Samantha leupold
AC0443329
Assignment 1
SC260 Ecology
1. Describe global patterns of atmospheric heating and circulation. What mechanisms produce high precipitation in the tropics? What mechanisms produce high precipitation at temperate latitudes? What mechanisms produce low precipitation in the tropics?
2. Use what you know about atmospheric circulation and seasonal changes in the sun’s orientation to earth to explain the highly seasonal rainfall in the tropical dry forest and tropical savanna biomes. (Hint: Why does the rainy season in these biomes come during the warmer months?) Heating of the earth surface and atmosphere and influences patterns of precipitation the sun heats the air at the equator causing it to expand and rise. This warm moist air cools as it rises. Since cool air holds less water vapor than warm air the water carried by the rising air mass condenses and forms clouds which produce the heavy rain fall associated with the tropical environment. Eventually this equatorial air mass ceases to rise and spreads north and south. The high altitude air is dry since the moisture it once held fell as a tropical rain fall. When the air mass flows north and south it cools which increases its density. It sinks back to the earth’s surface at about 30 latitude and spreads north and south. The air draws moisture from the lands over which it flows and creates deserts in the process. Temperature is plotted on the left vertical axis and precipitation on the right vertical axis. Temperature and precipitation are potted on different scales so 10 C is equivalent to 20 mm of precipitation. Climate diagrams for wet areas such as tropical rain forest compress the precipitation scale for precipitation above 100mm so that 10C is equivalent to 200mm of precipitation. This will change in scale rainfall data from very wet climates can be fit on a graph of