Section 4: Biomes

Question 0

What are the 6 major biomes?

Answer 0

The rain forest, desert, grassland, deciduous forest, tundra, and boreal forest.

Question 1

What is a biome?

Answer 1

A group of land ecosystems with similar climates and organisms.

Question 2

What determines the biome of an area?

Answer 2

Climate (temperature and precipitation).

Question 3

What is a temperate rainforest?

Answer 3

A type of rain forest found in the northwestern coast of the USA. This part gets more than 300 cm of precipitation per year.

Question 4

What does temperate mean?

Answer 4

To have moderate temperatures

Question 5

What are tropical rain forests?

Answer 5

A type of rain forest usually found close to the equator. It gets around 300 cm of precipitation per year. This rain forest is warmer and more humid than temperate rain forests.

Question 6

What is a canopy?

Answer 6

A leafy ‘roof’ made with tall trees’ leaves. This is only found in a tropical rain forest.

Question 7

What is the understory?

Answer 7

The layer of shorter trees underneath the canopy. Many plants that grow in the understory are used to darkness.

Question 8

About how many species have ecologists estimated there is in the tropical rain forest?

Answer 8

Millions

Question 9

What are deserts?

Answer 9

An area that receives less than 25 cm of rain per year.

Question 10

Why is the desert so dry?

Answer 10

The amount of evaporation is greater than the amount of precipitation.

Question 11

How are organisms that live in the desert adapted to the lack of rain?

Answer 11

Some plants like the saguaro cactus can store large amounts of water for long periods with no rain. Gila monsters can dig a burrow in the ground to stay cool in.

Question 12

What are grasslands

Answer 12

An area populates mostly by grasses and other non-woody plants. This booms gets around 25 to 75 cm of rain per year.

Question 13

What is a savanna?

Answer 13

A biome that receives as much as 120 cm per year. A few scattered shrubs and small trees grow there.

Question 14

What is a deciduous forest?

Answer 14

A forest populates mostly by deciduous trees. They get about 50 cm of rainfall per year.

Question 15

What are deciduous trees?

Answer 15

Trees that shed their leaves every year and grow them back.

Question 16

Is there a lot of activity during the winter in the deciduous forest?

Answer 16

No because most animals are hibernating or they went somewhere else.

Question 17

What are boreal forests?

Answer 17

A forest with mostly coniferous trees. This forest has a colder climate.

Question 18

What are coniferous trees?

Answer 18

Trees that produce their seeds in cones and have leaves shaped like needles.

Question 19

What do coniferous trees have to help them survive the winter in a boreal forest?

Answer 19

They have waxy needles to keep water from evaporating.

Question 20

What are tundras?

Answer 20

An extremely cold and dry biome. This biome doesn’t receive a lot of precipitation.

Question 21

What is permafrost?

Answer 21

Frozen soil

Question 22

What happens to the top layer of soil during the summer?

Answer 22

It thaws but the soil under it stays frozen.

Question 23

What do birds in the tundra do when winter comes?

Answer 23

They migrate south.

Question 24

What are some animals in the tundra?

Answer 24

Caribou, foxes, wolves, Arctic hares.

Question 25

What are the areas that aren’t part of a major biome?

Answer 25

Mountain ranges and ice.

Question 26

Why aren’t mountains part of a major biome?

Answer 26

As you climb a mountain, the biomes change. It might be like a desert at the bottom but a cold tundra at the top.

Question 27

What are some continents that are covered in ice all year?

Answer 27

Antarctica and Greenland.

Question 28

What are some animals you would find where all there was is ice?

Answer 28

The emperor penguin, polar bears, and leopard seals.