1	COMMUNITY TYPES Six Major Vegetation Types are called Biomes. Vegetation is strongly influenced by temperature patterns and water availability.
2	READING ASSIGNMENT The material in this lecture is from Freeman, chapter 50, pages 1144 -1155.
3	Types of ECOLOGY Organismal – interaction of individuals with their biotic and abiotic environment Population – changes in the size of populations Community – describing how species interact living together in a place Ecosystem – flow of energy and materials through communities
4	Temperature Patterns Axis of earth’s rotation is tilted (23°) to plane of earth’s orbit Northern hemisphere seasons are opposite those of southern hemisphere Angle of sunlight important (more energy per unit area means higher temperature) The energy per unit area means the poles are cold and the equator is warm.
5	Precipitation Patterns Hadley cells explain why equatorial regions are wet and 30° N or S regions have little precipitation. Temperature drops as elevation increases Rain falls out of air as it cools. (Water less soluble in colder air.) Mountains tend to remove moisture from air as they force the air to rise and therefore cool. Air moves from west to east.
6	World Map of Biomes
7	Ecoregions Biomes are vegetation types that apply on a world-wide scale. Ecoregions are finer scale resolution. Prairies are divided into tallgrass, mid-grass and short grass types. Ecoregions are usually bigger than a state Reflect boundaries of distribution of plants and animals Natural Divisions of Illinois
8	“Tension” Zone in Wisconsin
9	Tropical Wet Forest
10	Tropical Wet Forest Structure
11	Desert
12	Grassland
13	Names for Temperate Grasslands Prairie North America Pampas Argentina Steppe Russia Veldt Union of South Africa Puszta Hungary
14	Deciduous Forest
15	Deciduous Forest Trees transpire a lot of water and are favored by greater and more uniform levels of precipitation Trees also favored by good drainage Deciduous forests in USA and China have many similar species. Ginseng is perhaps the most widely known
16	Shade Tolerance The species that grow in deciduous forests differ in shade tolerance (shade tolerant species do NOT need direct sunlight to grow) Oak seedlings generally require high levels of light as seedlings, i.e. are not shade tolerant Sugar maple is the most shade tolerant species, which means seedlings can grow in full shade (as found under a full canopy) Clear-cutting is the best way to regenerate an oak woodland
17	Boreal Forest
18	Vegetation Height Structure in the Boreal Forest has only two layers
19	Tundra
20	EVENTS versus Disturbance Extreme events have big impacts on plants and animals in a community The 1988 drought killed glossy buckthorn 2005 was a big drought year The classical label of these events is DISTURBANCE It makes no sense to me to call rainfall a disturbance, or to label fire as a disturbance when they are part of the natural structure of environmental events
21	Intensity and Impact Events vary in their intensity More intense events have an impact further into the future Subsequent events intensify or ameliorate the effects of previous events Rainfall and fire are events whose patterns of occurrence have been well studied 100 year flood has an intensity expected only once in a hundred year period
22	Fire Regime at Sequoia NP
23	Public versus Private Interests Fire Suppression has lead to an accumulation of detritus that makes it more difficult to control wildfire Prescribed burning is a management option to the ‘let lightening fires burn’ policy Even when public interests are clear, policy is dominated by private interests
24	VOCABULARY biome tropical temperate disturbance clear-cutting ecoregions subcanopy vine shade tolerance disturbance regime wildfire prescribed burn conifer