Geology 001B West Valley College

Historical Geology R. Lopez

Study Questions: Chap. 4, p. 91-101; 102, 111-114

1. What limiting factor limits the distribution of any species?
2. What are the two habitats on earth?
3. What is the definition of Ecology and Environment?
4. What are the Abiotic and Biotic aspects of the environment? How does one influence the other? This is a critical thinking question. If I ask you this question on the exam, I want you to formulate an answer by using examples and concepts discussed in lecture and in the readings.
5. What are ecological niches and what are limiting factors?
6. What are ecosystems? We often call ecosystems ____?
7. What is flora and fauna? What do you call both together?
8. Are there different ecosystems? If there are, what governs different ecosystems?
9. What are the different ecological role that organisms have in an ecosystem?
10. What does trophic mean and what are trophic levels? Give an example of trophic levels. Give an example of a food chain (see fig. 4-3 in text).
11. What are food webs?
12. Marine organisms are classified in one of three groups based on habitat and mobility. What are they and give examples of each.
13. What happens to energy as it moves through ecosystems? What happens to nutrients as it moves through ecosystems?
14. What is the atmospheric composition and what percent of each these gases occur in the atmosphere?
15. What is albedo and why does earth receive uneven solar radiation?
16. What causes earth’s seasons? (see page 99 of text)
17. What is the Coriolis Affect and how does it influence atomospheric circulation?
18. Sketch the earth showing atmospheric circulation cells (name each cell), draw in the wind belts associated with these cells (show wind direction), label and name the latitudes where these cells join, label zones of low and high pressure on earth, and label the desert and moist regions.
19. What is the orographic affect?