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Biomes of the World, Part II. Now let’s see…where did we leave off? Oh yeah, we had just finished the first three biomes of your Biome map & chart. But as you can see, there’s a whole lot left to do. That’s where we’ll pick up in a couple of slides, but first, let’s review a few
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Biomes of the World, Part II Now let’s see…where did we leave off? Oh yeah, we had just finished the first three biomes of your Biome map & chart. But as you can see, there’s a whole lot left to do. That’s where we’ll pick up in a couple of slides, but first, let’s review a few important points from last time.
Lots more blue than orange The BIGGEST Biome… IS WATER, REMEMBER? Good. Now that’s out of the way…
The Theme of the Biome Info. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of remembering the theme we discussed in the last powerpoint. Animals depend on plants. And the kinds of plants found in an area depend on the soil quality of the place and the climate (sunlight, precipitation, temperature, etc.) You just wont’ find a cactus in the tundra. Now, let’s get on to the rest of the biomes.
Grassland Biome • Flat, mostly treeless areas. • Dry, often drought-plagued. • Important to us for food crops. • Features the world’s best runners.
Great Plains of the USA Russian Steppes South American Pampas African Plains & The Serengeti Australian Coastal Plains Add to your key
Climate & Soil of Grasslands This is the biome that we, in central Texas, find ourselves in. Sure, we have trees and “forests” around here, but we’re mostly a grassland plain. What’s our climate like? Hot Summers, cool Winters. We often have periods of drought— Not enough rain for thick forests. The soil in the grassland is usually pretty fertile—good for crops. The soil is finefor growing, but often dry.
Plants of the Grassland Gee, this should be hard to figure out. You’ll expect mostly small plants and grasses. There will be some scattered trees, but there’s just not enough rain for dense forests.
Animals of the Grassland Plenty of warm and cold blooded animals here. The fairly mild Winters allow the scaly snakes & lizards a good habitat alongside their mammal friends. Think about the number of hidey-places in a flat, open plain. With no trees to climb up or hide in, you’ve got to be able to just flat-out out-run anything trying to kill you, or anything you want to kill & eat. Many of the grassland animals have grown to be large (like bison) or fast (antelopes, cheetahs).
Examples of Grassland Plants Grasses have the ability to survive during long periods of drought-they just sorta chill and turn brown, waiting for the next rain. (P): Wheat, rye, corn (notice what these things have in common). Of course, there are many other grasses & small plants here that we don’t typically use for food.
FALKENBURY!!!! American bison, not “buffalo” Examples of Grassland Animals I like the zoo. Really. The best part is seeing the animals that aren’t from North America that are on Animal Planet & Nat’l Geographic all the time. Lions, zebras, cheetahs, giraffes…they all can be found in the greatest grassland of all…the African Serengeti plain. (A): zebra, bison, cheetah. Remember, many grasslands animals have developed great speed or large bulk to improve their chances at survival.
Stop it, Mason!!!! • burrow • grow real big • be speedy So, that’s the Grassland The warm climate allows a lot of different plants & animals to survive here, though it’s not wet enough for thick forests. Without trees to hide around, many animals have to: Now, pick a new color & let’s move on.
Desert Biome Dessert is pudding. Desert is, well, the desert. When you think of “desert” what comes to mind? Sand? Hot blazing sun? Cactus? An oasis providing precious water to a lost stranger? While many of those things do describe some deserts, the thing to remember about ALL deserts is this: IT'S REALLY DRY DRY, except for the man- made lake DRY See any rain here? Dry. You get the point.
Mojave, Sonoran Deserts Sahara, Libyan, Arabian, Gobi Desert Chilean & Andean Desert (driest on Earth!) Kalahari Desert Great Sandy Desert Add to Yo’ Key!
Gobi desert in China—a cold desert. Climate & Soil of the Desert These are the places with the least precipitation on Earth, usually just a few inches a year. What’s worse, often times the rain comes in bursts, causing flooding that isn’t very useful for plants & animals. Make no mistake, the #1 challenge to life in the desert is the dryness. The air has low humidity, which leads to hot days & cold nights. In fact, depending on altitude and latitude, many deserts are quite chilly and downright cold. The soil is poor—usually rocky or sandy.
