(most live under the snow but burst into life during the summer),Rock Ptarmigan
Many animals are white to blend with environment, long periods of dark due to lack of sun, three-fourths of Tundra is permafrost, the word Tundra comes from the Finnish word Tunturia (treeless land)
*Too cold to support trees
*Snow lasts most of the year
Boreal Forest/Taiga
(aka: Coniferous Forest)
Cold, forest region, mountainous
20 – 200 cm per year
Summer: 25-50 cm
Winter: 50-101 cm
Winter: -53 degrees Celsius
Summer: -6 to 21 degrees Celsius
50 degree N – 60 degrees Latitude, North America, Northern Europe, Asia
Plants: lichen, Balsam Fir, Douglas Fir, Paper Birch (cone-bearing evergreens)
Animals: tree frogs, orangutan, monkeys, ants, various reptiles, colorful birds, poisonous insects
Trophy hunting/poaching, many exotic food products and medicines come from the plants, app. 75 acres/minute of trees cut down, home to variety of exotic animals/bird, largest rainforest stretches across the Amazon Basin, all are endangered, receives 12 hours of sunlight.
Desert
Dry, sand or thin soil, some can be cold, some are very hot, landscape is very bare
Less than 25 cm per year (some in the south can have less than ½ inch per year)
Extreme heat and cold, usually 38 degrees Celsius during the day and 4 to 20 degrees Celsius at night in warmer regions, lower in cold desert biomes
Along the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, Western U.S., South America, parts of Australia, and Asia, cold deserts in Antarctica
Fires & draughts are common, poaching is a problem, most species in the savannas are endangered, large herbivores keep young trees & bushes from sprouting & competing with grass for water & sunlight
Savanna
Rich soil, wet/dry seasons, flat, not many trees, lots of grass
Sometimes called Tropical Savanna, Australia – called a Bush, Boabab tree lives thousands of years, Acacia trees are home to lots of ants which attack animals that try to feed on the tree.
Covers 1/5 of the Earth, most of the freshwater is frozen, most diverse ecosystem, 700 species of fish,
Marine
High salt concentration in the water, mainly blue, but gets darker as you go down
Will vary depending on the location,
Will vary depending on location
Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, Southern
Plants: seaweed, algae, kelp, coral, shoal grass, and star grass
Animals: star fishes, whales, great white sharks, octopus, eels, tropical fish, sting ray, and squid
97% of all water on the Earth contains salt (ocean),the longest continuous chains of volcanoes are located under the ocean, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is the deepest part of the world’s ocean floor and the lowest elevation on the surface of the Earth.
