is the living layer of the earth, a thin smear of life on its surface between lithosphere and atmosphere.

biome - large scale of ecosystem.

Latitude - measures how far north and south a location on the Earth's surface from the Equator.

2 main biomes -

• tropical rainforests found between tropics in south america, africa + asia
• taiga is found in a belt stretching across canada,northern europe + russia.

Altitudinal Zonation- change in ecosystems at different altitudes, caused by alterations in temperature,precipitation,sunlight and soil type.

Goods - physical materials( timber from trees / fish)

Services - are functions and are intangible. (Forest prevent flooding /trees add oxygen to the atmosphere.)

Ecosystem services to indigenous people

• Efe - 30000 remain today.
• Use wood and leaves to build temporary small circular houses, as they go hunting + gather food.
• Wood from the forest is used for cooking fires.
• Efe hunt monkeys and antelopes for bush meat and fish in rivers.
• gather wild yams ,nuts,mushrooms and berries from the forest.
• hunt giant forest hog + sell its meat to other people.
• buy + trade pans or rice.
• use plants and wild honey to make medicines.
• Efe worship the tropical rainforest.

Goods offered:

• Fruits,berries,nuts,fish,game,crops
• Fuel wood
• Timber for buildings.
• Genetic and Chemical materials

Exploiting ecosystem services

• Farmers clear areas by cutting down trees or burning to farm.
• Ash from burnt soils add nutrients to the soil.
• Land can only be farmed for 5-6 years , but after soil becomes infertile + farmers move to new areas.
• Cleared to make profit for TNC's + government.
• Large ares of biomass is destroyed for commercial farming like cattle ranching or grow soy beans/palm oil/cocoa beans cereals .
• Mining metal ores such as copper or iron
• Timber for paper,construction of wood / furniture.
• Construction of dams + reservoirs for HEP

Nutrient cycle can be disrupted if:

• Removing biomass by logging
• Heavy rain + surface run off can cause to wash away the nutrients.
• Deforested areas are risk from soil erosion.

Water supply and flood risk:

• no trees, interception is reduced and rainfall hits the soil surface directly, causing soil erosion.
• Without trees less infiltration into the soil, which means the ground water supplies are low.
• Surface run off increases soil erosion + water gets into river channels much faster.
• Flooding is more frequent,River water is now made dirty because all the soil is now washed into the river.
• no forest, soil dries very quickly,evaporation is reduced, fewer clouds, less rain + drier climate.

Demand of resources increases, as the there is a rise in affluence in the economy.

• Biomes are directly destroyed to farm,mine, build factories b/ buildings / HEP + dams.
• obtaining timer, fish or hunted animals degrade them, by removing key species.
• Humans use natural resources to pollute wider environment,e.g. burning fossil fuels/dumping waste in rivers.

Industrialization affect demand for resources

• China,India SK + Thailand has seen a dramatic shift from the countryside to the urban areas., this put presure on resources.
• In 1988, China had no high speed railways running over 200kmh, but in 2015 it had over 19000km of these railways.
• Between 2000 - 2015 number of cars in India increased from 6mn to 30 mn
• Thailand;s urban population was 17mn in 1990, but in 2015 it doubed to 34mn.
• 1980,the average SK ate only 11kg of meat but rose to 43 kg by 2013.

Quality/ quantity

• If a crisis occur quality of remaining resources become low rather than quantity become low.
• Rivers + lakes polluted , water is unusable.
• Soil becomes eroded + infertile that few crops can be grown .
• Oil + gas run out , we turn to burning coal + fossil fuels.