Deserts

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Deserts
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Desert Characteristics

•     Desert covers more than one-third of the
  world's land. They are some of the hottest places
  in the world, places where it is difficult for
  any life form to survive. Deserts can also be
  very cold the temperatures in the Gobi desert
  are often below -5 degrees Fahrenheit during
  winter. Dryness is also a tremendous concern the
  little rain that falls evaporates quickly. Yet,
  the arid conditions still manages to be a home to
  a surprising number of organisms.
•          These organisms cope with the sun's heat
  by burrowing underneath the sand. Sand is
  considerably cooler than the desert surface.
  Mammals like the naked mole rat rarely leave
  their burrows. Others, like the North African
  fennec fox, rest during the day and hunt at
  night. North American kangaroo rats, North
  African jerboa, and American ground squirrels
  also avoid the scorching sun by coming out only
  at dawn and dusk.
•          To cope with the lack of water,
  organisms have developed a variety of techniques.
  The addax (a Saharan antelope), never needs to
  drink because it gets all of its water from its
  food. The kangaroo rat saves water by eating its
  own droppings. A spiny Australian lizard soaks up
  water from the damp sand through its special
  scales. Camels conserve water in reserves by
  adjusting their body temperature.

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Heat of the Desert
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Tundra
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Tundra Charactersitics

•    Short summers and long, dark winters
  characterize the far north and south of the
  planet. Because of the high latitudes, the sun
  never rises far above the horizon. Beyond the
  ice-covered Arctic is the tundra, which has a
  surprising amount of animal and plant life.
  Still, harsh winter winds blast any vegetation
  projected far above the ground so that no trees
  other than dwarf willows grow in the region.
  Small, perennial plants like saxifrages and
  campions along with shrubs like bilberries and
  blueberries carpets the land, only being revealed
  as the snow melts in the summer.
•          Each summer, the new growth lures many
  migratory birds and animals into the tundra. The
  permanent residents of the tundra have adapted to
  the cold and wind. Most have compact bodies with
  short limbs, bills, and wings to conserve heat.
  Thick deposits of fat or blubber, or dense layers
  of feathers or fur further insulate the animals.
  Another good insulator is the earth itself.
  Animals burrow into the snow to avoid the winds.
  Species such as empire penguins huddle together
  in groups of several thousand to keep each other
  warm. The penguins take turns moving and rotating
  to the edges of the group before returning to the
  warm interior. Around Antarctica, some creatures
  have developed an "anti-freeze," a protein
  compound which allows them to survive extreme
  temperatures.

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Mass Murder on the Tundra

• The collared lemming, is one of three lemming
  species found in Canada's Arctic.There are no
  true mice in the Arctic, but there are seven
  species of lemmings and voles. Of these, lemmings
  are the most famous, probably because of the myth
  that thousands of the roly-poly beasts
  periodically commit suicide by jumping off cliffs
  into the sea. The truth is no less fantastic. The
  species of lemmings and voles that occur on the
  arctic tundra do undergo huge fluctuations in
  numbers. With large numbers of young being born
  every year, and those young maturing quickly to
  reproduce themselves, populations can reach very
  high numbers. In these boom years, a myriad of
  predators benefit including wolverines, foxes,
  wolves, ermines, birds of prey, and even
  predatory fishes.

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Taiga
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Taiga Characteristics

•    The boreal forest (from Boreas, Greek God of
  the north wind) is one of the world's largest
  biomes, covering almost 6800 miles across the
  northern hemisphere. It can also be found on high
  mountains such as the Alps in Europe, and the
  Appalachians and southern Rockies in the United
  States. Another name for the biome is taiga, a
  Russian word for a marshy pine forest.
•          The taiga is characterized by a cold
  climate, a low rate of precipitation, and a short
  growing season. Though its summer is longer than
  the tundra to its north, the taiga climate is
  still harsh. In the winter, temperatures can be
  even lower than regions farther north, especially
  in the interior of the continents, where warm air
  from the sea has little effect in moderating the
  cold. Frost covers the region for up to ten
  months each year. In addition, most of the taiga
  is permanently covered in water since underground
  frost prevents any water from draining away. The
  severity of winters limits the diversity of
  animal life in the taiga.

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Coniferous Tree Cookies
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Grasslands
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Grasslands Characteristics

• Not until the late 19th century did settlers
  moving west discover that grasslands were much
  more than just dry, flat areas of land. Indeed,
  the prairies contained more than 80 species of
  mammal, 300 species of birds, and hundreds of
  species of plants. Grasslands of Asia are called
  steppe, and those of North America are called
  prairie. The flora and fauna in each change as
  annual rainfall varies throughout the continents.
  
•          The prairie is divided into three
  categories - shortgrass (where grass grows below
  20 inches tall), mixed grass (where grass grows
  20 to 60 inches tall), and eastern tall grass
  (where grass grows as high as 10 feet).
•          The steppe is divided into eastern and
  western ranges, where the eastern steppe is
  higher and dryer. It can also be divided into
  western forest steppe (where oak, pine, and birch
  forests stand), open steppe (in central Russia
  where trees are scarce), and southern semi-desert
  (where desert vegetation begins).
•          Streams, scarp slopes, marshes, and
  rocky outcrops provide niches for various kinds
  of animals. Muskrat and water snakes can be in
  rivers and creeks, while shallow tidepools fill
  with cranes and geese feast on frogs, crickets,
  and water bugs.

