What is a biome?
A biome is a large region characterized by a specific type of climate and certain types of plants and animal communities.
What is climate?
Climate refers to the weather conditions, such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, and winds, in an area for a long period of time.
What is latitude?
The distance north or south of the equator and is measured in degrees.
What is Altitude?
Altitude is the height of an object above sea level.
Where are most of the nutrients in a tropical rain forest located?
In the plants.
What is the top layer of the rainforest called?
The emergent layer
What is the canopy?
The layer beneath the emergent layer and is considered the primary layer of the rain forest.
What is the understory?
The layer under the canopy which receives the least amount of light.
Why are plants in the understory so short?
Because there is so little sun light.
Why are leaves in the understory so broad?
To help catch the small amount of sun light that the understory receives.
What are epiphytes?
Plants that use the entire surface of a tree to live, and will climb it in order to receive sun light. As it rains it receives nutrients as the rain runs down the bark of the tree.
What is a deciduous tree?
A tree that loses its leaves in the fall.
What is the temperate rain forest?
Forests that have high amounts of rainfall, high humidity, and moderate temperatures.
What do birds do if the temperatures in a temperate forest are too cold to tolerate?
They migrate to a warm climate and fly back in the spring.
What is the taiga?
The northern coniferous forests that stretches in a broad band across the northern hemisphere just below the artic circle.
What is a conifer?
A tree that has seeds that develop in cones A tree that has seeds that develop in cones. Most conifers are evergreens (trees that do not shed their needles when it gets cold).
What is the rate of deforestation in the tropical rainforest?
100 acres/min 144,000 Acre/yr
How many people are estimated to live in the rainforest?
50 Million
What are the Savannas?
Grasslands that are found in tropical and subtropical areas near the equator and are found between tropical rain forests and deserts.
What do plants have to do in order to survive living in the savannas?
Survive prolonged periods of time without water.
How have the elephants adapted to the savannas?
They have adapted a migratory way of life.
What is a temperate grassland?
A biome that is dominated by grasses and has very few trees A biome that is dominated by grasses and has very few trees. They have hot summers and cold winters.
What is the Chaparral?
A chaparral is a type of temperate woodland biome that is dominated by more broad-leafed evergreen shrubs than by evergreen trees. EX: by the Hollywood sign in California.
How much rain do deserts get?
Less than 25 cm/year
What is a Tundra?
A biome that is dominated by short grasses, lichens, and herbs that is located primarily north of the Artic Circle.
Why do reptiles such as the Gila monster have thick scaly skin?
To help prevent water loss.
What is a succulent?
Plants such as cactuses that have thick, fleshy stems and leaves that store water. The leaves also have a waxy coating to help prevent water loss.
What is estivating?
When animals bury themselves in the ground and sleep through the dry season.
What is hibernation?
When animals sleep through the cold season.
Approximately what % of the Earth’s species do tropical rain forests contain?
50%
Animal species of the rain forest …
Have adaptations to use resources and avoid competition.
Migration of animals in the savanna is mostly a response to…
Rainfall
Spadefoot toads survive the dry conditions of the desert by…
Burying themselves in the ground.
The tundra is most suitable to a vertebrate that…
Can migrate hundreds of kilometers each summer.
A biome that has a high amount of rainfall, warm temperatures and poor soils is…
Tropical rain forest
The two main factors that determine where organisms live are …?
Temperature and precipitation.
Which biome contains the largest trees?
Temperate rain forest.
What are the most common types of plants in the taiga biome?
Coniferous trees (Conifers)
What is the driest biome on Earth?
Desert
Where are savannas located?
North and south of the tropical rain forests.
Why are there so few trees in the temperate grass lands?
There is not enough rain.
What are three main reasons for deforestation?
Deforestation through logging, ranching, and farming.
How much rainfall does a tropical rain forest get?
200-450 cm/year
How much rainfall does a temperate deciduous forest get?
75-125 cm/year
How much rainfall does a savanna get?
90-150 cm/year
How much rainfall does a temperate grassland get?
25-88 cm/year
What is permafrost?
The layer of soil underneath the Tundra’s topsoil, that remains permanently frozen soil.
Why are plants in the Tundra so short?
Because of the strong wind and thin soil.
What is the main threat to the Tundra?
Oil exploration, extraction and transport
What are the threats to the Chaparral?
Human development.
What are the threats to the temperate grasslands?
Farming and overgrazing.
What are the plants of a Chaparral like?
They are low lying evergreen shrubs that occur in dense patches.
What is a common adaptation for animals of the chaparral?
Camouflage
What is an adaptation of the large herbivores of the temperate grasslands?
They have large flat back teeth for chewing the coarse prairie grasses.