Chapter 10: Cycles and Patterns in the Biosphere

McKnight’s Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation,

Tenth Edition, Hess

Photosynthesis and Respiration

2© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 10-3

Carbon Cycle

3© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 10-6

•

4© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 10-7

Nitrogen Cycle

5© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 10-8

Food Chains• Food chain—direct passage or energy and nutrients

from one organism to another

• More complex - food “web”

6© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 10-9

Food Chains

• Fundamental unit: producers (autotrophs), self feeders

• Producers eaten by consumers (heterotrophs)– Primary consumers:

herbivores– Secondary consumers:

carnivores

• Food pyramid

• Decomposers begin the food pyramid again

7© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 10-10

8© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

THE END

9© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Environmental Relationships

• The influence of climate– Light

• green plants need light to survive• Light changes shapes of plants

(Figure 10-19)• Photoperiodism: stimulates

seasonal plant behavior

– Moisture• Distribution of biota governed

more by moisture than any other factor

• Biota evolution dictated by adaptation to moisture conditions

10© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 10-19

Figure 10-20

Environmental Relationships

• The influence of climate– Temperature

• Different species can survive in different temperatures

• Plants have limited cold temperature tolerance

– Wind• Wind effects generally limited• Persistent winds can have

limiting effects through increased drying

• Strong winds can be destructive to biota

11© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 10-21

Environmental Relationships

• Topographic influences– Plants and animals in a plains

region vastly different from a mountainous region

– Slope and drainage

• Wildfires– Result in complete or partial

devastation of plant live and death or driving away of animals

– Can be helpful for regrowth and maintaining of plant type

12© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 10-22

Environmental Relationships

• Example of selva (rainforest)– Occurs when climate is warm and

has abundant precipitation

– Abundance of precipitation and warmth leads to abundance of natural vegetation (flora), jungle

– Numerous plants allow for fauna

– Leaves, trees, branches decomposed by abundant fauna on floor, put into soil

– Water runoff

13© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 10-24

Summary

• Plants and animals impact and interact with the landscape in numerous ways

• Need a classification scheme for biota to understand geographically

• Flora and fauna refer to plants and animals, respectively• Energy originates from the Sun and flows to organisms

through photosynthesis• The hydrologic cycle describes the transition of water

through the biosphere• The interaction of carbon with the biosphere is the carbon

cycle

14© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Summary

• Oxygen and nitrogen cycle through the biosphere through the oxygen and nitrogen cycles, respectively

• Other minerals cycle through the biosphere as well, but they are not as commonly observed

• Food chains describe the passage of energy from one organism to another

• There are four primary components to the natural distributions of biota

• Numerous environmental relationships affect which biota exist in which regions

15© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.