Chapter 20 Flashcards
describe a desert biome and an example
- fewer than 10 inches of rain a year
- small plants and animals
- ex: sahara desert
describe a grassland biome and an example
- low rainfall (10-30 inches a year)
- provides no shelter for herbivorous mammals from carnivorous predators
- land animals that do inhabit grasslands have long legs and are hoofed
- ex: argentina
describe a rainforest biome and an example
- torrential rains,
- high temperatures in tropical rainforest
- moderate temperatures in normal rainforest
- plants such as vines and epiphytes
- animals such as monkeys, snakes, birds
- trees grow close and sunlight does not reach the floor
- floor inhabited by saphrophytes
- ex: central america
what are epiphytes
plants growing on other plants
what are saphrophytes
live off of dead organic matter
describe temperate deciduous forest biomes and an example
- cold winter, warm summers, moderate rainfall
- beech, maple, oaks, and willow trees
- animals include deer, foxes, woodchucks, squirrels
- ex: Northeastern U.S
describe temperate coniferous forest biome and an example
- cold,dry, inhabited mainly by trees that dont lose leaves such as fir, pine, spruce.
- largest biomass of terrestrial biomes due to massvie trees
- animals include beavers, bears, sheep
- found in extreme northern U.S
describe taiga biome and an example
- less rainfall than temperate forests.
- long, cold winters, trees that don’t lose leaves, forest floors have thin soil covered in moss and lichens
- animals- moose, deer, bears, wolves
- ex: extreme northern Canada
describe tundra biome and an example
- treeless, frozen plain
- ground covered in ice or snow most of the year
- lichens, mosses, polar bear, musk oxen, arctic hares found here
describe the polar region
surrounds polar ice caps, frozen, no vegetation, and few land animals,
-has penguins and polar bears with little precipitation
what is the intertidal zone and what lives in it
- region exposed at low tides that undergoes change in temperature and periods of dryness
- algae, sponges, clams, snail, crabs, starfisk
what is the neritic zone and what lives in it
- region of continental shelf that contains ocean with depths up to 600 feet and extends several hundred miles from the shores.
- algae, crabs, crustaceans, different species of fish
what is the pelagic zone
open seas, can be divided into photic and aphotic zones
what is the photic zone and what lives in it
sunlit layer of open sea extending 250-600 feet deep, contains plankton, nekton, and diatom (an alga)
what is the aphotic zone and what lives in it
- region beneath the photic zone that gets no light
- only heterotrophs exist here, contains nekton and benthos