Ecology.docVIP

Ecology-- Concepts What is ecology? Ecology is the study of relationships between organisms and the environment. However, as you can see from the studies we have reviewed, ecologists study those relationships over a large range of temporal and spatial scales using a wide variety of approaches. Ecology includes bumblebees living around a single bog and vegetation moving across the continent. Ecologists may study processes on plots measured in square centimeters or an entire stream valley. Important ecological discoveries have come from probing of the rain forest canopy and landscape images on a computer screen. Ecology includes all these approaches and many more. 生态是生物和环境之间关系的研究。然而，正如你可以从我们已审阅的研究看，生态学家研究在大范围内采用各种方法的时间和空间尺度的关系。生态环境包括生活在一个单一的沼泽，植被整个非洲大陆的移动黄蜂。生态学家可以研究在平方厘米或整个溪谷测图过程。重要的生态发现有来自探查计算机屏幕上的热带雨林冠层和景观的图像。生态包括所有这些方法等等。 Life on land: Terrestrial biomes Biomes are distinguished primarily by their predominant plants and are associated with particular climates. They consist of distinctive plant formations such as the tropical rain forest biome and the desert biome. Because tropical rain forest and desert are characterized by very different types of plants and animals and occur in regions with very different climates, the natural history of these biomes differ a great deal. The student of ecology should be aware of the major features of those differences. 生物群落由它们的主要植物，主要区别开，并与特定的气候有关。它们由独特的植物群系，如热带雨林生物群落和沙漠生物群落。由于热带雨林和沙漠的特点是非常不同种类的植物和动物以及发生在区域具有非常不同的气候条件下，这些生物群落的自然史不同很大。生态学的学生应该意识到这些差异的主要特征 The main goal of this chapter is to take a large-scale perspective of nature before delving into fine details of structure and process. We pay particular attention to the geographic distributions of the major biomes, the climate associated with each, their soils, their salient biological relationships, and the extent of human influences. In other words, we discuss the natural history of life on land using biomes as our organizer. Because terrestrial biomes are built upon a founda