Biomes Flashcards
Name the two main groups of biomes.
Aquatic & Terrestrial
Name the two main groups of terrestrial biomes.
Forests & Open Lands
Name the two main abiotic factors that define terrestrial biomes.
Temperature & Moisture
Name the 4 types of forests.
Conifer forest, deciduous forest, tropical rainforest, & taiga.
Name the 4 types of open lands.
Tundra, desert, temperate grasslands, & savanna.
Name the two main groups of aquatic biomes.
Freshwater & Marine
Name 5 abiotic factors that influence aquatic biomes.
Salt content, temperature, depth, light, current, pH, pressure, bottom composition…
Name the two main types of freshwater biomes AND give an example of each.
Lentic = lakes (Lake Tahoe) and Lotic = rivers (Truckee River)
Name the 6 types of marine biomes.
Coral Reef, Kelp Forest, Pelagic Zone, Benthic Zone, Rocky Shore, & Sandy Shore
Which biome has characteristics between a forest and a desert?
Chapparal
Which biome has characteristics between a forest and a shoreline?
Mangroves
Which biome has a mix of freshwater and saltwater?
Estuary
Which biome is a mix of land and water?
Wetlands
Which aquatic biome is the deep and dark water?
Benthic Zone
Which aquatic biome is the open ocean?
Pelagic Zone
Plants in this biome often have miniature leaves to reduce water loss and avoid overheating.
Desert
The new moon causes an extra low tide, allowing sandpipers to find more food than usual in this biome.
Sandy Shore, aka Sandy Intertidal
The hills around Lake Tahoe are an example of this biome.
Conifer Forest
The first humans evolved in this biome.
Savanna
Biome with tide pools that trap seawater at low tide, allowing organisms to survive until the next high tide.
Rocky Shore, aka Rocky Intertidal
What defines an intertidal biome?
It is underwater at high tide, but exposed to the air at low tide.
Lake Tahoe is the one of the deepest examples of this biome in the world.
Lentic Zone
The study of lakes is called…
Limnology
The largest and oldest organisms on Earth are found in this biome.
Conifer Forest (remember, “organisms” includes plants!) PS: All of the records are held by trees in California: Redwood trees are the tallest, Sequoias are the most massive, and Bristlecone Pines are the oldest - up to 5,000 years! So it was 3,000 years old during the time of Christ!
This biome covers most of Earth.
Pelagic Zone
Many migrating shorebirds stop at this biome to rest and feed before finishing their trip.
Marsh
Logging companies clear cut many acres of forest to make paper and lumber, destroying the habitat needed by many species in this biome.
Conifer Forest
This biome is only a small part of Earth, but it has half of Earth’s land species.
Tropical Rainforest
Rainfall helps plants grow that zebra and wildebeest need to eat, which gives more food to the lions and cheetahs that eat them in this biome.
Savanna
Biome with trees that lose their leaves in the fall.
Deciduous Forest
The tops of mountains as well as regions in the far north are included in this biome.
Tundra - mountaintops that reach above treeline have “Alpine Tundra,” while “Arctic Tundra” is found in the far north.
People must decide whether drilling for oil in this biome is worth interfering with caribou breeding.
Tundra
Clear-cut logging has destroyed most of the world’s old-growth forest in this biome.
Conifer Forest
The largest animals on Earth live in this biome.
Pelagic Zone - Whales!
Construction around this biome adds sediments to the water, providing nutrients that allows algae to cloud up the water.
Lentic Zone
Terrestrial biome with the highest diversity of organisms.
Tropical Rainforest
Many birds migrate to this biome in summer to breed and feed on the plentiful insects.
Tundra
This biome has a multi-layered canopy that houses animals that may never come to the ground.
Tropical Rainforest
Just like the old wagon train roads that are still visible today, motorcycles cut new trails across this biome that take centuries to grow back - except that there are thousands more of them now.
