1. Succession: Changes over time
What would your backyard look like if you didn’t mow it or do anything to it? What would it look like in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?
First, grass gets taller and weeds grow...
Then, bushes start growing, trees appear…
Later, animals move in and everything grows…
Years later, the area is a forest!

2. Ecologists refer to the orderly, natural changes and species replacements that take place in the communities of an ecosystem as succession.

3. Primary Succession colonization of new sites by communities of organisms Lava destroyed everything in this area. When it cooled, it formed new land. The first species in this area is called a pioneer species.

4. Secondary succession the sequence of community changes that occurs after the community is disrupted by natural disaster or human actions.
There was a fire here several years ago. Several species are starting to grow back.

5. The difference between primary and secondary succession
The difference between primary and secondary succession... Secondary succession occurs in areas that previously contained life and soil. In primary succession, everything is new, including the land and soil.

6. A climax community is a stable, mature community that undergoes little or no change.

7. Climate Change

8. Climate Change
Climate change: significant, long-lasting changes in weather patterns
Includes…
Intensity of weather
Number of severe weather events
Regional or Global

9. Is Climate Change the same as Global Warming?
No!
Global warming contributes to climate change
Warmer temperatures affect world weather patterns:
Rainfall amounts
Storms
Droughts
Sea Level

10. Greenhouse Gases
Greenhouse Gases are naturally present in the Earth’s atmosphere
GGs help maintain a “healthy” global temperature by trapping heat
Greenhouse Gases:
Water vapor (H2O)
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Methane (CH4)
Nitrous Oxide (N2O)
Ozone (O3)

11. Greenhouse Effect
“The Greenhouse Effect”: the “trapping” of heat by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
The “trapped” warms the Earth
Greenhouse Effect is NORMAL, but has been amplified by human production of CO2

12. How does it work?

13. Humans  CO2 Production  Global Warming  Climate Change
The BIG Picture!
Humans  CO2 Production  Global Warming  Climate Change

14. -OZONE (O3) -CFCS? -WHY DO WE NEED OZONE?
So what is Ozone?!
-OZONE (O3) -CFCS? -WHY DO WE NEED OZONE?

15. Before Global Warming

16. After Global Warming

17. VERY close to ocean
Result of coastal erosion

18. So…
Officials had to move Cape Hatteras Lighthouse 2,870 feet inland!

19. Peterman Glacier, Greenland

20. How have humans changed the Earth BESIDES contributing to global warming?

21. Soil Erosion Erosion = loss of soil due to wind and/or water
Annual soil loss in South Africa is estimated at million tons
What prevents it?
Plants
Roots hold soil
Plants slow down water
SO, Deforestation and urban, unsustainable development is bad!

22. DESERTIFICATION Occurs in DRY climates
Once fertile soils become deserts
Caused by a combination of farming, drought, and overdrawing groundwater
Video!

23. Overfishing Bycatch: organisms caught accidentally (as a Byproduct)
Usually discarded
Reduced biomass in trophic levels
Habitat modification/destruction
*Video!* (maybe later)
Save me!

24. Pollution
Examples: DDT; garbage island
*video*

25. Acid Rain
Caused by mixture of sulfur and nitrogen with water vapor in the atmosphere
Can Affect:
Plant life & soils
Aquatic environments
Statues

26. Acid RAIN in NORTH AMERICA

27. Biodiversity: the diversity of life
The diversity of living species within a biome

28. What are some threats to biodiversity?
Habitat changes, fragmentation, destruction
Hunting species to endangerment or extinction
Introducing toxic substances into food webs (pollution)
Introducing foreign species into environments (invasive species)