Wind, Climate, and Natural Environments

1. CHAPTER 3 Wind, Climate, and Natural Environments Section 1: Winds and Ocean Currents Section 2: Earth’s Climate and Vegetation Section 3: Natural Environments

2. Section 1Winds and Ocean Currents Objectives: • How does the Sun’s energy change Earth? • Why are wind and ocean currents important?

3. Section 1Winds and Ocean Currents The Sun’s Energy: • Affects weather and climate. • Maintains Earth’s energy balance by replacing energy lost into space. • Is stored in Earth’s atmosphere by the greenhouseeffect.

4. Section 1Winds and Ocean Currents Wind and currents: • Move heat energy by moving air and water • Keep different parts of the world from becoming too hot or too cold Air pressure is the weight of the air • Warm air is lighter and rises and is replaced by cooler air • Air pressure changes with the weather and creates wind Ocean currents move in the same general direction of the winds above them.

5. Section 2Earth’s Climate and Vegetation Objectives: • What is included in the study of weather? • What are the major climate types, and what types of plants live in each?

6. Section 2Earth’s Climate and Vegetation The Study of Weather • Weather is the atmospheric condition of an area over a short period of time. • Weather can describe temperature, amount of sunlight, air pressure, wind, humidity, clouds, and moisture. • Climate is the average weather in an area over a long period of time.

7. Section 2Earth’s Climate and Vegetation Major Climate types and their plant life • Low-Latitude: tropical rainforests; areas of grass with scattered trees and shrubs • Dry: a few drought resistant plants; grasslands, few trees • Middle-Latitude: scrub woodlands, grasslands; mixed forests; temperate evergreen forests • High Latitude: northern evergreen forests; moss, lichens, low shrubs, permafrost marshes • Highland: forest to tundra vegetation depending on elevation

8. Section 3 Natural Environments Objectives: • How do environments affect life, and how do they change? • What substances make up the different layers of soil?

9. Section 3 Natural Environments Environmental Change and Life • Ecology is the study of connections among different forms of life • Photosynthesis • Food chain • Environmental conditions limit life in that area. • Plant and animal communities contribute to form ecosystems. • Plant succession—one group of plants gradually replaces another due to natural or human forces

10. Section 3 Natural Environments Soil Layers • Topsoil—humus, insects, plants • Subsoil—deep roots of certain plants and trees • Broken rock—gradually breaks down and add nutrients to the soil