People And The Biosphere Flashcards
What is an ecosystem?
A grouping of plants and animals that interact with each other and their local environment
What is a biome?
A large ecosystem; a grouping of plants and animals over a large area of the earth
What is latitude?
Measure of how far north or south a location on the Earths surface is from the equator.
What is climate?
Average weather over 30 years (temperatures and precipitation)
What is biodiversity?
A measure of variety of all the different species of organisms on Earth. (Plants and animals)
What is a local factor that affect where biomes are found? List three.
Altitude, rock &soil type and drainage.
What is altitude? And how does this affect plants?
Different plants grow at different temperatures within the same biome. Higher altitude is high up (on mountains) the lower the temperature.
How does rock & soil type affect the biome?
How fertile different areas are within a biome so the plants won’t grow in infertile places.
How does drainage affect the biome?
Swamps and bigs occur when drainage is poor. However specialist plants grow there.
What is an abiotic factor? And give an example?
The non-living components of an ecosystem. Soil, rock type, climate and water.
What is a biotic factor?
The living components of an ecosystem
Where is the taiga biome found? And what’s the climate like?
Canada and below the tundra in a band around the northern hemisphere. The climate is cold for most of the year with a three month summer reaching to around 24 degrees.
Where are rainforests found? And what is the climate like? What is biodiversity like?
Mostly found at either side of the equator. It’s is mainly hot with lots of rainfall. The biodiversity is the greatest as it contains a variety of plants and animals.
Where is the tundra? What is it like? How much of the Earth does it cover?
The tundra is in the attic circle. The sun gives little heat and little rainfall. No trees. It cover 1/5 of the Earth.
Where are deserts found? What is it like? What can survive there?
They are found close to the tropics. This is where hot air sinks and the suns rays are concentrated making it very hot. Only cactus can survive.