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The North American Bison

• Estimates of the Bison herds that roamed the
  great plains between the 1700's and early 1800's
  range from 30 million to 200 million animals. 
  The number used most often is 60 million.  These
  strong creatures would roam thousands of miles
  across this great land.  Archeologists have found
  remains of the bison from as far away as southern
  Mexico, Northern Canada, Florida, California,
  Virginia and up and down both coastlines.  But
  the Bison's true home was the vast grasslands
  that stretched from one end of the continent to
  the other.
• The Native Americans have used the bison since
  the Ice Age.  It has been utilized as everything
  from a source of food, clothing and shelter, to a
  religious object for worship. It was used as a
  tool to survive on the vast tract of land between
  the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains.  In the
  1500's, the Spanish brought over horses which
  quickly multiplied and were used by the native 
  people to follow the great herds.
• The white man began to slaughter the bison by the
  millions in the late 1800's.  The bison were
  killed for material reasons.  Thousands were
  killed for only their hides or tongues, then left
  to rot in the hot sun of the prairie.
• The Kansas and Pacific Railroad did much to
  promote the slaughter of the great bison herds. 
  It mounted heads and shipped them to the East. 
  It sent trainloads of live buffalo on tour.  For
  ten dollars, you could buy a trip on a luxury
  coach with a gun and ammunition and shoot until
  you were out of bullets or your barrel became too
  hot - all from the window of the train.
• General Sheridan, commander of the United States
  Army advocated the wholesale slaughter of the
  bison to help subdue the Native Americans during
  the Indian Wars.  He stated that the buffalo
  hunters did more in five years to defeat the
  Indian nations than  the army could do in fifty.
• The buffalo caused almost a "gold rush."  Trains
  would carry nothing but buffalo robes to the East
  - millions of them at a time.  The tongue and the
  hide became a status symbol - if you could eat or
  wear bison, you were considered a "somebody"
• As the cattle moved north and west, they too
  clashed with the bison herds.  Cattle would run
  off to roam with their distant cousins and
  stampedes of bison could destroy a cattle camp -
  the cowboys too helped to drive the bison to near
  extinction.
• By 1885, only 500 bison were left.
• But the Bison are back!
• Today, there are approximately 350,000 head of
  bison throughout North America.  Some of these
  animals reside in public herds, and the rest are
  owned by private individuals who love them for
  their heritage, history, and treat them with the
  respect they deserve!

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Temperate Deciduous Forest
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Broad Leaf Identification
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Temperate Deciduous Forest Characteristics

• Temperate deciduous forests can be found in the
  Eastern part of the United States and Canada,
  most of Europe, and parts of China and Japan. 
• The temperate deciduous forest is a biome that is
  always changing.  It has four distinct seasons
  winter, spring, summer, and fall.  Winters are
  cold and summers are warm. Temperate deciduous
  forests get between 30 and 60 inches of
  precipitation a year. Precipitation in this biome
  happens year round.    Because the soil is very
  fertile and hardwood trees are good for building,
  this biome has some of the world's largest
  population centers in it. 
• The leaves of deciduous trees change color and
  fall off in the autumn and grow back in the
  spring.  The broad, flat leaves of deciduous
  trees lose water quickly. In the winter when the
  ground is frozen, it is difficult for them to
  absorb water, so they drop their leaves! 
  Deciduous trees stay dormant in the winter and
  bloom again in the spring!

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Tropical Rainforest
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Tropical Rain ForestCharacteristics

•    The tropical rain forest is the richest and
  most diverse biome in the world. The warm, damp
  climate allows plants to thrive in this region.
  Altogether, over 1.5 million species of animals
  and plants are located in the rain forest. On the
  other hand, the rain forest is also incredibly
  fragile. Rain forests that are cleared take
  hundreds of years to recover. Yet, rain forest
  the size of Ireland is destroyed every few years.
  
•          The wet conditions of the rain forest
  makes plants grow fast. In just five years, a
  tree can grow to 80 feet high and 16 inches wide.
  The highest trees are called emergents. The
  animals that live in this part of the rain forest
  almost never go down to the ground. These include
  insect-eating birds like the nightjar and
  fruit-eaters like the hornbill and toucan.
  Predators like the South American harpy eagle and
  the Philippine money-eating eagle also stay high
  above the forest floor.
•          The main canopy of the forest traps
  moisture and shields the rain forest from wind.
  The majority of the species in the rain forest
  are found here. One survey identified 600
  different species of beetle in one canopy.
•          Snakes and big cats, like the South
  American jaguar and ocelot and the Southeast
  Asian clouded leopard, lie under the shady
  canopy, waiting to catch their prey. They feed
  anything from small mammals to reptiles.
•         

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Products of the Rainforest

• Bananas, avocadoes, pineapples, peppers, peanuts,
  oranges, papaya, lemon, pepper (the spice),
  coconut, sugarcane, cassava and cacao -- all are
  rain forest products. Coffee beans, cashews and
  Brazil nuts are all native to the tropics.
  Chicle, used in chewing gum, comes from a
  tropical tree. Chocolate, popular worldwide, is
  from the cacao seed, which is native to the
  tropical rainforest.
• Other products commonly in use are also found
  here. Oil from the cacao seed is also used in
  suntan lotions, cosmetics and soaps. The kapok
  tree produces silky, water resistant fibers used
  as filling in a number of products, such as life
  preservers, pillows, upholstery and insulation. A
  rubber tree product, latex, is used in making
  tires for cars, trucks and heavy equipment.
• About one-fourth of all the medicines we use come
  from rainforest plants. Curare, from a tropical
  vine, is used as an anesthetic and to relax
  muscles for surgery. Quinine, from the cinchona
  tree, is used to treat malaria. The rosy
  periwinkle contains an anti-leukemia drug a
  person with lymphocytic leukemia has a 99 chance
  that the disease will go into remission because
  of the rosy periwinkle. more than 1,400 varieties
  of tropical plants are thought to be potential
  cures for cancer.

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Terrestrial Biomes Percent Land Coverage
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Biome Climatograms
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