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Sustaining Ecosystems (Tropical Rainforests (Water cycle (In tropical…

- - - - The sun is usually overhead
        => always hot
        => high evaporation rates
      - => lots of water vapour
        => high rainfall
      - Dense vegetation
        => water is intercepted and stored by plants
  - - - Cool the local climate
      - Carbon sinks – store 15% of carbon emissions – 0.7Bn tonnes each year
      - Creates clouds that reflect the sun's heat
    - - Purifies drinking water for nearby cities
      - Controls flow of water
        => prevents floods and drought
    - - Bananas, pineapples, avocados, cocoa, coffee
      - Various nuts and spices
    - - 25% of modern medicines use rainforest ingredients
      - eg.Vincristine – prevents childhood cancers
    - - Wood as fuel
      - Hydroelectric-power from dams built on rivers
      - 2/3rds Brazil's energy is hydro-electric
    - - Timber, rubber, oils, fibres
      - Indigenous people depend on them for survival
  - - - No trees to hold soil together
        => heavy rain washes soil away
        => enters river
        => silts up habitats that fish use for breeding
      - Removal of trees interrupts the water cycle
        => areas become dry
        => increased risk of wildfires
        => increased risk of flooding
      - Requires the building of new roads
        => opens up the rainforest to further development
    - - Land cleared using slash-and-burn techniques
        => burning produces CO2
      - No trees
        => nutrients washed away
        => soil fertility is reduced
      - Artificial fertilisers washed into streams
        => threatens wildlife
    - - Mining requires heavy machinery and the removal of trees
      - Toxic chemicals washed into water bodies
        => kills wildlife, pollutes drinking water
      - Conflict with local people over right to land
    - - Scare wildlife
      - Damage vegetation and litter
      - Lack of infrastructure
        => pollution of water
      - Infrastructure built
        => vegetation cleared
  - - - Local Scale: the Sarawak tourism board
        
        3-day World Rainforest Music festival – raises money through tourism
      - Regional scale: Eco Field Trips
        
        Works across South East Asia
        
        Runs trips for young people to teach them about the importance of preserving the rainforest
      - Impact
        
        Money isn't recycled through the local economy
        
        Both organisations lack the infrastructure for large scale tourism
    - - Iban Longhouse community project
        
        Iban tribe live in the Mulu National Park
        
        Tourists transported up the river by boatmen on a longboat and stay in a traditional longhouse
        
        Tourists can go on guided rainforest treks or travel further by boat
        
        Gives the Iban community a new source of income
      - Impact:
        
        Cynicism between local tribes and government officials has limited the willingness of community groups to participate
    - - Local scale
        
        10% of Sarawak's Rainforest have been designated as a special conservation zone
      - Regional scale
        
        East Malaysia has 11 National Parks in which economic activities such as mining and logging are severely limited
      - Impact:
        
        Creation of national parks has been successful
        
        Undermined by illegal activities and corruption which has allowed logging to continue in some areas
    - - Regional scale
        
        Regional forest council held workshops with WWF in 2017 to strengthen regulations about timber extraction
        
        Part of the Sustainable Forest Management initiative in the East Malaysia states run by Sarawak
      - National scale – 1977 National Forest Act
        
        Develop timber processing to increase profitability and reduce demand for raw timber
        
        Encourage alternative timber sources
        
        Increase public awareness of the value of the forests
        
        Increase research into forestry
      - Impact:
        
        Over 100 people attended the workshops and they continue to be funded in part by the German Government
        
        State government signed an agreement with WWF allowing independent monitoring of the rainforests in East Malaysia
- - - - Summer temp: <10°
      - Winter temp: -20° to -40°
      - Annual ppt: <500mm
    - - Majority is made up of the ocean
        –> lots of drifting pack ice, icebergs
      - Sea ice extends further in winter
      - On land:
        
        mountainous regions
        
        areas permanently covered in ice and snow
        
        areas of treeless tundra
    - - Low-growing shrubs
      - Lichen
      - Moss
      - Some flowering plants
        eg. Arctic poppies
    - - Whales, seals, fish
      - Polar bears, reindeer, caribou
      - Lots of birds
      - :: Most are adapted specifically for the Arctic
  - - - Summer temp: -20° to -5°
        –> colder
      - Winter temp: almost -90°
        –> colder
      - Annual ppt: 50mm inland, 200mm at the coast
        –> less rainfall
    - - 99% covered with an ice sheet
      - A few mountains
        eg. the Transantarctic Mountains
      - Sea ice freezes in winter
        => nearly doubles the size of the continent
    - - Mainly moss and lichen
      - Sea contains lots of phytoplankton
    - - Whales
      - Sea-birds
      - Seals, penguins
      - :: all depend on the sea
        eg. for food, breeding
  - - - Increases shipping and air travel
        => water and air pollution
        –> risk of boats grounding
        => oil spills
      - Disturbs breeding colonies of birds and seals
      - Trampling damages fragile vegetation, erodes the landscape
      - Litter and waste disposal
        => damages habitats, harms wildlife
      - Introduction of non-native species
        => alter food webs
        => irreversibly changes the ecosystem
    - - Over-fishing threatens many species
        eg. Patagonian Toothfish in Antarctica
      - Reduced fish affects other species in the food chain
      - Birds caught in fishing lines and drown
    - - Many species hunted to near extinction
      - Whales are slow breeders
        => takes time for populations to recover
    - - Arctic has large gas and oil reserves
      - Drilling => oil spills
        => harm habitats, kill wildlife
      - Pipelines built
        => melt permafrost
        => interrupt migration routes
      - Extraction of metals
        => pollution => damages ecosystems
    - - Positive impact on global environmental management and polar ecosystems management
      - Scientists have dumped rubbish and abandoned equipment
        => pollution
        => threatens habitats and wildlife
      - Research stations produce chemical and sewage pollution
    - - None in Antarctica
      - Inuit people of Greenland and Canada
      - Rely on reindeer herding, fishing, hunting
      - Some modern towns and cities
        eg. Anchorage
        => waste disposal, air and noise pollution, heat from buildings
        => impacts environment, melts permafrost
  - - - Early 20th century – high demand for whale oil and products
        => was industrialised with factory ships
      - Whales used in margarine, chemicals, cosmetics, animal feed
      - 1930s: 50,000 whales killed every year –whale population declined
    - - 1994 – established the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary
      - Covered 50Mn km2
      - All commercial whaling banned in the area
    - - Japan still hunts whales
        –> 2017: Japan killed 333 minke whales even after being taken to court
      - Overall whaling in the southern ocean has decreased
    - - Japan still argues that they can whale, and other countries may follow a similar route
  - - - 1961: signed by 46 countries
      - Aims to promote peace in Antarctica, promote the natural environment and promote scientific research
      - To continue to allow international cooperation in scientific investigation in Antarctica that are beneficial for contributions to scientific knowledge
      - Organisation enforcing it:
        
