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Temperature, humidity, soil composition, and solar radiation are important factors in determining altitudinal zones, which consequently support different vegetation and animal species. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Altitudinal zonation was first hypothesized by geographer Alexander von Humboldt who noticed that temperature drops with increasing elevation. [ 4 ]
Trees cannot grow at high altitude, because of cold temperature or lack of available moisture. [82]: 51 The lack of trees causes an ecotone, or boundary, that is obvious to observers. This boundary is known as the tree line. The highest-altitude plant species is a moss that grows at 6,480 m (21,260 ft) on Mount Everest. [83]
The warmest month has an average temperature of below 22 °C (72 °F). Tierra fría (Cool land) below 3,600 m (11,800 ft). The warmest month has an average temperature of below 18 °C (64 °F). Tierra helada (Cold land) above 3,600 m (11,800 ft). The tree line occurs when the warmest month has an average temperature of below 10 °C (50 °F).
The life zone concept was developed by C. Hart Merriam in 1889 as a means of describing areas with similar plant and animal communities. Merriam observed that the changes in these communities with an increase in latitude at a constant elevation are similar to the changes seen with an increase in elevation at a constant latitude.
It is measured as the mean of all annual temperatures, with all temperatures below freezing and above 30 °C adjusted to 0 °C, [4] as most plants are dormant at these temperatures. Holdridge's system uses biotemperature first, rather than the temperate latitude bias of Merriam 's life zones, and does not primarily consider elevation directly.
Environmental gradients can be related to factors such as altitude, depth, temperature, soil humidity and precipitation. Often times, a multitude of biotic (living) factors are closely related to these gradients; as a result of a change in an environmental gradient, factors such as species abundance , population density, morphology , primary ...
Acclimatization or acclimatisation (also called acclimation or acclimatation) is the process in which an individual organism adjusts to a change in its environment (such as a change in altitude, temperature, humidity, photoperiod, or pH), allowing it to maintain fitness across a range of environmental conditions.
a lapse rate given per kilometer of geopotential altitude (A positive lapse rate (λ > 0) means temperature increases with height) In the above table, geopotential altitude is calculated from a mathematical model that adjusts the altitude to include the variation of gravity with height, while geometric altitude is the standard direct vertical ...