Quaternary Environments Ecosystem Pattern and Process Conservation Issues

1
Quaternary EnvironmentsEcosystem Pattern and
ProcessConservation Issues
2
Patterns on the Landscape

• Patterns of vegetation distribution
• Scale Issues
• Modern Issues
• Fragmentation
• Barriers to migration
• Barriers to propagation

3
Patterns on the Landscape
4
(No Transcript)
5
(No Transcript)
6
World Population
Fig. 1-1 p. 2
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
Human Disturbance
Arctic Circle
Tropic of Cancer
Equator
Tropic of Capricorn
Antarctic Circle
Predominantly natural
Partially disturbed
Human dominated
10
North America by Night
11
Food Webs

• Trophic Levels
• Food Chains
• Food Webs

12
Food Web
13
Food Chain
14
Deciduous Forest Animals
Broad-winged hawk
Producer to primary consumer
Hairy woodpecker
Primary to secondary consumer
Gray squirrel
White oak
Secondary to higher-level consumer
White-footed mouse
White-tailed deer
All producers and consumers to decomposers
Shagbark hickory
Racer
Fungi
Wood frog
Bacteria
15
The Demise of Bison
1500
1850
1870
1880
1906
16
Effects of Experimental Logging on Nitrate Levels
(Hubbard-Brook Experimental Forest)
17
Atmospheric CO2 for the Past 150,000 Years
18
(No Transcript)
19
Gross Primary Productivity
20
(No Transcript)
21
Preserve Boundaries
22
Public Lands
23
Natural Resource Depletion Americans
Environmental degradation
Vanishing biodiversity
Endangered species
6.0 or more children per woman
24
Natural Resource Depletion Old World
Many parts of former Soviet Union are polluted
with industrial and radio- active waste
ASIA
Poland is one of the worlds most polluted
countries
Central Asia from the Middle East to China has
lost 72 of range and cropland
Giant panda
Imperial eagle
EUROPE
Japanese timber imports are responsible for
much of the worlds tropical deforestation
Area of Aral Sea has Shrunk 46
Snow leopard
Mediterranean
640,000 square kilometers south of the Sahara
have turned to desert since 1940
Saudi Arabia
Deforestation in the Himalaya causes flooding in
Bangladesh
Asian elephant
Liberia
Oman
Kouprey
Eritrea
AFRICA
Mali
Yemen
90 of the coral reefs are threatened in
the Philippines. All virgin forest will be
gone by 2010
India and Sri Lanka have almost no rain forest
left
Burkina Faso
Niger Benin
Ethiopia
Chad
Golden tamarin
Sierra Leone
Nigeria
Togo
Congo Rwanda Burundi
Uganda
Sao Tome
Somalia
In peninsular Malaysia almost all forests
have been cut
68 of the Congos rain forest is slated for
cleaning
Queen Alexandras Birdwing butterfly
Angola
Indonesias coral reefs are threatened and mangrov
e forests have been cut in half
Zambia
Nail-tailed wallaby
INDIAN OCEAN
Aye-aye
Fish catches in Southeast Atlantic have dropped
by more than 50 since 1973
AUSTALIA
Black rhinoceros
Madagascar has lost 66 of its tropical forest
Much of Australias range and cropland have
turned to desert
Blue whale
A thinning of the ozone layer occurs over
Antarctica during summer
ANTARCTICA
25
(No Transcript)
26
Ecological Pyramids
27
Primary Productivity of Ecosystems

• Gross primary productivity (GPP)

• Net primary productivity (NPP)

28
Community Structure Appearance and Species
Diversity

• Stratification

• Species diversity

• Species abundance

• Niche structure

• Edge effects

29
Primary Succession
30
Secondary Succession