CHAPTER 7 – CLIMATE TERRESTRIAL AND BIODIVERSITY

Introduction
This module gives an overview about the factors influencing the earth’s climate. It also tackles
the difference between a weather and a climate. Moreover, includes the effects of climate to the
nature and location of biomes. And lastly, it discusses how the human activities impairing
ecological and economic services provided by the earth’s grasslands, deserts, forest and
mountains.
Learning Objectives
1. Determine the difference between weather and climate
2. Identify the factors affecting the earth’s climate
3. Understand the effects of climate in nature and biomes
4. Identify the roles if human in the world’s terrestrial ecosystem
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CLIMATE
Weather is a local area’s short-term temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed, cloud
cover, and other physical conditions of the lower atmosphere as measured over hours or days.
Climate is an area’s general pattern of atmospheric or weather conditions measured over long
periods of time ranging from decades to thousands of years. As American writer and humorist
Mark Twain once said, “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.”

Figure: Major climate zones, an important component of the earth’s natural capital
Climate varies in different parts of the earth mostly because patterns of global air circulation and
ocean currents distribute heat and precipitation unevenly.
Three major factors determine how air circulates in the lower atmosphere, which helps to
distribute heat and moisture from the tropics to other parts of the world:

• Uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun. Air is heated much more at the
equator, where the sun’s rays strike directly, than at the poles, where sunlight strikes at a
slanted angle and spreads out over a much greater area (Figure 7-3, right). These
differences in the distribution of incoming solar energy help to explain why tropical regions
near the equator are hot, why polar regions are cold, and why temperate regions in
between generally have intermediate average temperatures.

• Rotation of the earth on its axis. As the earth rotates around its axis, its equator spins
faster than its polar regions. As a result, heated air masses rising above the equator and
moving north and south to cooler areas are deflected to the west or east over different
parts of the planet’s surface (Figure 7-3). The atmosphere over these different areas is
divided into huge regions called cells, distinguished by direction of air movement. And the
differing directions of air movement are called— major surface winds that prevailing
winds blow almost continuously and help distribute air, heat, moisture, and dust over the
earth’s surface.
• Properties of air, water, and land. Heat from the sun evaporates ocean water and
transfers heat from the oceans to the atmosphere, especially near the hot equator. This
evaporation of water creates giant cyclical convection cells that circulate air, heat, and
moisture both vertically and from place to place in the atmosphere, as shown in Figure 7-
4.
Currents - Prevailing winds blowing over the oceans produce mass movements of surface water.
Driven by prevailing winds and the earth’s rotation, the earth’s major ocean currents redistribute
heat from the sun from place to place, thereby influencing climate and vegetation, especially near
coastal areas.

The oceans absorb heat from the earth’s air circulation patterns; most of this heat is
absorbed in tropical waters, which receive most of the sun’s heat. This heat and differences in
water density (mass per unit volume) create warm and cold ocean currents. Prevailing winds and
irregularly shaped continents interrupt these currents and cause them to flow in roughly circular
patterns between the continents, clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in
the southern hemisphere.

Heat is also distributed to the different parts of the ocean and the world when ocean water
mixes vertically in shallow and deep ocean currents, mostly as a result of differences in the density
of seawater. Because it has a higher density, colder seawater sinks and flows beneath warmer
and less dense seawater. This creates a connected loop of deep and shallow ocean currents,
which act like a giant conveyer belt that moves heat to and from the deep sea and transfers warm
and cold water between the tropics and the poles (Figure 7-5).
 The ocean and the atmosphere are strongly linked in two ways: ocean currents are
affected by winds in the atmosphere, and heat from the ocean affects atmospheric circulation.
One example of the interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere is the El Niño–Southern
Oscillation, or ENSO. This large-scale weather phenomenon occurs every few years when
prevailing winds in the tropical Pacific Ocean weaken and change direction. The resulting above-
average warming of Pacific waters can affect populations of marine species by changing the
distribution of plant nutrients. It also alters the weather of at least two-thirds of the earth for one
or two years.

The earth’s air circulation patterns, prevailing winds, and configuration of continents and oceans
result in six giant convection cells in which warm, moist air rises and cools, and cool, dry air sinks.
Three of these cells are found north of the equator and three are south of the equator. These cells
lead to an irregular distribution of climates and deserts, grasslands, and forests.

