welcome
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Welcome Grant from National Science Foundation: Fire, Atmospheric p CO 2 , and Climate as Alternative Primary Controls of C 4 -Grass Abundance: The Late-Quaternary Perspective Overall Goals Build on core ecosystem concepts through current research - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Welcome
• Grant from National Science Foundation: Fire, Atmospheric pCO2, and Climate as Alternative Primary Controls of C4-Grass Abundance: The Late-Quaternary Perspective
Overall Goals• Build on core ecosystem concepts through current research• Develop a framework for engaging students in critical thinking and active learning about ecology• Provide dynamic educational tools, lesson ideas, and online resources • Build bridges between science educators, scientists, and students
Schedule• Day 1: Ecosystems (Present)• Day 2: Paleo-ecology (Past)• Day 3: Climate Change (Future)
“The past is a key to the future”
http://angielskidlakazdego.blox.pl/resource/family_tree3_pop.jpg
Last 50 years
Last 650,000 years
0650,000Images from IPCC. 2007.
Figure SPM.1
Last 12,000 years
012,000
History of atmospheric CO2 concentrations
“The past is a key to the future”
• Characterize processes that occur over tens to thousands of years
• Baseline information; variability
• Identify phenomena outside our range of experience (e.g. novel communities, rapid changes)
• Responses to environmental change
• Testing models used to predict future changes
Primary succession in habitat with no history of plants or soil
What are ecosystems?
• Ecological systems
• All of the organisms (plants, animals, microbes) and the abiotic (sun, soil) environment with which they interact
• Community + physical & chemical environment
• These factors vary over space & time
• They provide goods & services (clean air, food, habitat)
Examples of ecosystems
Ecosystem properties
Structure• Diversity (species richness, evenness)
• Species composition (relative abundance)
• Soil type
Function• Productivity
• Decomposition
• Carbon uptake
• Nitrogen cycling
Ecosystem structure: latitudinal gradients in diversity
Ecosystem function: Net Primary Production (blue = water green = land)
% area X NPP/area = % of totalNPP
Biodiversity influences ecosystem function
Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, Minnesota
Biom
ass
(pos
t/pr
e dr
ough
t)
Pre-drought species richness
Tilman and Downing. 1994.
Ecosystem Function
Elements/Nutrients Cycle : CarbonNitrogenOxygenPhosphorus
Energy Flows: sun producers consumers decomposers
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/kling/ecosystem/ecosystem.html
Energy flow: food & trophic relationships
Producers (autotrophs)
Consumers(heterotrophs)
Food energy available to humans
Carbon cycle
Buried carbonate60,000
Biome: a major type of terrestrial community categorized by its dominant plant form, seasonality of leaves, leaf morphology, latitude.
Geography of biomes
Geography of grass-dominated biomes
Jacobs et al. 1999.
Importance of grasslands
in C3 plants RUBISCO also binds with O2, especially at high temperatures (photorespiration)
Calvin Benson cycle
Photosynthetic pathways
Controls of biome distributions and ecosystem processes