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Name: ___________________________
TOC#____
Biomes
I hopped of the plane at _________ with a dream and my cardigan. Welcome to the land of________________.
Warm Up!
1. If you got of the plane in these 7 places what would you see? What would you feel?
a. in one of the shaded regions, or a place like the north pole
b. in one of the shaded regions, or a place like the forests of inland Canada
c. In one of the shaded regions, or places like North Carolina/Ireland
d. In one of the shaded regions, or places like the Amazon or Southern Asia
e. In one of the shaded regions, or places like the low mountains
of Santa Barbara or in Baja California
f. In one of the shaded regions, or in many places in Africa, like Kenya
g. In one of the shaded regions, or in a place like the Sahara in
North Africa or parts of Egypt
2. Thinking about each of these places, what are some common differences? Common similarities?
3. What determines which regions are shaded?
4. What is the definition of weather? What is the definition of climate?
Biomes Walk Around
Class discussion
1. A biome is a:
2. You can determine what type of biome you are in based on:
3. To understand the climate of a particular location or biome you can look at a _____________________.
This will show you:
4. Looking at the diagram, which areas would you expect to be…
The warmest/coldest?
The wettest/driest?
The most/least plants?
5. Define Biotic and abiotic factors.
Activity: At each table you will find pictures, and explanations of each biome.
Biome: Tundra
Climate
Plant life
Animal life
Location. Include which
warm up picture (a-g)
Explain this biome in one
sentence that will help
you remember it
Biome: Taiga
Climate
Plant life
Animal life
Location
Which warm up
picture (a-g)
Explain this biome
in one sentence that
will help you
remember it
Biome: Temperate Deciduous Forest
Climate
Plant life
Animal life
Location
Which warm up
picture (a-g)
Explain this biome
in one sentence that
will help you
remember it
Biome: Tropical Rainforest
Climate
Plant life
Animal life
Location
Which warm up
picture (a-g)
Explain this biome
in one sentence that
will help you
remember it
Biome: Chaparral
Climate
Plant life
Animal life
Location
Which warm up
picture (a-g)
Explain this biome
in one sentence that
will help you
remember it
Biome: Grassland and Savannah
Climate
Plant life
Animal life
Location
Which warm up
picture (a-g)
Explain this biome
in one sentence that
will help you
remember it
Biome: Desert
Climate
Plant life
Animal life
Location
Which warm up
picture (a-g)
Explain this biome
in one sentence that
will help you
remember it
Tundra Materials
The tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons.
There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine tundra and the Antarctic tundra. In the tundra, the
vegetation in composed of dwarf shrubs, sedges, and grasses, mosses, and lichens. Scattered trees grow in some
tundra areas.
 Located above the arctic circle and at very high altitudes
 Cold, dry winters (permafrost)
 Short, intense, busy summers
 Nearly treeless, covered by mosses, lichens and grasses
 Most animals are migratory or well adapted to cold climate
Tundra in Greenland
Tundra in Siberia
Taiga Materials
The taiga is the biome of the needleleaf forest. Coldness and food shortages make things very difficult,
mostly in the winter. Some of the animals in the taiga hibernate in the winter, some fly south if they can, while
some just cooperate with the environment, which is very difficult. Taiga is the Russian word for forest and is
the largest biome in the world. It stretches over Eurasia and North America. The taiga is located near the top of
the world, just below the tundra biome. The winters in the taiga are very cold with only snowfall. The summers
are warm, rainy, and humid. A lot of coniferous trees grow in the taiga. The taiga is also known as the boreal
forest. The average temperature is below freezing for six months out of the year.
 Located just south the arctic circle; common in mountain regions
 Cold, snowy winters; Longer and warmer summers than tundra
 Mainly 2 vegetation layers: coniferous trees (evergreen and cone-bearing) and mosses
 Animals include deer, elk, moose, squirrels, beaver, wolves, bears etc.
Russian Taiga Forrest in Winter
Taiga in Alaska: White Spuce Taiga
Temperate Deciduous Forest Materials
Dominated by trees that lose their leaves each year. They are found in areas where warm, moist
summers alternate with mild winters. The three major areas of this forest type occur in the northern hemisphere:
eastern North America and Europe. Smaller areas occur in Australasia and southern South America. Examples
of typical trees include oak, maple, beech, and elm. The diversity of tree species is higher in regions where the
winter is milder, and also in mountainous regions that provide an array of soil types and microclimates.
