Transcript Biomes - IHMC Public Cmaps (3)

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
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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
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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
and 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