Terrestrial Environments – Biomes
The students spent the last three class meetings researching one particular biome, which they then
taught to the rest of the class. Below, I’ve summarized the valuable information that the boys and girls
reported to the class on each biome.
**Do not worry that your child needs to memorize these facts for the test. Instead, they will simply be
asked to name the six biomes and then be able to tell me two to three facts about one. **
Terrestrial, or land, environments are divided into different groups called biomes. The same biome may
occur in different parts of the world. For example, rainforests occur in South America, Asia, and Africa,
among other places. A particular type of biome has similar climate, soil conditions, and average annual
rainfall no matter where it is located in the world. These conditions support similar communities of
plants and animals wherever they occur.
The six different types of land biomes are:
1. Tropical Rainforest – Climate is constantly warm which much rainfall throughout the year. The
trees in the rainforest grow very tall, forming a canopy, or roof, above the forest. In the
rainforest, there are more arboreal animals (animals that live in trees) than ground-dwelling
animals.
2.
Temperate Deciduous Forest – These forests do not have extremes of hot or cold compared to
deserts or polar regions. The weather changes throughout the year. Deciduous trees lose their
leaves in the winter, and the animals that live there either hibernate or grow thick coats of fur.
Many birds migrate south during winter.
3.
Savanna – Mostly found in the tropics. Often have a season of heavy rainfall followed by a
season of drought. Mostly grasses and trees that may reach 10 feet tall grow here. Animals in
the African savanna are antelope, zebras, and wildebeests, lions and cheetahs. These animals
will migrate great distances in search of grass and water.
4. Temperate Grassland – about 25% of the Earth’s land surface is covered by temperate
grassland, including a large portion of the U.S. It is generally dry, with an average of 20 cm of
rain per year. Some animals that live here are gophers, bison and prairie dogs.
5. Tundra – Cold and dry located in the far north. There are tundra biomes in Alaska, Canada,
Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Asia. The tundra has very little rainfall. Much of the soil is
permanently frozen—called permafrost. It is treeless, and the plants that live there grow slowly.
The animals that live here are well adapted to the unique conditions. They are the musk ox,
polar bear, caribou, arctic fox and arctic hare
6. Desert – Nearly 20% of the Earth’s surface is covered by deserts. Deserts have very extreme
temperatures. It can get very hot during the day, and drop to very cold temperatures at night.
There is very little rain, and the plants here grow far apart. Many animals live here such as
insects, spiders, reptiles, birds and mammals. The mammals are deer, foxes and coyotes. These
animals are nocturnal: hunting at night and sleeping during the day so as to avoid the extreme
midday heat.