By By Hope- Elena Sardella
Questions:
• “How has Earth’s biological diversity changed over the past 600 million
years?”
Answer: Through the progression of time, in specification; the preceding six million
year until now, have demonstrated revelatory phenomenon’s in the expansion of
species diverseness.
• How does species richness vary in latitude?
Latitude gradients regarding specific species richness is a well-studied and still a very complex issue with many variables. Smith & Smith (2015) state that evidence suggests correlations that the species richness is often attributed to the particular species required resources and ideal environment in order to thrive (pg. 26.9, para. 2) Additionally, the Actual Evapotranspiration (AET) describes the process in which the fluctuation of the water on the earth’s surface is transformed to evaporate into the available air. According to Smith & Smith (2015) the ecology of an environment that exceeds normal growth rates because of resource availability (AET) and average rate of productivity (NPP), will see higher levels in diversity and richness of species.
• “How are regional patterns of diversity in terrestrial environments related
to measures of environmental energy such as potential evapotranspiration
(PET)?”
Potential Evapotranspiration is the estimated evaporation that is stimulated by a viable source of water, additionally PET is a form of thermalized energy (Smith Smith, 2015, pg. 26.5, para. 1). Furthermore, when energy is increased, the growth in terrestrial; areas will be amplified, resulting in the multiplication of species diversity and population increase.
• “How is primary productivity related to species richness in the oceans?”
Aquaculture species richness has been observed to have decreased in locations near the poles. With the increase in latitude there are observable differences in the richness of species with the natural occurrences of surface temperature of the local bodies of water and PET. As the distance of the said location becomes closer to the poles the surface temperature decreases to reduced thermal energy (PET), making for an environment unfavorable to photosynthesis. Hence, there are blatant reductions in Primary Productivity rates of aquatic organisms.
• “How does environmental heterogeneity influence patterns of species diversity?”
• “Contrast alpha, beta, and gamma diversity. “
To start Alpha Diversity is a collection of large amounts of species variety in specific areas; where as Beta Diversity looks at the differences in diversity in localized areas; lastly Gamma Diversity analyzes the variations between comparable ecosystems disconnected on a mass scale (“Glossary”, Smith & Smith, 2015).
• “How are biodiversity hotspots related to patterns of endemism”?
In locations with abnormal abundance of species biodiversity which is often referred to as “hotspots” are related to species that exhibit characteristics in which they are only able to exist in particular locations in the world (endemism). Smith & Smith (2015) affirm that there are significant peaks in species diversity existing in the midlatitudes of the Mediterranean (pg. 26.3, para. 3).
References
Smith, T. M., & Smith, R. L. (2015). Elements of ecology (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
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