 Moderate temperatures and precipitation
 Warm summers, cool winters with 4 distinct seasons
 Up to 5 vegetation layers: deciduous trees are common (broad, flat leaves that shed annually)
as well as mosses, herbs and shrubs
 Animals include insects, squirrels, birds, deer, bears, fox etc.
Fall in Eastern
United States,
the trees will
lose their leaves
A river runs through this
biome in Germany. The
leaves on the trees are
green and have broad leaves
Tropical Rainforest Materials
Warm and wet describes the tropical rain forest climate. The average annual temperature is above 20º C; there
is never a frost. Rainfall varies widely with a range from about 8 to 14 feet of rain per year. Located in the
tropics, a band around the equator from 23.5º N (the Tropic of Cancer) to 23.5ºS Within this band, solar
radiation is most intense, and thus the surface of the planet warms the most. The warmth leads to a lot of
evaporation, and as warm, moist air rises, it cools, the water condenses, and the water falls back to the earth as
rain. Thus, the warmest areas of the planet also tend to be the wettest, and this sets the stage for the tropical rain
forest. With many tall trees forming a multi-layer canopy, not much light gets to the forest floor
 Constant warm temperatures with no distinct seasons
 Heavy rainfall throughout the year
 Plants are abundant and diverse, competing for sunlight
 Animals are unique, diverse and adapted to a life in the trees: monkeys, insects, reptiles,
amphibians, birds etc.
Amazon rainforest
in Brazil
Chaparral Materials
Chaparral is a shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the U.S. state of California and in the northern
portion of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild, wet winters and hot dry
summers) and wildfire, featuring summer drought-tolerant plants with hard sclerophyllous evergreen leaves, as
contrasted with the associated soft-leaved, drought deciduous, scrub community of Coastal sage scrub, found below the
chaparral biome. Chaparral covers 5% of the state of California, and associated Mediterranean scrubland an additional
3.5%.
 Found near coasts due to off-shore circulation of cool ocean water
 Browsers and predators are common and animals include birds, mountain lions, mule deer,
ground squirrels, reptiles etc.
 Plants include dense evergreen shrubs, grasses, some deciduous plants and annuals adapted to
survive fire and summer drought
 Hot, dry summers; cool, wet winters
 Fires and drought are possible
Santa Monica, CA
Santa Ynez Valley, CA (north of Santa Barbara)
Grassland and Savannah
A savanna is a rolling grassland scattered with shrubs and isolated trees, which can be found between a
tropical rainforest and desert biome. Not enough rain falls on a savanna to support forests. Savannas are also
known as tropical grasslands. They are found in a wide band on either side of the equator on the edges of
tropical rainforests.Savannas have warm temperature year round. There are actually two very different seasons
in a savanna; a very long dry season (winter), and a very wet season (summer). Plants of the savannas are highly
specialized to grow in this environment of long periods of drought. They have long tap roots that can reach the
deep water table, thick bark to resist annual fires, trunks that can store water, and leaves that drop of during the
winter to conserve water. Most of the animals on the savanna have long legs or wings to be able to go on long
migrations. Many burrow under ground to avoid the heat or raise their young.
 Grassland serves as a transition between desert and forest
 Savannah is a transition between grassland and forest
 Extreme climatic conditions and fluctuations in temperature and precipitation
 Dry and windy; fires are common
 Mainly grasses with some shrubs and scattered trees
 Animals include mostly grazers and predators
Desert Materials
Deserts cover about one fifth of the Earth's surface and occur where rainfall is less than 50 cm/year.
Although most deserts, such as the Sahara of North Africa and the deserts of the southwestern U.S., Mexico,
and Australia, occur at low latitudes, another kind of desert, cold deserts, occur in the basin and range area of
Utah and Nevada and in parts of western Asia. Most deserts have a considerable amount of specialized
vegetation, as well as specialized vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Soils often have abundant nutrients
because they need only water to become very productive and have little or no organic matter. Deserts often
provide little shelter from the sun for large animals. The dominant animals of warm deserts are nonmammalian
vertebrates, such as reptiles. Mammals are usually small, like the kangaroo mice of North American deserts.
 Temperatures vary from hot to cold
 Precipitation is very low
 Vegetation is sparse and plants are adapted to use water efficiently
 Only a few large animals exist and include camels and big horn sheep
 Other animals include rodents and reptiles who are adapted to life in low water conditions
Sand Dunes at Death Valley, CA
There are different types of deserts.
Hot and Dry
Semiarid
Costal (in Chile)
Cold