Why is the biosphere so crucial to our well-being, and how do we modify it? (b) GapFill

There are local factors that influence the distribution of biomes, and smaller-scale, local habitats. Let’s take a mountain in the UK as an example. Our native vegetation should be  grasslandtaigatundrabroadleaved deciduous woodland. You will see this in the valley (providing we’ve not cut it down), and possibly up into the lower slopes of the mountain. As you go up in altitude, the temperature  increasesdropswinds uprises by between 1 and 3 °C per 300 metres. It’s also windier. On slopes, the soil is  sandierdeeperpoor drainingthinner, and mountains are often made of hard, igneous rocks that resist erosion and are impermeable. Mountains are wet places because of relief or orographic  waterprecipitationplanesleft, but the steep slopes mean that water runs off quickly.

These conditions affect the types of vegetation that can grow – you’ll see bracken and grass at the bottom of the mountain, with a distinct line above which  icegrasssheeptrees and juniper bushes won’t grow. If you climb to the top, you might be walking across stones with a few grasses and mosses growing between them. In hollows on mountains, you may see  waterairpeatmountain bogs – the soil is waterlogged, meaning that the dead vegetation doesn’t decay.

There are also microclimates on mountains – such as sunny, warmer  northsouthwest-north-westnorth-east-facing slopes.

On the lowlands, the rock is likely to be  sedimentaryigneousquartzbasalt, meaning that it was deposited by water and slowly compressed into rock – but it has lots of joints and pores, making it  permeablefoldedsolidimpermeable. It also weathers faster, so soils are  thickshallowinsolublethin and fertile, and more likely to be free-draining, unless they’re made of very fine silt called clay.

There are a number of ways that the biotic (  airsoilnon-livingliving) components interact with the  abioticybioticubioticobitic environment – the air, water, climate, etc. For example, plants use sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce glucose (used in creating biomass) – a process called  respirationexcretingphotosynthesisintake, while animals consume plants and release the stored carbon back as carbon dioxide through  photosynthesispathwayrespirationuptake, and the remains of organic material, when decomposed, add matter to the  soilairgrassplants.