Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
CLIMATE • Climate is a large region of the Earth’s general weather or atmospheric pattern over a long period of time. • Weather is the short term atmospheric conditions of a particular region. “Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get”. -Mark Twain MAJOR FACTORS LATITUDE AND ELEVATION: Latitude is the distance from the equator and elevation is the height above sea level. RAIN AND TEMPERATURE: Ecology.botany.ufl.edu/ecologyf03/biodiv.html ANNUAL PERCIPITATION LOCATION ON EARTH TEMPERATURE EARTH’S MAJOR TERRESTRIAL CLIMATE ZONES • • • • • • Polar Sub Arctic Cool Temperate Warm Temperate Dry Tropical www.maps.com/ref_aspx?pid=12881 BIOMES • Biomes are large regions that are categorized by their similar climate, soil, plant and animal life, no matter where they are found on Earth. • Biome types are mainly determined by climate. • Each climactic region of the planet is home to a variety of biome types. BIOME CATEGORIES MOUNTAINS FORESTS SHRUBLANDS GRASSLANDS INCREASING PERCIPITATION DESERTS LITTLE TO NO PERCIPITATION DESERTS GRASSLANDS SHRUBLANDS FORESTS MOUNTAINS DESERT BIOMES • Desert= evaporation exceeds precipitation. • Little vegetation. What does grow and thrive in desert conditions, needs very little water • The closer to the equator, the hotter the desert. CLIMATE AND DESERTS • TROPICAL DESERTS: Very hot and dry all year long. Located 30 degrees north or south of the equator. • TEMPERATE DESERTS: Warm daytime hours in the summer, and cold winters. More precipitation than tropical deserts. • POLAR DESERTS: Cold winters- goes below freezing. Warm summers. Same precipitation as temperate deserts. GRASSLANDS AND SHRUBLANDS • Grasslands are too wet to be deserts and to dry to be forests. • They occur mostly in the middle of continents. www.worldbiomes.com CLIMATE AND GRASSLANDS • SAVANNAHS: Tropical grasslands that have alternating dry and wet seasons. They are scattered with shrubs, and are warm year round. • TEMPERATE GRASSLANDS: Very cold winters and hot summers. Sporadic rain, extremely fertile soil. Overused for cattle grazing. • CHAPARRALS: Temperate shrub lands. Mainly located near the coasts that border deserts. • ARCTIC TUNDRA: Polar grasslands are treeless plains that are bitterly cold most of the year. Underneath its layer of snow are many different low laying plant species and mosses. FOREST BIOMES • There is enough precipitation to sustain large stands of trees. • Precipitation and temperature determine the type of forest in a region. www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/9k.html CLIMATE AND FORESTS • TROPICAL RAIN FOREST: Hot with very heavy rainfall year round. • DECIDUOUS FORESTS: Found in areas of high seasonal change throughout the year. • CONIFEROUS (BORREAL) FORESTS: Cold winters and wet summers. Most of these forests are found in sub arctic regions. However, some are found in moderate areas because of a very wet climate. • TEMPERATE RAINFORESTS: Found near temperate coasts where rain and fog are plentiful most of the year. The winters are cold and the summers are cool. MOUNTAIN BIOMES • Islands in the sky. • Mountains happen in any region of the planet. • Affect climates by creating a rain shadow on a region of land. • A rain shadow can change a landscape from a forest (on one side of the mountain) to a desert (on the other side). THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00182/mountains.htm DOES THE EARTH HAVE A PATTERN? • The farther away a region is from the equator, the colder the region. • Latitude at the equator = 0. • The Earth is broken up into 180* on each side, north and south of the equator. • Between what latitudes would you most likely find a rainforest? WORK CITATIONS • G. Tyler Miller. 2007. Chapter 5. Living In The Environment, 15th Edition. Jack Carey. Pages 100-124 • All other citations are throughout the power point on specific slides.