Greenhouse Gases
Small amounts of certain gases, including water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2),
methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), in the atmosphere play a role in determining the earth’s
average temperatures and its climates. These greenhouse gases allow mostly visible light and
some infrared radiation and ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun to pass through the
atmosphere. The earth’s surface absorbs much of this solar energy and transforms it to longer-
wavelength infrared radiation (heat), which then rises into the lower atmosphere.

Some of this heat escapes into space, but some is absorbed by molecules of greenhouse
gases and emitted into the lower atmosphere as even longer-wavelength infrared radiation. Some
of this released energy radiates into space, and some warms the lower atmosphere and the
earth’s surface. This natural warming effect of the troposphere is called the greenhouse effect.
Human activities such as burning fossil fuels, clearing forests, and growing crops release
carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. Considerable evidence and
climate models indicate that there is a 90–99% chance that the large inputs of greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere from human activities are enhancing the earth’s natural greenhouse effect.
This human-enhanced global warming could cause climate changes in various places on the earth
that could last for centuries to thousands of years.
Earth’s Surface Features Affect Local Climates
Heat is absorbed and released more slowly by water than by land. This difference creates land
and sea breezes. As a result, the world’s oceans and large lakes moderate the weather and
climates of nearby lands. Various topographic features of the earth’s surface create local and
regional weather and climatic conditions that differ from the general climate of a region. For
example, mountains interrupt the flow of prevailing surface winds and the movement of storms.
When moist air blowing inland from an ocean reaches a mountain range, it is forced upward. As
it rises, it cools and expands and then loses most of its moisture as rain and snow on the windward
slope of the mountain (the side from which the wind is blowing).
As the drier air mass passes over the mountaintops, it flows down the leeward (away from the
wind) slopes, warms up (which increases its ability to hold moisture), and sucks up moisture from
the plants and soil below. The loss of moisture from the landscape and the resulting semiarid or
arid conditions on the leeward side of high mountains create the rain shadow effect. Sometimes
this leads to the formation of deserts such as Death Valley in the United States, which is in the
rain shadow of Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the Sierra Nevadas. In this way, winds
play a key role in forming some of the earth’s deserts.
Cities also create distinct microclimates. Bricks, concrete, asphalt, and other building materials
absorb and hold heat, and buildings block wind flow. Motor vehicles and the climate control
systems of buildings release large quantities of heat and pollutants. As a result, cities tend to have
more haze and smog, higher temperatures, and lower wind speeds than the surrounding
countryside.
EFFECTS OF CLIMATE IN NATURE AND LOCATION OF BIOMES
Different climates explain why one area of the earth’s land surface is a desert, another a
grassland, and another a forest and why global air circulation accounts for different types of
deserts, grasslands, and forests.

Figure 7-8 above shows how scientists have divided the world into several major biomes—large
terrestrial regions characterized by similar climate, soil, plants, and animals, regardless of where
they are found in the world.
On maps such as the one in Figure 7-8, biomes are shown with sharp boundaries, each being
covered with one general type of vegetation. In reality, biomes are not uniform. They consist of
a mosaic of patches, each with somewhat different biological communities but with similarities
typical of the biome. These patches occur mostly because the resources that plants and animals
need are not uniformly distributed and because human activities remove and alter the natural
vegetation in many areas.
Figure 7-9 shows how climate and vegetation vary with latitude and elevation. If you climb a tall
mountain from its base to its summit, you can observe changes in plant life similar to those you
would encounter in traveling from the equator to one of the earth’s poles.

