ECOSYSTEM

It is a community of living organisms in conjunction with

the non living components of their environment
interacting as a system.
Climate and ecosystem
Components of an ecosystem include, plants, animals,
soil, air, water.
But all these components are linked and depend on each
other for their survival.
Climate is the driving force in an ecosystem. It influences
1. Soils – how thick or thin the soil is depends on climate
2. Vegetation- it adapts to suit the climate and the soil
3. Animals- they adapt to cope with the climate and to
feed on the plants or each other
THE TROPICAL RAINFORESTS

 Areas found include, amazon rainforest in brazil, congo rainforest in

central Africa
 Location 0 – 10’N/S of the equator
Vegetation of tropical rainforest

 Vegetation includes, lianas, ferns, teak, mahogany and yellows.

 Vegetation is evergreen allowing photosynthesis to take place all year.
 The vegetation has four layers
 The emergent – tallest up to 60m
 The canopy- thick layer where most animals live
 The undercanopy – shorter trees and bushes
 The shrub layer – ferns and other plants that grow close to the ground
LIANAS
FERNS
TEAK
Adaptations of the vegetation to the
tropical rainforest climate
 1. The emergent reach sunlight by growing tall
 2. lianas reach sunlight by looping around the tree branches
 3. plants like epiphytes grow on high branches of other trees, they feed
on rain, and nutrients from rotting leaves
 4. in shrub layer plants grow large leaves to trap a lot of sunlight.
 5. Trees have a big strong buttress roots to stop themselves falling over.
Soil of the tropical rainforest

 Soil is deep but it is mostly infertile because the dead leaves and animal
dropping are quickly broken down by bacteria, worms, insects once the
nutrients are released they are quickly taken up by plants before they
soak deep into the soil
SOILS OF TROPICAL RAIN FOREST
Animals of tropical rainforest

 These include
 1. The emerald tree boa – it can grow over 2m long. At night, it hangs
from a branch to catch its prey such as lizards
2. The sloth- it has strong claws that allows it to hang from branches.
It hair is filled with green algae to help it hide among the leaves
 The toucan – its beak helps it to feed on fruit and seeds it has a loud call
that scares the enemies
TOUCAN
Value of tropical rainforest

 Source of fruits like banana and pineapples

 Source of medical drugs e,g aspirin and cancer drugs
 Source of timber
 Habitat for wild animals
What are we doing to the rainforests

 Large areas are being burned to clear land form farming

 Trees are being cut for timber production

 This is resulting into global warming since trees take in carbon dioxide
from the air, when the trees are burned or cut down there will be more
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere resulting into global warming
New hope for the rainforests

 Payments of money to countries saving the rainforest.

 Using GPS to record trees and check on the logging
2. The arctic tundra

 It is found around the North pole

 Climatic conditions of arctic tundra

 Winters are long, cold and dark. Average temperature is -30’C. by mid
December it is dark all day.
 Summers are cool with temperatures between (3 to 12’C)
 There are harsh biting winds.
 It is so cold, that most of the soil is frozen (permafrost)
 There are no trees due to the frozen soils
Plants in the tundra

 Tundra is a very harsh climate, so a few plants grow in this climate.

Plants need warmth and sunlight for photosynthesis. So how do these
plants cope up with the tundra climate

 Adaptations of tundra plants

 They have adapted to carry out photosynthesis at low temperatures in
low light even when covered with snow
 They grow low to the ground and close together for protection from cold
and wind
 The growing season is short so they grow very fast
Animals of the tundra

 Brown bear, arctic foxes – those that feed on other animals

 Musk ox and reindeer those that feed on plants
 Birds and insects
BROWN BEAR
ARCTIC FOXES
MUSK OX
Adaptations of the tundra animals

 Many have thick outer coat which is waterproof and helps to keep them
warm.
 Many build up a thick layer of fat ready for winter
 They have short legs and tails to cut down heat loss
 Some move out of tundra during winter and come back during summer
e,g tundra swans
Humans in tundra

