Living World Flashcards
Describe a Polar environment.
- Found around the North and South poles.
- Very cold, icy and dry.
- Very little grows.
- Remains dark for several month.
- Growing season is around 2 months.
Give some economic impacts of deforestation.
- Logging, farming and mining create jobs.
- A lot of money is made from selling timber, mining and commercial farming.
- Long term, deforestation can destroy resources that countries are dependant.
How can the risk of desertification be reduced?
- Water management - growing crops that don’t require much water.
- Tree planting - trees can be planted to act as windbreaks to protect soil from erosion.
- Soil management - leaving areas of land to rest in between grazing or planting let’s it recover their nutrients.
Give some plant adaptations of a tropical rainforest.
- Trees are tall to reach sunlight.
- Plants have thick, waxy leaves.
- Trees have smooth, thin bark
- Leaves further down the levels are big and wide to absorb more sunlight.
Give some environmental impacts of deforestation.
- With no trees to hold soil together, heavy rain washes away soil causing mudslides.
- Trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
Describe ways that tropical rainforests can be sustainably managed.
Selective Logging
• Only some trees (older or inferior ones) are cut down.
• This is less damaging to the forest.
Replanting
• This is where new trees are planted to replace the ones that are cut down.
• Here, there will be trees to use in the future.
Give some plant adaptations of cold environments i.e polar and tundra.
- Most plants become dormant.
- Plants are small and round to provide protection from the wind.
- Most plants have shallow roots due to permafrost.
Give some animal adaptations of cold environments i.e polar and tundra.
- Animals are well-insulated e.g. polar bears have a thick fur coat and seals have blubber.
- Some animals hibernate to conserve energy.
- Many birds migrate to warmer areas during winter.
- Many animals have white coats to camouflage.
Give some animal adaptations of hot deserts.
- Some animals are nocturnal meaning they can stay cool in burrows during the day and hunt at night.
- Large limbs and ears to increase heat loss.
- Larger animals have a large store of fat which they can convert into water e.g. camels.
Describe a Tropical Rainforest.
- Found around the equator.
- Between the tropics.
- Hot and wet all year round.
- An area of lush, dense forest with vegetation forming distinct layers.
- Temperature is usually between 20-28 degrees.
Describe a hot desert.
- Little rainfall - >250mm per year
* Very extreme temperatures ranging from 45-5 degrees
What is permafrost?
A layer of soil that is permanently frozen beneath the normal layer of earth. It appears in cold environments like Tundra and Polar.
Give some development opportunities in Alaska.
- Oil and Gas - over half of Alaska’s income comes from the oil and gas industry.
- Mineral resources - gold, silver and iron ore and copper are mined, mainly in the Tintina gold belt.
- Fishing - salmon, crab and pollock.
What is desertification?
Desertification is the degradation of land so that it becomes more desert-like - it becomes drier and less productive.
Why does a hot desert have a low biodiversity?
Hot deserts have a very low biodiversity partially due to the siginificant lack of water. Places with water tend to have a much higher biodiversity.