Three Major Types of Deserts

In a desert, annual precipitation is low and often scattered unevenly throughout the year. During
the day, the baking sun warms the ground and causes evaporation of moisture from plant leaves
and soil. But at night, most of the heat stored in the ground radiates quickly into the atmosphere.
Desert soils have little vegetation and moisture to help store the heat, and the skies above deserts
are usually clear. This explains why, in a desert, you may roast during the day but shiver at night.
A combination of low rainfall and different average temperatures creates tropical, temperate, and
cold deserts.
Tropical deserts such as the Sahara and Namib of Africa, are hot and dry most of the year. They
have few plants and a hard, windblown surface strewn with rocks and some sand. They are the
deserts we often see in the movies. Wind-blown dust storms in the Sahara Desert have increased
tenfold since 1950 mostly because of overgrazing and drought due to climate change and human
population growth. Another reason is the SUV connection. Increasing numbers of four-wheel
vehicles speeding over the sand break the desert’s surface crust. Windstorms can then blow the
dusty material into the atmosphere.
In temperate deserts such as the Mojave in the southern part of the U. S. state of California,
daytime temperatures are high in summer and low in winter and there is more precipitation than
in tropical deserts. The sparse vegetation consists mostly of widely dispersed, drought-resistant
shrubs and cacti or other succulents adapted to the lack of water and temperature variations.
In cold deserts, such as the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, vegetation is sparse. Winters are cold,
summers are warm or hot, and precipitation is low. Desert plants and animals have adaptations
that help them to stay cool and to get enough water to survive.
Desert ecosystems are fragile. Their soils take decades to hundreds of years to recover from
disturbances such as off-road vehicles. This is because of their slow plant growth, low species
diversity, slow nutrient cycling (due to low bacterial activity in the soils), and lack of water.
Types of Deserts
Three Major Types of Grasslands
Grasslands occur mostly in the interiors of continents in areas too moist for deserts and too dry
for forests. Grasslands persist because of a combination of seasonal drought, grazing by large
herbivores, and occasional fires—all of which keep large numbers of shrubs and trees from
growing.
The three main types of grassland—tropical, temperate, and cold (arctic tundra)—result from
combinations of low average precipitation and various average temperatures.

• One type of tropical grassland, called a savanna, contains widely scattered clumps of
trees such as acacia, which are covered with thorns that help to keep herbivores away.
This biome usually has warm temperatures year-round and alternating dry and wet
seasons.
Tropical savannas in East Africa have herds of grazing (grass- and herb-eating) and
browsing (twig- and leaf-nibbling) hoofed animals, including wildebeests, gazelles, zebras,
giraffes, and antelopes and their predators such as lions, hyenas, and humans. Herds of these
grazing and browsing animals migrate to find water and food in response to seasonal and
year-to-year variations in rainfall and food availability.

• In a temperate grassland, winters are bitterly cold, summers are hot and dry, and annual
precipitation is fairly sparse and falls unevenly through the year. Because the
aboveground parts of most of the grasses die and decompose each year, organic matter
accumulates to produce a deep, fertile soil. This soil is held in place by a thick network of
intertwined roots of drought-tolerant grasses (unless the topsoil is plowed up, which
exposes it to be blown away by high winds found in these biomes). The natural grasses
are also adapted to fires, which burn the plant parts above the ground but do not harm the
roots, from which new grass can grow.
Two types of temperate grasslands are tall-grass prairies and short-grass prairies,
such as those of the Midwestern and western United States and Canada. Short-grass prairies
typically get about 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain a year, and the grasses have short roots.
Tall-grass prairies can get up to 88 centimeters (35 inches) of rain per year, and the grasses
have deep roots. Mixed or middle-grass prairies get annual rainfall between these two
extremes.

• Cold grasslands, or arctic tundra (Russian for “marshy plain”), lie south of the arctic
polar ice cap. During most of the year, these treeless plains are bitterly cold, swept by
frigid winds, and covered by ice and snow. Winters are long and dark, and scant
precipitation falls mostly as snow.
Under the snow, this biome is carpeted with a thick, spongy mat of low-growing plants,
primarily grasses, mosses, lichens, and dwarf shrubs. Trees and tall plants cannot survive in
the cold and windy tundra because they would lose too much of their heat. Most of the annual
growth of the tundra’s plants occurs during the 7- to 8-week summer, when the sun shines
almost around the clock.
Types of Grasslands
One outcome of the extreme cold is the formation of permafrost, underground soil in which
captured water stays frozen for more than 2 consecutive years.
Animals in this biome survive the intense winter cold through adaptations such as thick coats of
fur (arctic wolf, arctic fox, and musk oxen) and feathers (snowy owl) and living underground (arctic
lemming). In the summer, caribou migrate to the tundra to graze on its vegetation.
Global warming is causing some of the permafrost in parts of Canada, Alaska, China, Russia,
and Mongolia to melt. This disrupts these ecosystems and releases methane (CH4) and carbon
dioxide (CO2) from the soil into the atmosphere. These two greenhouse gases can accelerate
global warming and cause more permafrost to melt, which can lead to further warming and climate
change. The melting permafrost causes the soil to sink (subside), which can damage buildings,
roads, power lines, and other human structures.
Tundra is a fragile biome. Most tundra soils formed about 17,000 years ago when glaciers began
retreating after the last Ice Age. These soils usually are nutrient poor and have little detritus.
Because of the short growing season, tundra soil and vegetation recover very slowly from damage
or disturbance. Human activities in the arctic tundra—mostly around oil drilling sites, pipelines,
mines, and military bases—leave scars that persist for centuries.

