THE BIOSPHERE

Learning Goals:

• To understand what the biosphere and biodiversity are

• To understand threats to the biosphere and biodiversity

The biosphere is composed of all living organisms.

Plants, animals, and one-celled organisms are all part of the biosphere.

Most of the planet's life is found from three meters below the ground to thirty meters above it and in the top 200 meters of the oceans and seas.

THE BIOSPHERE

• Living things interact with non living things in the biosphere.• Biotic factors: living

components in the biosphere.e.g. Plants, animals, fungi, protist and bacteria are all living factors• Abiotic factors: Non Living

components in the biosphere.

e.g. Habitat (pond, lake, ocean, desert, mountain) or Weather (temperature, rain, cloud cover, snow etc.)

BIOTIC & ABIOTIC FACTORS

• Biotic and Abiotic Factors combine to create a system called an ecosystem.

AN ECOSYSTEM

An Ecosystem is a community of living and non living things working together in their environment.

• If a single factor is changed in an ecosystem, either by pollution or natural phenomenon, the whole system could be altered:

• Human Influence: Farming and irrigating, deforrestation, pollution (acid rain) etc.

• Natural Influence: Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami, landslide, hurricanes etc.

IMPACT OF CHANGING A FACTOR

Lake Mona 2011, Michigan

• Biodiversity is the variety of all life forms on earth - the different plants, animals and micro-organisms and the ecosystems of which they are a part.

• Three species on earth become extinct every hour of every day. More than 30 species become extinct while you sleep at night. More than 20,000 species become extinct every year.

BIODIVERSITY

Rainforest BIODIVERSITY