Test Bank For The Economy Of Nature 6th Edition By Ricklefs
Name Test Bank Chapter 04 Description
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cascading biological events, leading to dramatic fluctuations worldwide in populations of plants and animals. Describe, in your own words, the ecological consequences of an El Niño for a particular part of the world.Answer Several examples are presented in the text. For example, extreme El Niño conditions are associated with below-average precipitation in Zimbabwe, leading to reduced yield of maize (corn) and human starvation.Question In the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, south-facing slopes of mountains are warmer and drier than north-facing slopes at the same elevation; vegetation growing on these different slopes will reflect the difference in local climate. Why is this?Answer During the midday hours, when solar radiation is most intense, the sun is always to the south in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. This results in more intense surface heating and greater evaporation of water from soils and plants on south-facing slopes of mountains. Air temperatures are also higher, resulting in greater evaporative demand. Plants and animals living on south-facing slopes experience these environmental effects and respond accordingly.Question When a mountain range is exposed to prevailing winds from a particular direction, the windward side of the range (the side facing the prevailing winds) receives more precipitation than the leeward side (the side facing away from the prevailing winds). Low-lying areas to the leeward side of the range also tend to be much drier than areas at similar elevation to the windward side of the range. Explain these phenomena in detail.Answer An air mass moving over a mountain range is forced upward into the atmosphere, where pressure is reduced. The air mass expands and undergoes adiabatic cooling. As the air cools, its capacity to hold moisture is reduced, often to the point where excess moisture falls to the ground as precipitation, primarily at higher elevations and mostly on the windward side of the range. As the air mass, now depleted of moisture, descends, it is compressed and warms (because of adiabatic heating). Its capacity to hold moisture is greatly increased upon heating, but its ability to be recharged with moisture is limited. Little precipitation will fall at lower elevations on the leeward side of the range, resulting in an arid environment known as a rain shadow. Low-lying areas to the leeward side of the range will also be dry because the air passing over them is relatively warm and dry, unlikely to yield further moisture as precipitation.Question The energy of incident solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth declines toward the poles from its maximum in equatorial regions. Why is this?
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Cold air absorbs more solar radiation than warm air.A given amount of solar radiation is spread over a larger area at
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Question 14
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