• Cold region
• MAT= (-15)-(-5)
• MAP=5-100 cm
• 2-3 Months growing season
• poor soil
• usually permafrost
• no trees
• plants are low growing shrubs (dwarf willow) lichens, sedges, rushes, and mosses
• mainly herbaceous
• extensive underground biomass

permafrost

• perminant frozen sublayer of soil found in tundra
• shallow soild b/c of this 
• not a lot of nutrients (temp limits decomp. in tundra)

occurs at high latitudes

• occur at any latitude; must be high altitude
• during growing season upper soil will defrost
• marshy, boggy, an explosion in invertibrates

• transition area between two biomes
• EX: may have stunted woody plants between tundra and boreal forest
  
• TREE LINE: point at which you can't see trees anymore
  
• this is our ecotone
  

1. Arctic Fox
• adapted to cold with short ears, snout, extremities
• changes pelt in summer to blend in
2. Reindeer (Caribou)
• mostly grazes (feed on herbacious vegitation) eat lichans and mosses
• will migrate a bit south
• Artic Wildlife Natural Refuse= migrating range of porcupine Caribou
3. Polar Bear
• largest and most carnivorous of the bears
• relies on sea ice as hunting grounds
4. Musk OX
• spends summer at lower elevation
• herbivores (eats mainly woody plants)
• form circle around young
5. Lemmings
• active year round
• Subnivean Species= will live under snow pack
6. Canadian Snow Goose/ Sand hill Crane 
• breeding place in Tundra

• dry areas
• < 30 cm MAP
• (-5)-30°C MAT
• high evaporation
• high soil erosion
• plants are widely spaced
• poor soils (b/c low mopisture means low decomposition)
• include shrubs, small trees, and succulents

• more rainfall than deserts
• MAT (-5)-28 
• MAP 50-150 cm
• high evaporation
• droughts common
• high winds
• fires common and necessary
• deep, fertile, nutrient rich soils
• pants mainly grasses

• most converted into agruculture
• taller grasses in East, shorter grasses in West
• b/c of temperture and precipitation
• C3 mainly North C4 mainly South

• true prairie
• Big bluestem
• Indian grass
• Western wheatgrass
• Canada Wild rye

• mixed grass prairie
• Little bluestem
• Prairie junegrass
• Sideoates grama
• Needle grass
• Blue grass
• Panic grass

• Blue grama
• Western wheatgrass
• Buffalo grass
• Purple three awn

Grasslands Animals

1. Buffalo
2. Prairie Dog
• good for land; farmers hate them
3. Black footed Ferret
4. prong horned antelope
5. Birds of pray
6. Prairie Chicken & Pheasants

• open communities
• composed of small trees with a well developed understory of grasses
• common woody plants include: juniper, pinyon pine, and shrub oak

• trees up to 60 meters tall
• closed canopy
• high biomass

• high latitude or high mountain
• (-7)-3 MAT
• 50-200 cm MAP
• 3-4 month growing season
• poor soils
• dominant woody pants include spruce and fir

• warmer areas
• 3-18 MAT
• 75-250 cm MAP
• mid latitudes
• 4-8 month growing season
• moderate soils
• dominant woody plants:
• beech, maple, oaks, hickories, elms, ash
• in south: magnolia and tulips

• mostly fire maintained
• temporary communities
• pine seelings are shade intolerant

• species rich
• occur in areas of high rainfall
• no frost
• 18-30 MAT
• 150-450 cm MAP
• 12 month growing season
• many epiphytes
• many lianas (woody vines)
• poor soils
• roots are shallow
• buttresses are common
• leaves are large with drip tips

1. Tropical Forests
2. Deciduous Forest
3. Coniferous Forest
4. Tundra (herbs, lichens, mosses)
5. Polar ice and snow

With increasing altitudes

1. Tropical forest
2. Deciduous Forest
3. Coniferous Forest
4. Tundra
5. Mountain Ice and Snow

• mass of carbon fixed per unit area per unit time
• (Example: g/m2/yr)

• mass of organic matter per unit area
• (Example: g/m2)

1. net primary productivity (NPP)

2. gross primary productivity (GPP)

3. respiration (RESP)

NPP = GPP -RESP

1. light & fluffy fuel must accumulate

2. low moisture

3. source of ignition

1. lightning
2. volcanoes
3. man - 6X more likely

Percentage of fires caused by humans vs lighting

and Acarage lost

humans= usually more accessible areas; fires reported more quickly

• can use satellite imagery and fire towers to detect fires

1. Grasslands
2. Savannas
3. Pine forests
• maintain gaps; kills old pines
4. Chaparral
• volitiles in leaves
• some spp. can't germinate w/out fire

• Cool
• 300 ^οC or less
• less biomass 2 burn; minimal damge
• Hot
• not only understory but canopy burn also
• 700 ^οC

1. Reduces dead organic material
2. Releases nutrients from organic matter much faster

• PO43- , Ca2+ , K+, Mg2+ ,  Na+ , S2- 

• carbon released as Co2 in air.
  
