Ecology Notes and
        Diagrams

A Random Collection of Concepts and Examples

Energy flow diagram

The nitrogen cycle diagram and an explination

An example of a food web in a particular biome

The distribution of climate types and biomes is much simplified: Icecaps and mountains are ignored. The types (with BIOME IN CAPITALS) are:

1. Subpolar maritime climate - cold, with a few months thaw in summer; permafrost: TUNDRA;
2. Subpolar climate - very cold, cool summer, mostly dry with a little summer rain and autumn snow: TAIGA;
3. West coast maritime - mild winters, cool summers, wet all year: TEMPERATE RAIN FOREST;
4. Temperate maritime - mild, damp winters, depressional rainfall, warm, pleasant, summers: TEMPERATE DECIDUOUS FOREST;
5. Continental - cold winters, hot summers, fairly dry: STEPPE (grassland)
6. East coast temperate - like temperate maritime, but greater annual range in temperature: TEMPERATE DECIDUOUS FOREST;
7. Mediterranean - autumn-winter rain, warm dry summers: MEDITERRANEAN WOODLAND, now MAQUIS etc;
8. East Coast subtropical - warm climate with hot wet summers: SUBTROPICAL FOREST;
9. Desert - hot and dry, large day-night temperature range: DESERT;
10. Warm Continental - warm, with intermittent rain: SAVANNAH;
11. Wet tropical - hot, year-round rain: TROPICAL RAIN FOREST;
12. Tropical (summer rain) - hot, with dry winter and wet summer: TROPICAL SEASONAL FOREST.

Here's a map of these biomes; can you locate them?

Note On Soils

Note on pH and Soils