Desert
Cutting down the rainforest for this type of farming allows people to grow crops for a few years, but because the soil is so poor they soon need to cut down more of the forest.
Slash and burn agriculture
Many organisms in this biome can store or recycle water in their bodies.
Desert
Biome that is transition between conifer forest and tundra.
Taiga
This biome has wet and dry seasons instead of cold and warm seasons.
Savanna
Sunlight never reaches this biome, so animals there depend on dead organisms sinking down from shallower water to start the food chain.
Benthic Zone
Streamside restoration projects plant trees along riverbanks, helping to keep the water cool, reducing erosion, and preventing the buildup of silt in this biome.
Lotic Zone
This biome includes many animals that live in holes and tunnels made from the rocky skeletons of tiny invertebrates.
Coral Reef
This abiotic factor controls the type of freshwater biome in an area.
Current - if the water is flowing like a creek, it is a lotic zone, but if the water is standing still like a lake, it is the lentic zone.
Animals in this biome must survive both living underwater and being exposed to air.
Rocky and Sandy Shores
Flowing freshwater biome.
Lotic Zone
The demand for tropical fish for aquariums leads people to pour cyanide on this biome to stun the fish so they are easy to capture – but it also kills many parts of the food chain.
Coral Reef
The Truckee River is one of only 3 rivers in the world that both start and end at this biome. (Careful - this is not asking for the river biome, but where it starts and ends!)
Lentic Zone - the Truckee River starts at Lake Tahoe, and ends at Pyramid Lake. Most rivers end in the ocean.
Some environmental groups might purchase many acres of this biome to protect its unique population of poison arrow frogs and other organisms.
Tropical Rainforest
The largest and fastest land animals live in this biome.
Savanna (Largest land animal = elephant, fastest land animal = cheetah. The fastest of all animals is the Peregrine Falcon, which can reach 200 mph in a dive!)
This biome sometimes includes a food chain that starts with hot springs instead of the sun.
Benthic Zone (No light, so no photosynthesis. Most of the BZ gets energy from dead critters sinking down into it, but a few spots have underwater hot springs that provide energy).
This biome provides most of the water for people in Reno.
Lotic Zone
Whales get tangled and drown in “ghost nets” lost by fishermen in this biome.
Pelagic Zone (Ghost nets have broken free from their fishing boats, and since they’re made of plastic, they don’t decay. They might be over a mile long, and float around drowning creatures for years.
Nutrients form sewage & fertilizer can cause algae blooms that use up oxygen and kill fish in this biome.
Lentic Zone
The process where nutrients allow algae blooms in lakes, gradually making it less clear and less blue.
Eutrophication (“Keep Tahoe Oligotrophic” - clear and blue!)
Sewage that has been partially treated can help this biome maintain its water supply without polluting it, since the plants filter out the wastes and use the nutrients to grow.
Marsh
Biome with large mixed herds of mammals such as wildebeest, zebras, gnus, and ostriches.
Savanna
Marine biome with the highest diversity of organisms.
Coral Reef
Straightening this biome makes it easier to build along it, but the faster water causes more flooding.
Lotic Zone
This biome has permafrost about 6 feet underground.
Tundra (Permafrost is soil that remains permanently frozen all year long).
This cold, short forest has a Russian name which means, “Land of Little Sticks.”
Taiga
The biome that is like a frozen desert, because it is cold, but does not get much liquid precipitation.
Tundra
Trees with cones dominate this biome.
Conifer Forest
Biome with trees that turn bright colors in the fall after their chlorophyll molecules break down.
Deciduous Forest
Many arthropods, reptiles, and other cold-blooded animals live in this biome.
Desert
This abiotic factor makes the difference between a tropical rainforest and a temperate rainforest.
Temperature
Cutting this forest down can change the water cycle in a region because of the huge amount of transpiration occurring here.
Tropical Rainforest
Forests are invading this biome today, because people have been putting out the natural wildfires that stopped seedlings from growing.