• hotfires cause N2 and low soil  nitrogen  
3. stimulates new plant growth
4. may cause an increase in certain animal populations
• scavengers and invertebrates
5. stimulates germination of certain seeds
• some pines will not open their cones to release seeds until heated (SEROTING)
• Knob cone pine
• White pine
• Jack pine
• Red pine
6. Density of legumes increases 
7. Can cause increases erosion 
• kills plants and changes chemical composition of soil to become less permeable to water
8. Fire sensitive spp. decrease
• Juniper

1. Herbaceous spp
• Grasses= have dormant underground stems and buds near the surface
• top part die back annually
• usually shade intolerant
• annuals
2. Woody spp
• have thick fire resistant bark
• positive relationship between age/size and fire tolerance 
• usually shade intolerant
• may require full sun for seed development
• may require fire for release of seeds
• seed bed preperation
• aspen
• eucalyptus
• paper birch

1. Only tops of grasses plants are removed and the tops die back annually anyway
2. in woody plants, if the cambial cells are killed, the top of the woody plants will die
3. competition may eliminate the woody plants in subsequent years

• seedling structural differences result in differential mortality
• pines (50-60%)
• decidous (70-80%)

• longer warmer summers
• fourfold increase in major wildfires
• sixfold increase in area burned
• wildfire season increased by 78 days
• average burn duration increased from 7.5  -  37.1 days
• spring and summer temp. increased by 0.9C
• snow packs are melting 1-4 weeks earlier than 50 yrs ago
• high elevation forest (1680-2690m) are becoming increasingly vulnerable

Percentage of world Biomass

Percentage of world NPP

(Terrestrial vs Marine) 

1. World Biomass
• Terrestrial = >99%
• Marine = <1%
2. World NPP
• Terrestrial = 67%
• Marine=33%

• Terrestrial = temp moisture
• marine = nutrient availability 
• ↓productivity ↑depth 

the transfer of energy and nutrient through the species of a community 

• complex - involves all species 
• usually 4-5 links 

food chains can be simplified into trophic levels 

• all species that have one nutritional type 

1. Herbivore (1^o/primary consumer)
2. 1^st Level carnivore (2^o/ secondary consumer)
3. 2^nd level carnivore (3^o/ tertiary consumer) 

• Green plants capture 1% of the energy from the sun 
• only 10% of the energy is transferred to tother levels the rest is lost as heat 

species whose activity determines community structure 

usually not in high abundance 

• EX: starfish in rocky intertidal communities 
• top predators maintain diversity 
• subtidal communities
• lobsters that feeds on sea urchin that feeds on algae 
• African elephant- controls structure of grassland savannas  

• a species with high density and/or high biomes 
• usually defined for each tropic level 
• EX;
• a lot of subalpine fir 

both keystone and dominant spp. have high impact but keystone has low abundance. 

absence of change 

• can occur b/c no pressure
• or press but resilience or resistance 

ability of a system to bounce back or recover from disturbance 

• hunting rabbits 

the ability of a system to persist or remain unchanged in the presence of disturbance 

• hunting coyotes 

1. historic fire suppression 
2. forest fuel accumulation 
3. climate change 

1. earlier snow melt 
2. higher summer temp
3. longer fire season 
4. expanded vulnerable area of high-elevation forests

• over 9.8 million acres of land burned in more than 96K fires
• 1.5 billion spent fighting fires
• 2 billion in insured losses in CA
• at peak 20K people assigned to fire suppression 

• may 29- July 8 2011
• E Arizona, New Mexico
• 538K acres
• 32 homes destroyed
• cousins pled guilty to starting fire 

1. technological innovation
2. improved sanitation
3. better medical care
4. increased agricultural output 

1. greater demand for food 
• higher yield agriculture 
• 8 cereal crops GMO
• Habitat destruction
• Heavy pesticide use
• Heavy fertilizer use
2. Greater use of energy 
• Burning fossil fules (oil, coal, NG)
• Discovery, recovery, transportation 
• pollutants 
3. More industrialization 
4. Increased water use and water pollution
• domestic waste  

• Corn, rice, wheat = 80%
• barley, sorghum, millet, oats, rye 
• Pest resistance (BT)
• corn, cotton, potato
• Herbicide tolerance 
• canola, corn, sugar, sugar beet, soybean 
• Cold tolerance 
• potato, tobacco

• perfect 
• fuel (hydrocarbons) + air (oxygen and nitrogen) → CO2 + H2O + unaffected Nitrogen 
• actual 
• Fuel + air → unburned hydrocarbons + nitrogen oxide (NOx) + carbon monoxide + carbon dioxide+ water 

1. SO2 = sulfur dioxide 
• fuel combustion electrical utilities 
2. Pb = lead
• on-road 1970
• metal processing 
3. CO= carbon monoxide
• on-read vehicles 
4. particulate mater 
• wood-stoves, fires, wind-blown dust, automobiles, industry 

1. NOx 
• Nitric oxide (NO)
• Nitrogen dioxide 
• nitrous oxide (N2O)
2. O3 ozone 
3. PAN= peroxyacetyl nitrate 
4. aldehydes 
5. keytones 
6. hydrocarbons (VOC)