Urera, Ma. Delmar L.

BADPR 2-3D

Areas on the surface of the earth

Most of the Earth's surface (70%) is covered with water, and the remaining 30% is taken up by the seven
continental landmasses. However, underneath the water that fills the oceans, and the dirt and plants
that cover the continents, the Earth's surface layer is made of rock. This outer layer formed a hard, rocky
crust as lava at the surface cooled4.5 billion years ago.

The crust is broken into many large plates that move slowly relative to each other. Mountain ranges
form when two plates collide and their edges are forced up. In addition, many other surface features are
the result of themoving plates. The plates move about one inch per year, so millions of years ago the
continents and the oceans were in different positions. About 250 million years ago, most of the land was
connected together, and over time has separated into seven continents.

The surface area of the Earth is 510 million square kilometers or 5.1108 km2. The Earth is a water heavy
planet, so, if you break its surface area into water and land segments, it would look like this: land 149
million km2, water 361 million km2.

Lets look at how the surface area of the Earth compares to the surface area of the other planets in our
Solar System and our Moon.

Mercury 75 million km2 or 10% of Earths

460,000,000 km<sup<2< sup="" style="box-sizing: border-box; "> or 90% of

Venus
Earths</sup<2<>

Mars 145 million2 or 28% of Earths

Jupiter 6.2 x 1010 km2 or 122 times larger than Earth

Saturn 4.27 x 1010km2 or 84 times larger than Earth

Uranus 8.1109 km2 or 16 times larger than Earth

Neptune 7.64 x 109 km2 or 15 times larger than Earth

The
37.9 million km2 or 7% of the Earths
Moon
Now that you know how the surface area of the Earth stacks up against the other planets in our Solar
System, here are a few other interesting facts about our planet.

The Earth is the only planet that is mostly water. Other planets and moons are suspected of having sub-
surface water and many have water vapor in their atmosphere, but Earth is the only one with a bounty
of liquid water.

Earths core helps to protect us from the Sun. The molten core is vital in creating a magnetic field. The
magnetic field extends out thousands of kilometers and is referred to as the magnetosphere. The
magnetosphere channels the solar wind and the Suns radiation around our planet, making it livable.

Earth is the most dense planet in the Solar System. Second in line is Mercury.

As is common knowledge, ours is the only planet known to have life. Several theories abound about
Mars, but scientists have proven repeatedly that there are no recognizable life forms on the planet.
Many scientists; however, realize that the odds of ours being the only livable planet among the 500
million in our galaxy are remote. They hope that improvements in technology will allow us to find other
life in the near future.

The surface area of the Earth makes it about average size for planets within our Solar System. Average is
quite acceptable when you look at the harsh conditions elsewhere. For once, it is acceptable to
celebrate average.

Layers of the Atmosphere

The atmosphere is comprised of layers based on temperature. These layers are the troposphere,
stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere. A further region at about 500 km above the Earth's
surface is called the exosphere.

The different layers of the atmosphere

The atmosphere can be divided into layers based on its temperature, as shown in the figure below.
These layers are the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere and the thermosphere. A further
region, beginning about 500 km above the Earth's surface, is called the exosphere.
The red line on the figure below shows how temperature varies with height (the temperature scale is
given along the bottom of the diagram). The scale on the right shows the pressure. For example, at a
height of 50 km, the pressure is only about one thousandth of the pressure at the ground.

The Troposphere

This is the lowest part of the atmosphere - the part we live in. It contains most of our weather - clouds,
rain, snow. In this part of the atmosphere the temperature gets colder as the distance above the earth
increases, by about 6.5C per kilometre. The actual change of temperature with height varies from day
to day, depending on the weather.

The troposphere contains about 75% of all of the air in the atmosphere, and almost all of the water
vapour (which forms clouds and rain). The decrease in temperature with height is a result of the
decreasing pressure. If a parcel of air moves upwards it expands (because of the lower pressure). When
air expands it cools. So air higher up is cooler than air lower down.

The lowest part of the troposphere is called the boundary layer. This is where the air motion is
determined by the properties of the Earth's surface. Turbulence is generated as the wind blows over
the Earth's surface, and by thermals rising from the land as it is heated by the sun. This turbulence
redistributes heat and moisture within the boundary layer, as well as pollutants and other constituents
of the atmosphere.

The top of the troposphere is called the tropopause. This is lowest at the poles, where it is about 7 -
10 km above the Earth's surface. It is highest (about 17 - 18 km) near the equator.

The Stratosphere

This extends upwards from the tropopause to about 50 km. It contains much of the ozone in the
atmosphere. The increase in temperature with height occurs because of absorption of ultraviolet (UV)
radiation from the sun by this ozone. Temperatures in the stratosphere are highest over the summer
pole, and lowest over the winter pole.

