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Chapter Three

Chapter Three. Climate and Vegetation. WHERE DO SEASONS COME FROM?. Earth rotates on it’s axis at a 23.5 degree angle in relation to the sun Earth rotates once every 24 hrs Earth makes one revolution around the sun every 365.25 days. SEASONS.

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Chapter Three

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  1. Chapter Three Climate and Vegetation

  2. WHERE DO SEASONS COME FROM? • Earth rotates on it’s axis at a 23.5 degreeangle in relation to the sun • Earth rotates once every 24 hrs • Earth makes one revolution around the sun every 365.25 days

  3. SEASONS • Earth’s axis always points to the same spot in the sky • Revolution and tilt cause the seasons (different parts of the earth receive direct rays from the sun for more hours at certain times of the year)

  4. Season Diagram

  5. WHAT CAUSES WEATHER? • Amount of solar energy • How air masses absorb and distribute the energy • Landforms / bodies of water • Water Vapor (determines if there will be precipitation) • Cloud cover • Elevation

  6. PRECIPITATION Convectional- Orographic- Frontal-

  7. WEATHER EXTREMES • Hurricanes • form over warm tropical waters, takes days to develop • can cover 100’s of miles • winds from 75- 200 mph

  8. WEATHER EXTREMES • Tornadoes • develop very quickly • wind speeds up to 300 mph • small diameters (about 300 ft.) • can stay on ground for hours • can cause massive damage

  9. WEATHER EXTREMES • Blizzards- heavy snowstorms; winds more than 32 mph; reduced visibility • Droughts- long period of time without water; leads to crop failures and water shortages • Floods- when water flows over land faster than the land can absorb it

  10. CLIMATE FACTORS • Zones of latitude • Low or Tropical • Middle or Temperate • High or Polar

  11. El Nino • Warming of the waters off the coast of South America • Occurs about every 2-7 years • Prevailing easterly winds slow or reverse direction changing the ocean’s temperature • This affects weather worldwide

  12. El Nino • Normally easterly winds bring rain and push warm ocean toward Asia and Australia • In El Nino years, winds push warm water and heavy rains toward Americas. We get floods and Australia and Asia get droughts

  13. La Nina • Occurs when the winds blow opposite El Nino • Winds blow the warmer water to the lands on the western Pacific Rim • Causes increased rain in India and drought along Pacific coast of USA

  14. WORLD CLIMATE REGIONS • Two most significant factors in defining different climates are: • Temperature • Precipitation

  15. CLIMATE GRAPHS

  16. SOILS AND VEGETATIONS • World’s food supply grows in the top 6 inches of soil, topsoil. • Type of vegetation is determined by the depth, mixture and humus content of the soil.

  17. VEGETATION REGIONS • Vegetation patterns are identified by the ecosystems they support. • The ecosystems of a region, (biomes) are divided into: Forest Grassland Desert Tundra

  18. FORESTS • Categorized by the types of trees they support • Broadleaf (i.e. Maple & oak called deciduous) • Rain forest is covered with broad-leafs • Needle-leaf (i.e. Pine and fir called coniferous)

  19. GRASSLANDS • Savannas in tropical regions • Steppes in Northern Hemisphere • Many names in South America – Pampas, Cerrado, Llanos

  20. Tundra- plants like lichen and mosses are specially adapted to grow there in dry, cold conditions • Desert- plants must be able to conserve water and withstand heat. Plants like cacti and sagebrush are good there.

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