Weather, Climate, and Biomes

1. Weather, Climate, and Biomes

2. What’s It Like Where You live? Biomes of the World

3. What’s a Biome? • A biome is the community of plants and animals of a region. • The pattern of biomes across the globe is determined by: • Climate (the weather over many years) • Vegetation (what plants grow there) • Animals • Biomes are important because they emphasize how plants, animals, people, soil, and the climate all interact and affect life.

4. Biome Map

5. 7 Major Biomes • Tundra • Temperate Forests • Rainforest • Grasslands • Deserts • Taiga • Aquatic

6. Facts about Biomes • Biomes change • Human activities can change biomes drastically • Pollution • Cities • Using them as resources to make money (timber, fishing, hunting, mining, farming…)

7. Tundra • How cold is cold? The tundra biome is at the top of the world -- around the North Pole! Below a thin layer of tundra soil is its permafrost, a permanently frozen layer of ground. During the brief summers, the top section of the soil may thaw just long enough to allow plants and microorganisms to grow and reproduce.  Annual precipitation is very low, usually less than 10 inches (25 centimeters). Water is unavailable during most of the year.

9. Temperate Forest • The Temperate Deciduous Forest biome has four seasons of winter, spring, summer, and fall. • The word "deciduous" means exactly what the leaves on these trees do: change color in autumn, fall off in the winter, and grow back again in the spring. This adaptation helps trees in the forest survive winter.

10. Rainforests • Half of the world's plant and animal species live in the tropical rainforests of the world. • Thirty acres of trees are cut in the tropical rainforests every minute. • Each second a portion of rainforest the size of a football field is destroyed or damaged.

11. Rainforests • Both tropical and temperate rainforests are very lush and wet. Rainfall falls regularly throughout the year. The tropical rainforest receives 80-400 inches of rainfall per year. It rains a lot in the temperate rainforest, too -- about 100 inches per year. • Tropical rainforests are warm and moist; while temperate rainforests are cool.

12. Grasslands • Grasslands are big open spaces. There are not many bushes in the grassland. Trees are found only by rivers and streams. • Grasslands receive about 10 to 30 inches of rain per year. If they received more rain, the grasslands would become a forest. If they received less, they would become a desert. Grasslands are often located between deserts and forests.

13. Deserts • Deserts are usually very, very dry. Even the wettest deserts get less than ten inches of precipitation a year. • Since deserts have so few trees and other vegetation to retain heat, they cool down rapidly when the sun sets, and heat up quickly after the sun rises.

14. Taiga The Taiga biome stretches across a large portion of Canada, Europe and Asia. It is the largest biome in the world. Winters are cold. Summers are warm

15. Taiga • The taiga is primarily a coniferous forest (evergreen trees with needles) like the temperate rainforest, but the taiga is located between 50 degrees latitude north and the Arctic circle.  Many coniferous trees (evergreens with needles) grow in the taiga. The taiga has fewer animal species than the tropical or temperate deciduous forests.

16. Taiga • Because of the tilt of the earth on its axis, in the taiga you'll find long nights in the winter and long days in the summer.  • The taiga is very, very cold in the winter. • But when the warm summer comes, the ice and snow melt. • The sun shines for days in the summer, because the taiga is near the top of the world.

17. Where is taiga located?

18. Aquatic • Water covers about three quarters of our planet.  • Aquatic biomes are host to a wide variety of life-forms, and minerals • Divided into 2 types • Marine (salt water) • Fresh Water

19. Fresh Water