The last lesson began with an introduction to biodiversity, including soil biodiversity, and moved on to study the classification of life, based on evolutionary relatedness, nutritional mode, and trophic levels. We completed the lesson by thinking about the interactions between organisms (ecology) and the value of ecosystems to human society. In this lesson, we will focus on sets of ecosystems or biomes, their character, and their relationship to the rest of the Critical Zone. We will revisit key concepts and observations learned in earlier lessons on soil, climate, and landscapes. You will then learn to access land cover maps available through the USGS to determine the natural character and human land use of your site. Finally, we will consider the ecology of soils in some detail.
By the end of this lesson you should be able to:
Lesson 11 will take us one week to complete. As you work your way through these online materials for Lesson 11, you will encounter additional reading assignments and hands-on exercises and activities. The chart below provides an overview of the requirements for Lesson 11. For assignment details, refer to the lesson page noted.
Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.
ACTIVITY | LOCATION | SUBMISSION INFORMATION |
---|---|---|
Report (3-page) on biotic links to the CZ, land cover, and soil ecology | page 3, 4, and 5 | Post to the Lesson 11 - Biomes dropbox in Canvas |
If you have any questions, please post them to our Questions? discussion forum (not e-mail), located under the Discussions tab in Canvas. I will check that discussion forum daily to respond. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.
One manner in which to consider the term biome is as a set of ecosystems with characteristic biota—the first-order effects of climate determine the location of biomes on Earth. The interrelationship between climatic and biotic processes with the landscape and parent material determines the flow of energy, water, and nutrients in the biome. Soil and Critical Zone processes can be distinctive to a biome, thus soil and Critical Zone character and function can be considerably different from one region of Earth to another.
To learn more about biomes read:
You may also find that the following Flash animation from Teachers' Domain to be useful now and in your classroom:
As you read this chapter, reconsider briefly the information on terrestrial ecosystems presented in the Lesson 10, page 5 reading assignment [3].
Once you dive into Raven et al., be sure to...
In a previous soils lesson activity, you were asked to study and describe the relationship between soil distribution and latitude. Subsequently, in the climate lesson, you read about the distribution of different climates on Earth and the Koeppen climate classification system. Now I want you to briefly compare the relationship between biomes and climate using the Koeppen classification.
For this assignment, you will need to record your work on a word processing document. Your work must be submitted in Word (.doc) or PDF (.pdf) format so I can open it. In addition, documents must be double-spaced and typed in 12 point Times Roman font.
L11_biomes_AccessAccountID_LastName.doc (or .pdf).
For example, student Elvis Aaron Presley's file would be named "L11_biomes _eap1_presley.doc"—this naming convention is important, as it will help me make sure I match each submission up with the right student!
Land cover maps are available from the USGS—the maps characterize the natural environment as well as the land use. Depending on the year and other factors, twenty-one land-use categories have been applied to the United States.
For this assignment, you will need to record your work on a word processing document. Your work must be submitted in Word (.doc) or PDF (.pdf) format so I can open it. In addition, documents must be double-spaced and typed in 12 point Times Roman font.
Now that we've spent the better part of two lessons studying ecosystem and biome scale processes, I want you to focus especially on soil organisms, soil biodiversity, and the ecology of soils.
For this activity, I want you to complete the paper you have been working on for this lesson (see pages 3 and 4).
For this assignment, you will need to record your work on a word processing document. Your work must be submitted in Word (.doc) or PDF (.pdf) format so I can open it. In addition, documents must be double-spaced and typed in 12 point Times Roman font.
Upload your paper to the "Lesson 11 - Biomes" dropbox in Canvas (in the lesson under the Modules tab) by the due date indicated on our Canvas calendar.
You will be graded on the quality of your writing. You should not simply write responses to the questions and submit them to me. Instead plan on writing a short stand-alone paragraph (or page or whatever you decide is necessary considering any constraints I might have placed on you) so that anyone can read what you've written and understood it. You should strive to be specific and complete in responding to the questions. Your answers should be analytic, thoughtful and insightful, and should provide an insightful connection between ideas. The writing should be tight and crisp with varied sentence structure and a serious, professional tone.
The elite journal Science ran a special section entitled "Soils—The Final Frontier" in June 2004. We will read several articles from the special section in Lesson 12; the following three provide further insight and knowledge on the topic of soil ecology and soil biotic processes.
To learn about the effects of invasive earthworms on soils see Non-native invasive earthworms as agents of change in northern temperate forests [16].
In this second lesson of the biota unit, you considered the complex interrelationship between climate and biota with the landscape and parent material that determine the flow of energy, water, and nutrients in biomes. You also learned that soil and Critical Zone processes can be distinctive to a biome or to a particular region of Earth. You looked at global-scale trends in these relationships and considered the various factors that may describe some of the disparities in these global-scale relationships. You also learned about the primary contributing factors to soil ecology and biodiversity and applied this knowledge to your study site. Finally, you learned where and how to access land cover maps.
You have finished Lesson 11. Double-check the list of requirements on the Lesson 11 Overview page to make sure you have completed all of the activities listed there before beginning the next lesson.
If you have anything you'd like to comment on or add to, the lesson materials, feel free to share your thoughts with Tim. For example, what did you have the most trouble with in this lesson? Was there anything useful here that you'd like to try in your own classroom?
Links
[1] http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/biomes/biomes.html
[2] http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.watcyc.biomemap/
[3] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth530/node/1601
[4] https://www.biology-pages.info/B/Biomes.html
[5] http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/climate.htm
[6] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth530/content/l11_p2.html
[7] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth530/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.earth530/files/file/Campbell_ch52.pdf
[8] http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/books/applications/imaps/maps/g2_u2/index.html
[9] http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/biomeviewer
[10] http://www.state.tn.us/twra/gis/maps/tnlc.pdf
[11] http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3020/
[12] http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/
[13] https://www.mrlc.gov/data/legends/national-land-cover-database-2001-nlcd2001-legend
[14] https://www.mrlc.gov/data/legends/national-land-cover-database-2016-nlcd2016-legend
[15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthworm
[16] https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1890/1540-9295%282004%29002%5B0427%3ANIEAAO%5D2.0.CO%3B2