Temperate Grasslands
This biome is great for “ecotourism,” as people explore the colorful fish living in the warm water.
Coral Reef
Many small islands and reeds provide hiding places for bird nests in this biome.
Marsh
This abiotic factor makes the difference between a desert and a grassland.
Precipitation
This abiotic factor has the most influence over the type of aquatic biome in an area.
Salt content
So many lumber mills were along this biome near Reno in the late 1800s that their sawdust made the water looked like oatmeal.
Lotic Zone
Fires in this biome are worse now - they are hotter as a result of fuel building up when we put out small fires over the years.
Conifer Forest
Poachers have decimated populations of many animals in this biome, mostly just to collect their body parts.
Savanna
Some animals in this biome are able to create their own light, which is called “bioluminescence.”
Benthic Zone
This biome is split into creeks and rivers depending on whether you can walk across them or not.
Lotic Zone
These 2 abiotic factors control the type of marine biome that is found in an area.
Depth and temperature
The Paiute people of northern Nevada depended on Cui-Ui spawning in this biome to supply them with food for the whole year.
Lotic Zone (the Cui-Ui fish live in Pyramid Lake for most of the year, but spawn in the Truckee River - and they are not found anywhere else in the world!)
Biome known as “the nurseries of the sea” because so many fish and invertebrates lay their eggs here.
Estuary
Trout and salmon need to lay their eggs in gravel in cool, clean water in this biome.
Lotic Zone
Biome with streamlined organisms that handle the current by clinging to rocks or by swimming strongly.
Lotic Zone
Biome with poor soil since dead plants decay rapidly and the nutrients are immediately taken up into living plants.
Tropical Rainforest (the heat and humidity speed up the decay process)
Biome that is often used for agriculture since it has rich soil and few trees.
Temperate Grasslands (the build-up of millennia of dead grasses has made the soil very thick and fertile)
The place where a river meets the sea makes a good port for ships, but construction and oil in the water stop the fish and birds from using this biome as a breeding ground.
Estuary
By the time you finish these flashcards, many acres of this biome will have been destroyed.
Tropical Rainforest
Much of Nevada is in this biome.
Desert
This biome is more common in eastern US states than in western states.
Deciduous Forest
Some Native American tribes followed huge herds of migrating bison through this biome.
Temperate Grasslands
This biome is threatened by “bleaching,” where mutualistic algae die from pollution or global warming.
Coral Reef
This biome is often converted into another biome so that falling water can be used to make electricity.
Lotic Zone (the river is dammed, converting it into a lake)
The government protects a block of wilderness from mining, grazing, agriculture, and development, saving the pines in this biome and their habitat for future generations to enjoy.
Conifer Forest
Some animals in this biome “sleep” through the summer to survive the heat, which is called estivation.
Desert
A giant algae that can grow a foot a day makes up the base of the food chain in this biome.
Kelp Forest
People often see no value in this biome, but it is important to many organisms and can benefit people at the same time.
Marsh
Much of this biome has been destroyed since it has been either filled in or drained for farming or buildings.
Marsh
This biome is found in cool, shallow saltwater along the Pacific coast of North America.
Kelp Forest
Biome that suffers from slash and burn agriculture.
Tropical Rainforest
Biome that is growing due to the destruction of another biome near it.
Desert (this process is called “desertification,” and is a common problem around the edges of the Sahara desert in Africa)
Animals are so spread out in this biome that it is almost like an underwater desert.
Pelagic Zone
Farmers divert water to their fields, so this biome dries up and migrating waterfowl run out of energy on their way to their nesting grounds.
Marsh
Biome that provides protection from floods and that absorbs pollutants from water.
Marsh (also Estuary and Mangroves)
Most of the wood we use for paper and lumber comes from this biome.
Conifer Forest
“Hardwoods” such as oak that are used for furniture often comes from this biome.
Deciduous Forest