• Another type of tundra, called alpine tundra, occurs above the limit of tree growth but
below the permanent snow line on high mountains. The vegetation is similar to that found
in arctic tundra, but it receives more sunlight than arctic vegetation gets.
Temperate Shrubland
In many coastal regions that border on deserts we find fairly small patches of a biome known as
temperate shrubland or chaparral.
Chaparral consists mostly of dense growths of low-growing evergreen shrubs and occasional
small trees with leathery leaves that reduce evaporation. The soil is thin and not very fertile.
Animal species of the chaparral include mule deer, chipmunks, jackrabbits, lizards, and a variety
of birds.
During the long, warm, and dry summers, chaparral vegetation becomes very dry and highly
flammable. In the late summer and fall, fires started by lightning or human activities spread with
incredible swiftness. Research reveals that chaparral is adapted to and maintained by fires. Many
of the shrubs store food reserves in their fire-resistant roots and produce seeds that sprout only
after a hot fire. With the first rain, annual grasses and wildflowers spring up and use nutrients
released by the fire. New shrubs grow quickly and crowd out the grasses.
People like living in this biome because of its moderate, sunny climate with mild, wet winters and
warm, dry summers. As a result, humans have moved in and modified this biome considerably.
The downside of its favorable climate is that people living in chaparral assume the high risk of
losing their homes and possibly their lives to frequent fires during the dry season followed by mud
slides during rainy seasons.
 Chaparral vegetation

