Biodiversity and Food Webs in TRF and Taiga

The variety of organisms living in a particular area (plants and animals).

Rainforests have extremely high biodiversity - they contain around 50% of the world's plant, animal and insect species.

Taiga forests have much lower biodiversity than tropical forests - many areas of forest contain a single type of tree, e.g., pine, spruce, fir.

<p>The rainforest biome has been around for a very long time (10 million years) without the climate changing very much so there has been lots of time for species to evolve and specialise.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The land was much colder and covered in ice until about 15,000 years ago. Species have had relatively little time to adapt to the current climate.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The layered structure of the rainforest means that there are lots of very different habitats within the rainforest and so a very wide range of plants and animals have developed.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The simple structure means there aren't many different habitats, so there are fewer varieties of species.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Rainforests are very stable environments - it is hot and wet all year round and this provides ideal conditions for fast growth producing lots of biomass - they are therefore very productive environments.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Taiga forests are much less productive than tropical rainforests (plants grow slowly so less new biomass is added each year). The growing season is very short - just a few months in the summer.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The net primary productivity of a biome; the measure of how much new plant and animal growth (biomass) is added to a biome each year (in grams per square metre per year).</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Productivity is highest where there is plenty of sunshine, high temperatures and precipitation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>2200 g/m²/year</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>800 g/m²/year</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They are very complex with lots of links and different species.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Food webs in the Taiga are much simpler than in the tropical rainforest, as the climate conditions of the subarctic produce much lower biodiversity.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Animals, plants, mushrooms, bacteria.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Water, soil, light, minerals, wind, air, temperature, pollution, etc.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They are very closely related and dependent on each other - if one factor changes, everything else does.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Trees and soil: dense leaf cover protects the forest floor from erosion by the heavy rain and the tree roots hold the soil together. Symbiotic relationships between animals and plants are very common in the tropical rainforest.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Plants gain their nutrients from the soil, and provide nutrients to the animals that eat them. Changes to components of the ecosystem, such as chopping down the trees, can have knock-on effects on the whole ecosystem.</p> Signup and view all the answers