Biomes Biomes One of the Earths large ecosystems
Biomes
Biomes • One of the Earth’s large ecosystems, with its climate, soil, plants, and animals.
Climate Zone • A region that has the same patterns of temperature, rainfall, and sunlight
Tropical Rain Forest • • • Location: Near Equator Climate: Hot, Humid, Lots of Rainfall Soil: Poor Soil Plants: Wide variety of plants Animals: Reptiles, amphibians, mammals, etc. • Important Characteristics: Most complicated food web
• Little sunlight and water penetrates the thick canopy (tons of trees)
Deciduous Forest • Location: Every continent except Africa and Antarctica • Climate: Hot summers, cold winters • Soil: Rich soil • Plants: Many kinds of trees that lose leaves every fall • Animals: All types • Important Characteristics: “We live here” • Deciduous means “decay”
Grasslands • Location: All continents except Antarctica • Climate: Rainfall irregular, cool winters, hot summers • Soil: Rich Soil • Plants: Grass, Small Shrubs, Farmlands • Animals: Small animals, large herds • Important Characteristics: Important for world agriculture
“Bread basket of the world” • Most crops are grown there (wheat and oats)
Desert • • • Location: Midlatitudes Climate: Little precipitation, very hot Soil: Sandy and rocky Plants: very little plants, cacti Animals: Reptiles, small mammals Important Characteristics: Plants grow deep roots to find scarce water
• Sahara Desert
Taiga • Location: Northern Hemisphere (Europe, Asia, North America) • Climate: Cool • Soil: Mineral Poor Soil • Plants: Forest with numerous conifers (evergreens) • Animals: Birds, wolves, bears • Important Characteristics: Covers 11% of Earth’s land
Tundra • Location: Far North • Climate: Cold all year long • Soil: Spongy Topsoilpermafrost (permanently frozen) • Plants: Treeless, small plants that have short growing seasons • Animals: Caribou, polar bears, etc • Important Characteristic: No sunlight during the winter
Three types of water ecosystems • Saltwater, Freshwater, Brackish Water (Estuaries)
Intertidal Zone • Area near the edge of the ocean where organisms must be able to live on land water
Animals • Crabs, clams, sea stars
Zone has most organisms • More sunlight • Producers • Consumers • Shelter
Near-shore Zone • After the intertidal zone with calm waters
Open-Ocean Zone • The deepest, biggest part of the ocean
Phytoplankton • Microscopic Algae
Zooplankton • Tiny herbivores
Freshwater • Lakes, streams, rivers, ponds • Animals: Frogs, turtles
Characteristics • They cannot live in salt water
Estuary • An ecosystem with a mixture of fresh and salt water
Why not? • They cannot live in shallow waters
Harmed by human activity • Close to the mouths of the rivers, where ships and boats travel • Close to ocean where people live and vacation
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