How does relief influence type of vegetation and wildlife sort?
Answers
Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants, and is, by far, the most abundant biotic element of the biosphere.
Vegetation serves several critical functions in the biosphere, at all possible spatial scales.
First, vegetation regulates the flow of numerous biogeochemical cycles, most critically those of water, carbon, and nitrogen; it is also of great importance in local and global energy balances.
Such cycles are important not only for global patterns of vegetation but also for those of climate.
Second, vegetation strongly affects soil characteristics, including soil volume, chemistry and texture, which feed back to affect various vegetational characteristics, including productivity and structure.
Third, vegetation serves as wildlife habitat and the energy source for the vast array of animal species on the planet (and, ultimately, to those that feed on these).
Climate change is having a devastating effect on our globe, placing our wildlife at ever increasing risk. There are three different ways that climate change affects wildlife:
• Direct Impact – These things are nature-related, such as temperature changes, rainfall, and cyclones.
• Increasing Threats – This includes catastrophes that are a result of direct impacts, such as widespread fire, or invasive species.
• Indirect Threats – A good example of this is humans migrating into an ecosystem that is currently intact with wildlife.