Distribution of Temperature Distribution of temperature varies both horizontally and vertically. Let us study it under A Horizontal Distribution of Temperature B Vertical Distribution of Temperature A Horizontal Distribution of Temperature Distribution of temperature across the latitudes over the surface of the earth is called its horizontal distribution.
On maps, the horizontal distribution of temperature is commonly shown by isotherms. Isotherms are line connecting points that have an equal temperature. Adopt ClearIAS smart work approach! Online Classes with a difference! Get our newsletter Don't miss our email updates! We write simple, easy to understand articles, but always ensure high standards of quality. Monarch butterflies Danaus plexippus live in the eastern United States in the warmer months, but migrate to Mexico and the southern United States in the wintertime.
Some species of mammals also make migratory forays: reindeer Rangifer tarandus travel about 5, km 3, mi each year to find food. Amphibians and reptiles are more limited in their distribution because they lack migratory ability.
Not all animals that can migrate do so as migration carries risk and comes at a high energy cost. Arctic tern : The arctic tern is an example of a species that must migrate yearly to deal with temperature fluctuations that exist in the regions where it is found. Some animals hibernate or estivate to survive hostile temperatures. Hibernation enables animals to survive cold conditions, while estivation allows animals to survive the hostile conditions of a hot, dry climate.
Animals that hibernate or estivate enter a state known as torpor, a condition in which their metabolic rate is significantly lowered. This enables the animal to wait until its environment better supports its survival.
Wood frog : The wood frog, like all other amphibians and reptiles, cannot migrate; as a result, the species survives extreme temperature changes through the antifreeze-like chemical found in their cells. Water is required by all living things because it is critical for cellular processes. Since terrestrial organisms lose water to the environment by simple diffusion, they have evolved many adaptations to retain water.
Marine iguanas : Marine iguanas have a special, salt-secretion adaption that allows them to minimize bodily water loss. Soil structure, oxygen availability, wind, and fire are abiotic factors that have influences on species distribution and quantity. Inorganic nutrients, soil structure, and aquatic oxygen availability are further abiotic factors that affect species distribution in an ecosystem. The same is true for terrestrial factors, such as wind and fire, which can impact the types of species that inhabit regions exposed to these types of disturbances.
Inorganic nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are important in the distribution and the abundance of living things. Plants obtain these inorganic nutrients from the soil when water moves into the plant through the roots.
Therefore, soil structure the particle size of soil components , soil pH, and soil nutrient content play an important role in the distribution of plants. Animals obtain inorganic nutrients from the food they consume. Therefore, animal distributions are related to the distribution of what they eat. In some cases, animals will follow their food resource as it moves through the environment. Jack pine cones : The mature cones of the jack pine Pinus banksiana open only when exposed to high temperatures, such as during a forest fire.
A fire will probably kill most vegetation, so a seedling that germinates after a fire is more likely to receive ample sunlight than one that germinates under normal conditions. Some abiotic factors, such as oxygen, are important in aquatic ecosystems as well as terrestrial environments. Terrestrial animals obtain oxygen from the air they breathe. Oxygen availability can be an issue for organisms living at very high elevations, where there are fewer molecules of oxygen in the air.
In aquatic systems, the concentration of dissolved oxygen is related to water temperature and the speed at which the water moves. Cold water has more dissolved oxygen than warmer water. In addition, salinity, water current, and tide can be important abiotic factors in aquatic ecosystems. Wind can be an important abiotic factor because it influences the rate of evaporation and transpiration. Fire is another terrestrial factor that can be an important agent of disturbance in terrestrial ecosystems.
Some organisms are adapted to fire and, thus, require the high heat associated with fire to complete a part of their life cycle. For example, the jack pine, a coniferous tree, requires heat from fire for its seed cones to open.
Through the burning of pine needles, fire adds nitrogen to the soil and limits competition by destroying undergrowth. The two most important abiotic factors affecting plant primary productivity in an ecosystem are temperature and moisture. Temperature and moisture are important influences on plant production primary productivity and the amount of organic matter available as food net primary productivity.
Primary production is the synthesis of organic compounds from atmospheric or aqueous carbon dioxide. It principally occurs through the process of photosynthesis, which uses light as its source of energy, but it also occurs through chemosynthesis, which uses the oxidation or reduction of chemical compounds as its source of energy.
Almost all life on earth is directly or indirectly reliant on primary production. The organisms responsible for primary production, known as primary producers or autotrophs, form the base of the food chain. In terrestrial eco-regions, these are mainly plants, while in aquatic eco-regions, they are mainly algae. Net primary productivity is an estimation of all of the organic matter available as food. It is calculated as the total amount of carbon fixed per year minus the amount that is oxidized during cellular respiration.
In terrestrial environments, net primary productivity is estimated by measuring the aboveground biomass per unit area, which is the total mass of living plants, excluding roots. This means that a large percentage of plant biomass which exists underground is not included in this measurement. Net primary productivity is an important variable when considering differences in biomes.
Very productive biomes have a high level of aboveground biomass. Annual biomass production is directly related to the abiotic components of the environment.
Environments with the greatest amount of biomass have conditions in which photosynthesis, plant growth, and the resulting net primary productivity are optimized. The climate of these areas is warm and wet.
Photosynthesis can proceed at a high rate, enzymes can work most efficiently, and stomata can remain open without the risk of excessive transpiration. Together, these factors lead to the maximal amount of carbon dioxide CO 2 moving into the plant, resulting in high biomass production.
The aboveground biomass produces several important resources for other living things, including habitat and food. Conversely, dry and cold environments have lower photosynthetic rates and, therefore, less biomass. The animal communities living there will also be affected by the decrease in available food. Primary productivity and biomass production : The magnitude and distribution of global primary production varies between biomes.
However, warm and wet climates have the greatest amount of annual biomass production. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content.
Ecology and the Biosphere. Download Options x mpeg-4 2. The change in the distribution of land temperature anomalies over the years to This visualization shows how the distribution of land temperature anomalies has varied over time. As the planet has warmed, we see the peak of the distribution shifting to the right. The distribution of temperatures broadens as well.
This broadening is most likely due to differential regional warming rather than increased temperature variability at any given location.
Distributions are determined for each year using a kernal density esitmator, and we morph between those distributions in the animation.
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