        53 state parties – those undertaking Antarctic research get voting rights
        
        Annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting
      - Main elements of the treaty
        
        Ban military activity
        
        Ban exploring for resources
        
        Freedom to conduct scientific research
        
        Promotes international scientific cooperation
        
        Has a dispute settlement procedure
        
        Prohibits nuclear explosions and disposal of waste
    - - Successes
        
        Antarctica has never been in a territorial conflict
        
        Countries continue to want to join
        
        The environmental impacts of scientists and tourists has been minimal
        
        The continent has been revolutionary in scientific research
      - Reasons for success
        
        It's a short, easily understandable treaty
        
        Doesn't directly combat territorial issues
        
        Annual decision-making can be vetoed
      - Failures
        
        Japan has continued to whale claiming it's scientific research
        
        Australia took them to court and the result was ambiguous
        => other countries may follow
    - - Yes
        
        in the interests of the world
      - No
        
        physical changes may make areas more economically viable
        
        doesn't solve territorial disputes
- - - - Temperature and rainfall affect plant growth, which affects animals
      - Most productive biomes are in hot and wet climates
      - The UK is a temperate forest biome – deciduous trees
    - - Tropical Rainforest
      - Coral Reef
      - Temperate Forest
      - Tropical Grassland
      - Hot Desert
      - Polar
  - - - short growing season – too cold to grow the rest of the year
      - grow slowly – soil lacks nutrients in a cold climate with slow weathering
      - grow close to the ground – too cold and windy for trees to grow
      - have small leaves which lose little moisture – low rainfall and only snow in winter
  - - - Hot all year
      - Very high rainfall
      - Plants: tall trees forming a canopy, wide variety of species, eg. orchids
      - Animals: a wide range of birds, reptiles, insects and climbing mammals, eg. jaguars, gorillas
      - Found: around the equator, between the tropics
    - - Warm all year
      - Wet and dry season
      - Plants: grassland with widely spaced trees
      - Animals: herds of grazing animals, eg. zebra, and hunters, eg. lions
      - Found: between the tropics, 23.5° N and S
    - - Hot during the day, cold at night
      - Very low rainfall
      - Plants: lack of plants and few species
        –> adapted to drought, eg. cacti
      - Animals: animals adapted to living in dry conditions, eg. camels
      - Found: between 15° and 35° N and S
    - - Warm summers and mild winters
      - Variable rainfall
      - Plants: mainly deciduous trees, a variety of species, eg. oak trees
      - Animals: animals adapted to changing seasons, including some that hibernate, eg. foxes, woodpeckers
      - Found: at mid-latitudes, between the tropics and polar regions
    - - Cold winters and cool summers
      - Low rainfall
      - Plants: small plants grow close to the ground and only in summer
      - Animals: mainly migrating animals that live there only in summer
      - Found: around the N and S poles
    - - Tropical and sub-tropical oceans
      - Plants: a wide range of seaweed, plankton and algae
      - Animals: coral, a third of the world's fish, turtles, shrimps
      - Found: between 30° N and S, a few miles off the coast
- - - - Animals depend on each other and plants for food
      - Plants may depend on animals for pollination and to scatter seeds
      - Abiotic parts provide nutrients, water, warmth and shelter for the living parts of the ecosystem
      - Plants and animals add gases to the atmosphere and nutrients to the soil
  - - - Biomass
        – the amount of living matter
        
        Dead leaves fall from plants
        
        Litter
        – dead plant
        material
        
        Surface run-off washes nutrients away
        
        Leaching – loss of nutrients dissolved in water from the soil – takes place
        
        Litter decomposes into the soil
        
        Soil
        – a mixture of weathered
        rock and organic matter
        
        Plants take up nutrients through the roots
        
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  - - - Producers (plants)
        
        Primary consumers (herbivores)
        
        Secondary consumers (predators)
        
        Tertiary consumers (top predators)
    - - Energy is lost through:
        
        heat
        
        functions such as breathing, movement
        
        excretion
        
        wastage (uneaten food)