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.
The BIGGEST Biome…
IS WATER,
REMEMBER?
Lots more blue than orange
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 fine for
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.
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.
American bison, not “buffalo”
FALKENBURY!!!!
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:
burrow
grow real big
be speedy
Now, pick a new
color & let’s move
on.
Stop it, Mason!!!!
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:
You get the point.
DRY,
except for the manDRY
See
anylake
rain here? Dry.
made
Mojave, Sonoran Deserts
Sahara, Libyan, Arabian, Gobi Desert
Chilean & Andean
Desert (driest on
Earth!)
Kalahari Desert
Add to Yo’ Key!
Great Sandy 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.
Gobi desert in China—a cold
desert.
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.
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! 
Notice the huge ears to vent heat away
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.
Lotsa life in here.
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
Amazon
Basin
Congo &
Madagascar
India & Southeast
Asia
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.