I have an ecology test tomorrow, and I think one question is going to be “What would you try to find out if you wanted to know why one kind of locusts is more common than another in Scandinavia?”
I’d reckon you’d want to find out the locusts preferred habitat and niche, and compare them to each other. Also what kind of camouflage they have and what they eat. Am I barking up the wrong tree? This is an “A” question, so I really need to analyze it.
Also, another question might be “Explain why the production of phytoplankton in a lake is increased during the spring and fall”, can anyone explain that?
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Why Are They Better Suited?
Posted on October 6, 2011.
You seem to be heading in the right direction for the locust question.
The spring bloom of phytoplankton is driven by longer lasting daylight and warming of the surface layers which leads to stratification. This allows the phytoplankton to stay in the surface waters. By summer, the rapid growth of the phytoplankton renders the surface waters deficient in nutrients and photosynthesis declines to a low level. A bloom in the fall is aided by vertical mixing caused by temperature differential at the air-sea interface and increases autumn winds. Plankton growth is low in the winter due to intense mixing in the water column (the phytoplankton cannot stay long enough in the upper layers) and lack of sunlight. However, this mixing is essential for the spring bloom because this brings the nutrients from the deep to the surface where they can be used by the phytoplankton during the spring bloom.