 Tundra climate has about 4million people

 There are two groups of people who live in tundra

 First arrivals; The indigenous people, those who

have lived there for long period of time
- They arrived in tundra thousands years ago, they were hunters. They lived a
nomadic life. They dried meat and fish to store for the winter. They wore
animal skins and fur to keep them warm
In Canada, USA and Greenland they are called INUITS.
In Scandinavia they are called SAMI
In Russia they are called nenets
HOW THEIR LIVES IS CHANGING

 They now use guns for hunting and fishing rods for fishing and most of
them live in houses.
 Most of them send their children to boarding schools to make sure they
get good education
 Most of them live in tundra towns and cities to find jobs
Second Group ; The later arrivals

 These arrived in 17th and 18th century, they include the fur traders,
missionaries, whalers and people looking for gold.
 Oil, gas, metal ore mining companies
Settlements in the tundra

 They live in scattered patterns

 Some towns started as trading ports
 Some started as fishing centres
 But largest settlement grew because of oil and mining e,g Norilsk in
Russia
Tundra under threat

1. Hunting
At first people hunted just for food they needed. But as the trade in fur and
skin grew more animals were hunted for these too.
So many species are now risk because their numbers has fallen so low.
E,g wolves, polar bears, grizzly bears, seals, musk oxen
 2. Extraction of oil, gas and metal ores
Tundra is very rich in oil, gas and metal ores, so companies are keen to
extract them.
For example in Alaska USA.. Oil mining is a big business in this area, the oil
fields are in the tundra, the oil is carried by pipelines and these pipelines
leak which poses danger to the wildlife and vegetation
 3. Global warming
 Due to burning of fuels more carbon dioxide in being released into the
atmosphere, causing the frozen tundra to melt down.
 Animals have less ice to live on. They have to swim further to get their
food.
 The vegetation will rot that will release more carbon dioxide that will
warm the earth.
 The melting down of ice will cause floods
 OUR WARMING CLIMATE

 Global warming is the increase in the atmospheric temperatures.

What causes global warming

 It is caused by greenhouse gases, these are gases that trap heat around
the earth
 DIAGRAM

 Without greenhouse gases, the average world temperature would be

-18’C
 Therefore we need them to keep us warm.
 However presence of large volumes of these gases is warming the earth
beyond limits
What are the greenhouse gases

 1. Carbon dioxide CO2 – It is the most worrisome gas because it is one

of the gases we are adding to the atmosphere most.
 We it breathe out, trees use it to make its food, the more we cut trees
the more carbon dioxide is found in the atmosphere.
 Burning of fossil fuels also adds CO2 into the atmosphere

 2. Methane – It is released from the ground through mining, It is more

dangerous than CO2 but it is found is low volume
3. Nitrous oxide – it is produced by bacteria in the soil, when we add
fertilizer to the soil they produce it. It also found in low volume

4. Water vapor – it forms when water evaporates from the oceans which
traps the sun’s heat
More about carbon dioxide

 It is a gas that is causing more concern because we pump so much of it

into the air.
 It forms when we burn anything containing carbon e,g
 coal, oil and gas (fossil fuels)
 Petrol, diesel
 Wood
 Ethanol
When we burn fuels containing carbon, the carbon dioxide is transferred by
winds to distant places and the warming is even felt by other people who
are not producing it
Effects of Global Warming

1. Changes in rainfall patterns

2. Changes in wind patterns
3. Melting of ice in the poles
4. floods
5. Crops may dry out
6. Diseases will spread as insects and animals that carry them move to
new places
The big argument about global
warming
 Some scientists argue that global warming is a natural phenomena thus
the gases that cause global warming are natural there while other
scientists argue that the gases are increased by human activities e,g
burning of fuels.
How can we stop global warming

 Afforestation
 Reduce the burning of fossil fuel
 Use fuel efficient cars
 Control population growth
 Take out carbon dioxide from the air using carbon capture