Plants of the Desert The plants of the desert include grasses, shrubs and some very specialized trees. If you look on your map, you’ll see that deserts & grasslands often border, so that should be expected. The plants are mostly scattered, to avoid over-competition for H2O, with deep, far-ranging root systems. Our pal Pokey in Arizona
Animals of the Desert Very specialized warm and cold blooded animals live here. Most are small, as this helps them conserve water. The challenge for cold-blooded animals is tough…stay out in the daytime too long, and you’ll overheat and die. At night, it gets cold enough that you’ll turn sluggish and have a hard time fighting or running from enemies.
Examples of Plant Life (P): cactus, aloe Cacti are amazingly adapted plants. Besides their ability to store water for crazy amounts of time, their stems have turned green, making food for the plant. This allowed the leaves to go defensive—turning into prickly thorns rather than juicy snacks.
Notice the huge ears to vent heat away Examples of Animal Life (A): scorpion, jackrabbit So that’s life in the desert. Even though it covers much of the Earth’s surface (and growing as grassland areas keep getting drier and drier), there’s not as much variety of life in the desert as in other biomes. It’s just too difficult to live there for most species of plants & animals. Now, grab your LAST COLOR!
Lotsa life in here. In here, too LIFE! Tropical Rain Forest Biome Welcome to the JUNGLE, baby! We just did the driest biome (desert) and now we’ve got the complete, total opposite…the water-soaked jungles of the Rain Forests on Earth. If there’s ONE THING to keep in mind about the T.R.F., it’s that this biome is bulging with life. Way more species of plant & animal can be found here than all the other biomes combined. Yeah!
Jungles of Southern Mexico & Central America Don’t forget Hawaii India & Southeast Asia Amazon Basin Congo & Madagascar
Makes you wanna hug a tree I Can’t just Disrespect The Amazon like that This ain’t just some regular ol’ jungle. The Amazon River Rain Forest is special. • The Amazon has 60,000 species of plants. That’s 25% of the world’s total. • 15,000 “animal” species live in the jungle alone. • That number above DOESN’T include the estimated 10 million species of insects there, mostly beetles. • The plants in the Amazon forest contribute 1/5th of all the oxygen production on Earth. They’re our best friend when it comes to sucking up carbon dioxide and fighting greenhouse gases. • The Amazon River itself contains 20% of ALL the fresh water on Earth. • ¼ of our medicinal drugs have ingredients from the roots, bark, and leaves of the plants in this jungle. How many more exist there that haven’t been discovered yet? What’s scary is that we’ve analyzed only about 5% of the plant species there to see what medicines they might contain. • We may never know, as we are losing an area of jungle to clear-cutting for cattle ranches the size of a football field every MINUTE.
Anyway…Back to the Climate & Soil of the Trop. Rain Forest Climate – look at where you just colored on the map. Pretty much in the middle of the Earth around the equator and tropics (thus the name!). While not as HOT as the Sahara Desert at noon, the T.R.F. is very warm all year round. There isn’t any Spring. There’s really no Autumn, and forget about Winter. People who want to turn the TRF into farmland are often surprised at how drained the soil is of nutrients. Sorta defeats the whole purpose of farming in the first place. The ground isn’t as good as you might expect. The soil is ok—plants drain nutrients from the ground as soon as anything dies & decays.
Plants of the Tropical Rain Forest Geez, where do we start? Well, remember that there’s not just a large number of trees in the TRF, but a huge variety of trees, too. All these trees form a high canopy that shades the ground. Unlike the coniferous forest, where tall trees dominate, in the T.R.F. a ton of big leaf groundplants fight for every ray of light that trickles from above. canopy Now you see where a lot of our pretty houseplants actually come from. Pretty dark Down here
Animals of the Tropical Rain Forest Again, not just lots of critters from snakes to birds to fish to insects to monkeys to cats to whatever. Not just lots, but also a HUGE variety of warm and cold blooded animals.
Examples of Plant Life Besides medicines, we get a ton of fruits & vegetables from here. (P): banana tree, palm tree
Examples of Animal Life Rather than list fifty thousand species of animal found in rainforests, let’s just write: (A): python, monkey
How’s it feel? You’re now done with your biome map & chart. Remember our THEME of how the climate & soil of a biome determine the plant & animal species found there. THE END