By absorbing dangerous UV radiation, the ozone in the stratosphere protects us from skin cancer and
other health damage. However chemicals (called CFCs or freons, and halons) which were once used in
refrigerators, spray cans and fire extinguishers have reduced the amount of ozone in the stratosphere,
particularly at polar latitudes, leading to the so-called "Antarctic ozone hole".

Now humans have stopped making most of the harmful CFCs we expect the ozone hole will eventually
recover over the 21st century, but this is a slow process.

The Mesosphere
The region above the stratosphere is called the mesosphere. Here the temperature again decreases with
height, reaching a minimum of about -90C at the "mesopause".

The Thermosphere and Ionosphere

The thermosphere lies above the mesopause, and is a region in which temperatures again increase with
height. This temperature increase is caused by the absorption of energetic ultraviolet and X-Ray
radiation from the sun.

The region of the atmosphere above about 80 km is also caused the "ionosphere", since the energetic
solar radiation knocks electrons off molecules and atoms, turning them into "ions" with a positive
charge. The temperature of the thermosphere varies between night and day and between the seasons,
as do the numbers of ions and electrons which are present. The ionosphere reflects and absorbs radio
waves, allowing us to receive shortwave radio broadcasts in New Zealand from other parts of the world.

The Exosphere

The region above about 500 km is called the exosphere. It contains mainly oxygen and hydrogen atoms,
but there are so few of them that they rarely collide - they follow "ballistic" trajectories under the
influence of gravity, and some of them escape right out into space.

The Magnetosphere

The earth behaves like a huge magnet. It traps electrons (negative charge) and protons (positive),
concentrating them in two bands about 3,000 and 16,000 km above the globe - the Van Allen "radiation"
belts. This outer region surrounding the earth, where charged particles spiral along the magnetic field
lines, is called the magnetosphere.
Components of an ecosystem

An ecosystem has two basic components

i) Abiotic components
ii) Biotic components

The relationship between the abiotic components and the biotic components of the ecosystem is
termed 'holocoenosis'.

Abiotic Components
Those include the non-living or physico-chemical factors like air, soil, water and the basic compounds
and elements of the environment.Abiotic factors are classified broadly under three categories: Climatic
factors, including the climatic regime with physical factors in the environment such as light, atmospheric
temperature, wind, humidity, etc; Edaphic factors, which relate to the composition and structure of the
soil like its chemical and physical properties like the soil type, soil profile, organic matter, minerals, soil
water, and soil organisms. Inorganic substances like water, carbon, sulphur, nitrogen, phosphorus and
so on. Organic substances like proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, humic substances etc.

Biotic Components
It consists of the living parts of the environment, including the association of a lot of interrelated
populations that belong to different species inhabiting a common environment. The populations are
those of the animal community, the plant community and the microbial community. The biotic
community is divided into autotrophs, saprotrophs and heterotrophs. Autotrophs (from Greek : auto -
self, trophos - feeder) are called producers, transducers or convertors, as well. Those are photosynthetic
plants, normallu chlorophyll bearing, which synthesize a high-energy complex organic compound ( or
food) from the inorganic raw materials utilizing the aid of the sunt, and this process is called
photosynthesis. Autortophs form the core of all biotic systems.

In terrestrial ecosystems, autotrophs are usually rooted plants. In the aquatic ecosystems, the floating
plants referred to as phytoplankton and the shallow water rooted plants macrophytes - are the main
producers.

Heterotrophs (from Greek: heteros - other; trophs - feeder) are the consumers, normally animals that
feed on the other organisms. Consumers are also referred to as phagotrophs (phago - to swallow or
ingest) while macroconsumers are normally herbivores and carnivores. Herbivores are called First order
or primary consumers, for they feed directly on green plants. For example, Terrestrial ecosystem
consumers are cattle, deer, grass hopper, rabbit, etc. Aquatic ecosystem consumers are protozoans,
crustaceans, etc.

Carnivores are animals that prey or feed on other animals. Second order consumers or Primary
carnivores include those animals that feed on herbivorous animals. For example, fox, frog, smaller
fishes, predatory birds, snakes, etc.

Third order consumers or Secondary carnivores are the animals that feed on primary carnivores. For
example, wolf, owl, peacock, etc. Some larger carnivores prey on Secondary carnivores. Quaternary
consumers or Tertiary carnivores include those animals which feed upon secondary carnivores. For
example, the lion, the tiger, etc. Those are not eated by any other animal. The larger carnivores which
cannot be preyed on further are also called the top carnivores.

