Where is wind power being harvested, and what is the future ...

[segrsyd]

Where is wind power being harvested, and what is the future potential for wind farms?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Define the terms ecological succession and climax ecosystem. How do disturbances allow for ecological succession?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[heyhey123]

Answer to Question 1

Germany has the greatest amount of wind being harvested, followed by Spain and then the United States. The Midwest is a prime location within the United States for wind power. The American Wind Energy Association calculates that wind farms located throughout the Midwest could meet the electrical needs for the entire country, while the land beneath the turbines could still be used for farming. The potential for wind power is quite good. Its price is currently competitive. There are no technical, economic, or resource limitations that would prevent wind power from supplying at least 12 of the world's electricity by 2020.

Answer to Question 2

Ecological succession is the gradual replacement of one biotic community of organisms with another. Succession occurs because the physical environment may be gradually modified by the growth of the biotic community itself, such that the area becomes more favorable to another group of species and less favorable to the present occupants. The final stage of ecological succession is the climax ecosystem.
Disturbances (e.g., fire, tornadoes, and hurricanes) can remove plants and animals from an area, returning the area to an earlier stage of succession. Fire can increase the quantity of light reaching the forest floor by reducing the density of the canopy. Fire can also be necessary for the reproduction of some trees. For example, some pine trees do not release their seeds without fire, and the seeds need to germinate on bare soil. Patchiness results from having different areas of an ecosystem in different successional stages. Because each successional stage has a different array of species, a mosaic of successional stages creates an ecosystem with more species present; biodiversity is enhanced by a mosaic ecosystem structure.