Environmental Science Set 1

Question 1

What does terrestrial mean?

Answer 1

Terrestrial means land based.

Question 2

What can the world be divided into?

Answer 2

The world can be divided into biomes

Question 3

What is a biome?

Answer 3

A biome is a large area of land that has a similar climate and is characterized by a unique mixture of plants and animals

Question 4

What makes the plants and animals in each biome special?

Answer 4

The plants/animals in each biome are adapted to that biome’s environment.

Question 5

What are the eight biomes of the earth?

Answer 5

tropical rainforest, savanna, grassland, chaparral, desert, temperate deciduous forest, boreal forest/taiga, and tundra

Question 6

Does everyone agree with the 8 biomes?

Answer 6

No, there are disagreements about biome types

Question 7

What four biomes does Canada have?

Answer 7

Canada has temperate deciduous forest, grassland, boreal forest/taiga and tundra

Question 8

How does boreal forest in Canada compare to boreal forest in Russia?

Answer 8

They are the same and they look the similar.

Question 9

What are differences in biomes dependent upon?

Answer 9

Biomes are created by differences in climate, temperature and precipitation (rainfall)

Question 10

Where are tropical rainforests located?

Answer 10

Tropical rainforest is located in the equatorial zone in Central America, South America, Asia and Australia.

Question 11

Where are the largest tropical rainforests located?

Answer 11

The largest tropical rainforests are located in South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa

Question 12

What is the air like in a tropical rainforest?

Answer 12

The air in a tropical rainforest has a high water content, so it is very humid and it frequently rains.

Question 13

How much rain does a tropical rainforest get?

Answer 13

1.5 m to 4 m of rain falls in a tropical rainforest each year.

Question 14

What does biodiverse mean?

Answer 14

Biodiverse means there are many many types of animals and plants

Question 15

How many species are found in tropical rainforests?

Answer 15

More than ½ the world’s species are found in tropical rainforest biomes.

Question 16

What is the temperature like in tropical rainforests?

Answer 16

Because they are near the equator, tropical rainforests are warm.

Question 17

Tropical rainforests are very dense. What does this mean?

Answer 17

Very dense means that the trees are very close together and they are very lush with their branches overlapping.

Question 18

What is the top of the trees called where they all meet?

Answer 18

The tree canopy is the top of the forest where all the tree branches meet.

Question 19

What does the tree canopy prevent?

Answer 19

Because the trees are so thick, the tree canopy stops sunlight from getting to the forest floor.

Question 20

What percent of sunlight gets through to the forest floor?

Answer 20

2% of sunlight gets to the forest floor because of the tree canopy.

Question 21

How has this lack of sunlight affected plants?

Answer 21

The lack of sunlight means that many plants grow very tall trying to get sunlight, and other plans grow over top and smoother other plants.

Question 22

How do you tell if a species is poisonous?

Answer 22

The species that are poisonous have adapted by making themselves very colourful as a warning to predators.

Question 23

How have amphibians and insects become poisonous?

Answer 23

They eat plants that have toxins (harmful chemicals) and then the creatures become poisonous as a result.

Question 24

What does bird colour tel you?

Answer 24

Birds that are more colourful are males and the brighter their colour the more healthy they are.

Question 25

What is the purpose of colour and brightness in tropical birds?

Answer 25

The colour and brightness is to attract a mate.

Question 26

What do mammals and big cats in the jungle usually have instead of bright colours?

Answer 26

Mammals and cats are usually camouflaged

Question 27

What is camouflage?

Answer 27

Camouflage is being able to blend into their surroundings.

Question 28

Where do monkeys, sloths and lemurs spend much of their time?

Answer 28

Monkeys, sloths and lemurs spend much of their time in the tree canopy to stay away from predators.

Question 29

How do humans affect tropical rainforest?

Answer 29

Humans harvest wood, fruit, medicinal plants.

Question 30

What are differences in biomes dependent upon?

Answer 30

Deforestation, chopping the trees down, is the biggest threat. Often they burn the trees to clear the land.

Question 31

Why have thousands of acres been chopped down in Malaysia?

Answer 31

They are making room for oil palm plantations.

Question 32

What do we use palm oil for?

Answer 32

We use palm oil for many products from soap to chocolate bars.

Question 33

Which creature is suffering the most from this deforestation?

Answer 33

The orangoutang

Question 34

What does orangoutang mean?

Answer 34

man of the forest of Malay

Question 35

How can deforestation be reduced?

Answer 35

Governments need to encourage sustainable farming in places where forest has already been lost, teach farmers to use less land and less water

Question 36

What sort of reforestation is happening?

Answer 36

Governments are encouraging farmers to replant trees and to maintain the forests themselves rather than chop it all down.

Question 37

How could tropical rainforests help global warming?

Answer 37

Tropical rainforests are called ‘carbon sinks’ because they absorb so much carbon dioxide and give us so much oxygen.

Question 38

How can forests mitigate climate change?

Answer 38

Mitigate means to make less severe… the more trees absorbing carbon dioxide, the less there is in the air to ruin the atomosphere.

Question 39

What is the process by which trees ‘clean’ the air of carbon dioxide?

Answer 39

The process of removing carbon dioxide and making oxygen is called photosynthesis.