“Study of all place-based interactions between living beings

and their environment”

Place-based Ecology

Adapted from Callenbach, 2008

Task (10:00 min/2 Groups)

Draw a diagram that shows the major components (boxes) and interactions (arrows) of a terrestrial ecosystem

Conceptual model

Source: Knight, 1994

Task (20:00 min/each individual)

Go outside and look for examples of laws of ecology on campus. Note them in your notebook.

Energy in the System

Source: www.reuters.com

Source: blogs.saschina.org/ http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/9/13/solar-tech-carbon-nanotubes-one-up-photovoltaic-cells.aspx

Energy (heat) transfer

Convection

Radiation

Evaporation 25%

Convection 5%

Thermal Rad. 17%

Net solar energy absorbed by the surface

48% Photosynthesis

< 1%

Earth-atmosphere energy balance

Latent heat flux

Latent heat flux

Source: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/atmos/hydrocycle_max.htm

Latent heat transfer

Sensible heat flux

Sensible heat flux

Sensible heat flux

Temperature (°C)

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Task (30:00 min/two groups)

Does respiration of yeast increase with increasing temperature?

100 ml

0.5 g of yeast 1 g of sugar

100 ml 100 ml 100 ml

Increasing temp

Measure CO2 and Temperature after 1 minute and record data

Make a scatter plot of the data by using R Commander

Important: Set gas sensor to 0-10 000 ppm

Growing degree days (or heat units)

Tbase = minimum temperature required for plants to grow (McCall area 5°C)

Using growing degree days to predict phenology

http://ian.umces.edu/discforum/index.php?topic=615.0

Task (10:00 min/two groups)

Record the air temperature above:

- Lake surface

- Parking lot

- Above grass canopy

- Within grass canopy

Make sure all locations you measure are sun lit

Source: Deren, 2010

Climate in the McCall area

Data source for plot: Western Regional Climate Center (http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?id5708)

Climate in the McCall area (cont.)

Source: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?id5708

Climate in the McCall area (cont.)

SNOTEL

SNOTEL website

Task (30:00 min/two groups)

How many growing degree days did we get over the last 5 days at Bear Basin?

Evaporation 25%

Convection 5%

Thermal Rad. 17%

Net solar energy absorbed by the surface

48% Photosynthesis

< 1%

Earth-atmosphere energy balance

Temperature sensors

Logtag manual

Logtag tutorial

Temperature sensors (cont.)

Which temperature line (red or blue) is associated with the treated and untreated forest?

Task (Groups of 2)

Configure temperature dataloggers so they record temperature data every 5 minutes. Set record readings to 1 day:

Place your data logger somewhere on campus for the next few hours. To have a wide variety of different locations on campus that potentially show temperature differences (such as MOSS beach, parking lot, dense tree canopy etc.) talk to the other groups.

Environmental gradients/life zones

Source: Matthew Deren, 2010

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis

Nature article

First evidence for photosynthesis in insects

Photosynthesis

Photosynthetic active radiation

Measures “Lux”

Light

Task(10:00 min/two groups)

How does light availability change within a plant canopy?

Task Solution

Photosynthesis

Figure 1. Relationship between chlorophyll content and rate of photosynthesis in soybean leaves. Chlorophyll mutants as open circles; cultivars as solid black circles (Buttery and Buzzell, 1977).

Figure 2. Relationship between chlorophyll per area and maximum Photosynthesis in sugar beat (Taylor and Terry, 1984)

Chlorophyll

Task(10:00 min/two groups)

Leaf chlorophyll analysis with a flatbed color scanner

Fig. 3. A. Total chlorophyll (Chl (a+b)) expressed per leaf area unit (A). Sun (white columns) and shade leaves (black columns) of deciduous Acer pseudoplatanus, Fagus sylvatica, Tilia cordata and coniferous Abies alba are presented. Columns represent mean values and bars standard deviations. ** and * represent the statistically significant differences at p < 0.01 and p < 0.05 level, respectively. n = 8 (Lichtenthaler et al., 2007).

Task Solution

Photosynthesis

Water-use efficiency

Water-use efficiency

Source: Raven et al. 2000

Task (30:00 min/2 groups)

Let’s bag some leaves …

Photosynthesis

• Hypothesize, how CO2 concentration in the light and dark treatment will change. • Test your hypothesis. To test your hypothesis, collect leaves and measure the CO2 concentration of the dark and light treatment for 10 minutes

Task (10:00 min/groups of 2)

Task (5:00 min/each)

How do you think increased CO2 concentration will affect plant growth and soil moisture?

Task Solution

Water cycle Biomass production

1 2

Stomata closed

Stomata open

Task (2:00 min/each)

Both leaves are exposed to the same environmental conditions (e.g., temperature etc.). Which leaf surface (1 or 2) do you think is warmer and why.

Source: Jones, 2004. Application of Thermal Imaging and Infrared Sensing in Plant Physiology and Ecophysiology

Plant temperature

Plant temperature (cont.)

Gross and net-primary production (NPP)

Net-primary production = Gross primary production – respiration Savings = Total income - spending

Carboxyl -Group Amino-Group

Nutrient update

NO3-

NH4+

NO3-

NH4+

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nut

Sun

Picture Sources: Raven et al., http://fishandgame.idaho.gov, http://www.kidcyber.com.au, http://www.jhaa.org/articles/tree-root-systems.htm Flow chart adapted from: http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/ecosystems.htm

Carnivores Herbivores

Sunlight drives … (cont.)

Energy Nutrients

All flesh is grass …