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The biotic pump is a theoretical concept that shows how forests create and control winds coming up from the ocean and in doing so bring water to the forests further inland. This theory could explain the role forests play in the water cycle : trees take up water from the soil and microscopic pores on the leaves release unused water as vapor into ...
Water carried into the mantle eventually returns to the surface in eruptions at mid-ocean ridges and hotspots. [131]: 646 Estimates of the amount of water in the mantle range from 1 ⁄ 4 to 4 times the water in the ocean. [131]: 630–634 The deep carbon cycle is the movement of carbon through the Earth's mantle and core.
Tundra vegetation is composed of dwarf shrubs, sedges, grasses, mosses, and lichens. Scattered trees grow in some tundra regions. The ecotone (or ecological boundary region) between the tundra and the forest is known as the tree line or timberline. The tundra soil is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus. [2]
The ocean plays a key role in the water cycle as it is the source of 86% of global evaporation. [2] The water cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads to temperature changes. When water evaporates, it takes up energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment.
South Africa has a wide range of marine diversity with coastline in three oceans, two major current systems, major ocean frontal systems and benthic topography extending to a maximum depth of 5 700 m. There are 179 defined marine ecosystem types, 150 of them around South Africa and 29 around the sub-Antarctic territory of the Prince Edward Islands.
From shallow waters to the deep sea, the open ocean to rivers and lakes, numerous terrestrial and marine species depend on the surface ecosystem and the organisms found there. [28] The ocean's surface acts like a skin between the atmosphere above and the water below, and harbours an ecosystem unique to this environment.
Species of fish living in cold or cool water can see a reduction in population of up to 50% in the majority of U.S. freshwater streams, according to most climate change models. [103] The increase in metabolic demands due to higher water temperatures, in combination with decreasing amounts of food will be the main contributors to their decline ...
The largest tropical forest zone in Africa is the Congolian forests of the Congo Basin in Central Africa. A belt of tropical moist broadleaf forest also runs along the Indian Ocean coast, from southern Somalia to South Africa .