Three Major Types of Forests

Forest systems are lands dominated by trees. The three main types of forest—tropical,
temperate, and cold (northern coniferous and boreal)—result from combinations of the
precipitation level and various average temperatures.
Tropical rain forests are found near the equator, where hot, moisture-laden air rises and
dumps its moisture. These lush forests have year-round, uniformly warm temperatures, high
humidity, and heavy rainfall almost daily. This fairly constant warm and wet climate is ideal for a
wide variety of plants and animals.
Tropical rain forests are dominated by broad leaf evergreen plants, which keep most of their
leaves year-round. The tops of the trees form a dense canopy, which blocks most light from
reaching the forest floor, illuminating it with a dim greenish light.
Tropical rain forests have a very high net primary productivity; they are teeming with life and boast
incredible biological diversity. Although tropical rain forests cover only about 2% of the earth’s
land surface, ecologists estimate that they contain at least half of the earth’s known terrestrial
plant and animal species. Plants from tropical rain forests are a source of chemicals used as
blueprints for making most of the world’s prescription drugs. Thus, the plant biodiversity found in
this biome saves many human lives. Tropical rain forest life forms occupy a variety of specialized
niches in distinct layers.
Because of the dense vegetation, there is little wind in these forests to spread seeds and pollen.
Consequently, most rain forest plant species depend on bats, butterflies, birds, bees, and other
species to pollinate their flowers and to spread seeds in their droppings.
Dropped leaves, fallen trees, and dead animals decompose quickly because of the warm, moist
conditions and the hordes of decomposers. This rapid recycling of scarce soil nutrients explains
why there is so little plant litter on the ground. Instead of being stored in the soil, about 90% of
plant nutrients released by decomposition are quickly taken up and stored by trees, vines, and
other plants. This is in sharp contrast to temperate forests, where most plant nutrients are found
in the soil.
Types of Forests
Temperate deciduous forests grow in areas with moderate average temperatures that change
significantly with the season. These areas have long, warm summers, cold but not too severe
winters, and abundant precipitation, often spread fairly evenly throughout the year.
This biome is dominated by a few species of broad-leaf deciduous trees such as oak, hickory,
maple, poplar, and beech. They survive cold winters by dropping their leaves in the fall and
becoming dormant through the winter. Each spring, they grow new leaves whose colors change
in the fall into an array of reds and golds before the leaves drop.
Because of a slow rate of decomposition, these forests accumulate a thick layer of slowly
decaying leaf litter, which is a storehouse of nutrients. On a global basis, this biome has been
disturbed by human activity more than any other terrestrial biome. Many forests have been
cleared for growing crops or developing urban areas. However, with 100–200 years, abandoned
cropland can return to a deciduous forest through secondary ecological succession.
Evergreen coniferous forests are also called boreal forests and taigas (“TIE-guhs”). These
cold forests are found just south of the arctic tundra in northern regions across North America,
Asia, and Europe and above certain altitudes in the High Sierra and Rocky Mountains of the
United States. In this subarctic climate, winters are long, dry, and extremely cold; in the
northernmost taigas, winter sunlight is available only 6–8 hours per day. Summers are short, with
cool to warm temperatures, and the sun shines up to 19 hours a day.
Most boreal forests are dominated by a few species of coniferous (cone-bearing) evergreen trees
such as spruce, fir, cedar, hemlock, and pine that keep most of their narrow-pointed leaves
(needles) year-round. The small, needle-shaped, waxy-coated leaves of these trees can
withstand the intense cold and drought of winter, when snow blankets the ground. Such trees are
ready to take advantage of the brief summers in these areas without taking time to grow new
needles. Plant diversity is low because few species can survive the winters when soil moisture is
frozen.
Beneath the stands of these trees is a deep layer of partially decomposed conifer needles.
Decomposition is low because of the low temperatures, waxy coating on conifer needles, and
high soil acidity. The decomposing needles make the thin, nutrient-poor soil acidic, which prevents
most other plants (except certain shrubs) from growing on the forest floor.
This biome contains a variety of wildlife. Year-round residents include bears, wolves, moose, lynx,
and many burrowing rodent species. Caribou spend the winter in taiga and the summer in arctic
tundra. During the brief summer, warblers and other insect-eating birds feed on hordes of flies,
mosquitoes, and caterpillars.
Mountains Important Ecological Roles
Some of the world’s most spectacular environments are high on mountains, steep or high lands
which cover about one-fourth of the earth’s land surface. Mountains are places where dramatic
changes in altitude, slope, climate, soil, and vegetation take place over a very short distance.
Many freestanding mountains are islands of biodiversity surrounded by a sea of lower-elevation
landscapes transformed by human activities.

• Mountains play important ecological roles. They contain the majority of the world’s forests,
which are habitats for much of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity. They often provide
 habitats for endemic species found nowhere else on earth. They also serve as sanctuaries
for animal species driven to migrate from lowland areas to higher altitudes.
• Mountains also help to regulate the earth’s climate. Mountaintops covered with ice and
snow affect climate by reflecting solar radiation back into space. This helps to cool the
earth and offset global warming. However, many of the world’s mountain glaciers are
melting, mostly because of global warming. While glaciers reflect solar energy, the darker
rocks exposed by melting glaciers absorb that energy. This helps to increase global
warming, which melts more glaciers and warms the atmosphere more—an example of a
runaway positive feedback loop.
• Mountains can affect sea levels by storing and releasing water in glacial ice. As the earth
gets warmer, mountaintop glaciers and other land-based glaciers can melt, adding water
to the oceans and helping to raise sea levels.
• Finally, mountains play a critical role in the hydrologic cycle by serving as major
storehouses of water. In the warmer weather of spring and summer, much of their snow
and ice melts and is released to streams for use by wildlife and by humans for drinking
and irrigating crops. As the earth warms, mountaintop snowpacks and glaciers melt earlier
each year. This could lower food production if water needed to irrigate crops during the
summer has already been released.
Humans / Human Activities Effect in World’s Terrestrial Ecosystems
The human species dominates most of the planet. In many areas, human activities are impairing
some of the ecological and economic services provided by the world’s deserts, grasslands,
forests, and mountains.
According to the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, about 62% of the world’s major
terrestrial ecosystems are being degraded or used unsustainably, as the human ecological
footprint intensifies and spreads across the globe. This environmental destruction and
degradation is increasing in many parts of the world.
Some of the human impacts on the world’s deserts, grasslands, forests, and mountains