Saprotrophs (from Greek again: sapros - rotten; trophos - feeder) are called the reducers or
decomposers. They break the complex organic compounds in dead matter down (dead plants and
animals). Decomposers dont ingest the food. Instead they secrete a digestive enzyme into the dead,
decaying plant or animal remains and digest this organic material. The enzymes act on the complex
organic compounds in the dead matter. Decomposers absorb a bit of the decomposition products to
provide themselves with nourishment. The remaining substance is added as minerals in the process of
mineralisation to the substratum. Released minerals are utilised or reused as nutrients by plants - the
producers.

The law of minimum

In the 19th century, the German scientist Justus von Liebig formulated the Law of the Minimum, which
states that if one of the essential plant nutrients is deficient, plant growth will be poor even when all
other essential nutrients are abundant.

The Law of the Minimum takes on added importance when fertilizer prices especially of nitrogen (N)
and phosphate (P2O5) products are high. This may tempt some growers to reduce or even eliminate
applications of micronutrient or secondary nutrient fertilizers such as K-Mag, a source of balanced
potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) and sulfur (S). But von Liebigs Law tells us clearly that if a soil is
deficient in, say, Mg, yields will be depressed regardless of how much N-P-K product you apply.

So, such a course of action doesnt make sense at any time, but can be especially ill-considered during
periods of elevated prices of N-P-K products. Lets look at what can happen when a soil is deficient in Mg
or S (or both) but the grower elects to omit these nutrients because he or she thinks fertilizer dollars
are better spent on N-P-K products.

Potassium-magnesium interaction

Agronomists and plant nutritionists have long known of the interaction between these two nutrients.
Applications of potash (potassium) fertilizers reduce a plants ability to absorb Mg. The figure below
clearly demonstrates the effects of K and Mg fertilizers on a soil thats low in both these nutrients.

Affect of K and Mg on potato yield and nutrient content of potato leaves

When Mg was left out of the fertility program (left side of the graph) there was absolutely no yield
response to added potash, because Mg deficiency depressed yields. Only when both these nutrients
were applied together were yields increased a perfect example of the Law of the Minimum. If a
customer purchased and applied an N-P-K product and got results like those shown on the left side of
this graph, that customer would not be happy especially if he or she paid a high price for that
fertilizer.

The data in the table below show similar results with respect to the nutrients N and S.

Affect of N and S on yield of canola and barley

On this soil, which was very deficient in S, the application of N alone produced no yield increase, and,
especially in the case of canola, even decreased yields. Applying S by itself was also largely ineffective.
The results achieved when both these nutrients were applied together offer another clear example that
the Law of the Minimum works. In these examples, a customer who purchased N only and left out S
to save some money would be a very disappointed customer. If the customer paid a high price for
the N, that goes double.

So, the basic truths of profitable fertility practices are as sound today as ever:

Lowering inputs such as cutting back on fertilizer rates can lead to lower yields and profits.

Optimum fertility helps ensure maximum economic yield and lessens the effects of adverse weather,
diseases and pests.

No amount of good seed, chemicals, machinery or cultural practices can profit a farmer if he allows the
fertility of his soil to run down.

The law of tolerance

The law of tolerance, usually called Shelfords law of tolerance, states that an organisms needs must fall
within a range of acceptable limits, or the organism will struggle to survive. For example, an animal may
require between 10 and 20 grams of food per year to survive. The essential point of the law is that
organisms can adapt to varying conditions, within rather rigid limits.

The law of tolerance can be applied to all aspects of an organisms life. For example, a heliothermic
animal may require a minimum amount of hours spent basking in the sun to thrive. Above this minimum
amount, the organism can adjust its behavior and physiology to adapt to the increase in available
sunlight. However, if the amount of sunlight increases beyond the maximum established by the law of
tolerance, the organism may fail to thrive.

Available food, reproductive partners, oxygen or any number of other requirements that an organism
needs are subject to the law of tolerance. If the law of tolerance was not an accurate description of the
real world, organisms may have exact requirements for life. For example, an animal may require exactly
10.75 grams of food per year, instead of 10 grams or 11 grams of food.

Law of limiting factor

Any environmental factor that by its decrease, increase, absence, or presence limits the growth,
metabolic processes, or distribution of organisms or populations. In a desert ecosystem, for example,
low rainfall and high temperature will be factors limiting colonization. When a metabolic process is
affected by more than one factor, the law of limiting factors states that its rate is limited by the factor
that is nearest its minimum value. For example, photosynthesis is affected by many factors, such as
light, temperature, and carbon dioxide concentration, but on a warm sunny day carbon dioxide
concentration will be the limiting factor as light and temperature will be at optimum levels.