the availability of organic and inorganic nutrients.

Freshwater Biomes

Freshwater biomes are rivers, streams and lakes. They provide much of our drinking water and food. Organisms here include trout, many species if insects ans well as fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.

Marine Biomes

Marine biomes include the world\\\\\\\'s oceans and seas. They cover the majority of Earth\\\\\\\'s surface. Photosynthesis can only take place in the uppermost 30 meters of the marine biome, called the photic zone. There are four different subdivisions in the marine biome.

Intertidal Zone

This zone is the most difficult for organisms to live in because there are many radical changes that happen daily. Once or twice a day they are submerged in ocean water; the remainder of the day they are exposed to air and sunlight. Organisms here have to adapt to the raging, surging waves that pound them constantly. Some organisms burrow into the ground, while othere attach themselves to rocks.

Neritic Zone

This area of the marine biome extends form the low-tide area to the edge of the open sea. Here water plants like algae and seaweed can grow. Fishes, invertebrates, turtles, lobsters, crabs, and rays are abundant here.

Open-Sea Zone

Phytoplankton are responsible for 80 to 90 percent of the Earts\\\\\\\' photosynthetic activity. They are in turn eaten by larger organisms, and those organisms are eaten by larger organisms, and so on. This is the food chain. Nutrients are scarce in most of the open-sea, so phytoplankton growth is slow.

Deep-Sea Zone

This area is almost void of oragisms. It is an area of high pressure,