What limiting factors are in the Coniferous forest?

Answer 1

idk. does an no wat r the limitings factors in a decuous forest.

source: http://gbn.glenbrook.k12.il.us/academics/science/staff/biology/Ecology/Limiting.HTML

Limiting Factors And Biomes

Have you ever wondered why organisms live where they do and not someplace else? Why do cactuses live in the desert? Why do needle-leaved trees tend to encircle the northern quarter of the northern hemisphere and live in the mountains, but decideous trees live mostly in the eastern half of the United States? Why do waterlillies only seem to live in shallow water? Every organism has certain tolerences. Some need lots of water, some don't need a lot. Some organisms can tolerate extreme cold, others can not. Some organisms need very bright sunlight, others need a dimmer environment. Some animals can live by eating grass, others must live by eating meat. If the living conditions change too much an organism must either leave the area for an area within its tolerances or it will die. Most organisms fall into the second category because they do not have the ability to move dozens or perhaps hundreds of miles to a more tolerable place. If the changes are of a seasonal nature various "over wintering" adaptations (plants go dormant, some animals hibernate, other animals survive only as eggs or immature forms) allow them to persist.

A careful study of any kind of organism's needs would reveal a range of tolerances over which the organism can exist. The sum of these tolerances describes the range of adaptations that an organism can make. This will describe the habitat in which one can expect an organism to live. But what are these fundamental necessities of life? Those things that an organism must be adapted to if they are to survive? They could be anything, however, when it comes to determining the presense or absence of a species, the most important factors are the nonliving or abiotic (without life) factors that affect plant life. Important abiotic factors include water (amount and seasonal distribution), soil (types of minerals and humus content), light (intensity and duration) and termperature extremes (high and low). There is a principle that is called Liebig's Law of The Minimum that states than any factor present in minimal amounts restricts the kinds and number of individuals of a particular species that can live in the area.

These abiotic factors have in effect divided the world into a relatively small number of biomes. A biome is defined as a geographic are which is characterized by particular groups of plants and animals. In North America major terrestrial biomes include tundra, coniferous forest, rainforest, grasslands, decideous forest, and desert. These biomes can be examined at the University of Californiaand at Radford University (Radford, Virginia). Take a virtual field trip there, and pay particular attention to the living conditions, the limiting factors, the types of vegetation (including examples) and the types of animals (including examples). NOTE: When you go on your virtual field trip you will leave this site and need to use the "Back" button, the "Go" button, or enter this URL http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbnsci/Biology/Ecology/Limiting.HTML to return to this page.

There are also biotic factors that may be limiting factors. Biotic factors may be density dependent factors or density independent. Density dependent factors have a greater and greater effect as the density of the population increases. These include the effects of competition, predation, parasitism , and crowding. For example, a fungus disease of corn called corn smut can destroy acre after acre of corn costing the farmer his entire crop. However if the fields are smaller and other crops are interspersed the corn smut will have trouble spreading to other corn plants. The population of the fungus will be kept smaller and the population of corn plants will not be reduced as much. Density independent factors, on the other hand, affect a population the same way no mater what the size of the affected population. For example, an ice storm (freezing rain) could damage a population of red maple trees just as much whether there were a lot of these tress or only a few of them.

Created 3/10/00