Tundra

1
Tundra

• The largest biome
• Characterized by low rainfall and low
  temperatures (Temp -26c to 12c
• Shallow soil
• Permafrost
• Frozen ground 3 feet or more below the surface.
• In winter all the ground if frozen
• Short season 2 month and slow growing
• Precipitationless than 25 cm but most of the
  time the water is frozen and there Is little
  evaporation

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Primary producers

• Slow growing and low to the ground.
• Going north or up
• Shrubs lowest/south
• Grasses
• lichens highest/north

3
Animals

• Large animals where there volume is greater than
  surface area
• Moose
• Polar bears
• Caribou/reindeer
• Smaller animals
• Artic fox

4
Threats

• Disruption
• Road construction
• Global warming
• Decreases in habitat
• Sea rising
• Increasing CO2 contribution

5
Taiga Biome

• Characteristics

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Characteristics

• Low diversity
• Only 20 major species
• Formed from low coniferous cone bearing trees
  (evergreen)
• Pines, Furs and Spruces
• Cold climates and high altitudes -10C to14C
• Precipitation 35-75 cm
• Acidic thin soil
• minimal under story.
• Cold harsh winters with little to no usable water

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Animals

• Moose, Voles, Foxes, Deer, Migratory Birds
  (visiting for the summer), Carnivorous Birds.

8
Facts

• Contain some of the largest wilderness areas
  world wide.
• Once, during the ice ages formed a continuous
  band of forest from Europe to Canada (there was a
  land bridge from Russia to Alaska.

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Threats

• Insects
• Pine Beatles kill the pines
• Spruce bud worm
• Fires
• These forests burn every 90 years.
• -Limiting forests to no taller than 30 feet

10
Temperate Deciduous Forests

• Pronounced seasons
• Broad leaf plants which lose their leaves.
• Warmer winters than taiga Temp 6C to 28C
• And wetter precipitation75-125 cm
• Most major cities in the world are in this biome.
  
• Large amounts of fallen leaf matter make thick
  nutrient rich soil.
• Winters are short and trees may become dormant
  for several months.

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Organisms

• Less diverse than tropical forests but more
  diverse than taiga
• Deciduous trees and dense underbrush
• Oak, Maple, Ash, Burch, Hemlock,
• Smaller mammals'
• Deer, rabbits, squirrels, black bear, migratory
  birds.

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Threats

• Population growth
• Urban Sprawl
• Logging
• Introduced species/invasive

13
Tropical forests

• The highest amounts of diversity of the 300
  thousand plant species world wide 200 thousand
  may be found in tropical forests.
• 1/5 of the worlds species are contained in
  tropical rainforests
• Consistent warm temperatures all year.
• Temp 20C to34 c and rain fall200-400cm
• Soil is thin and sandy.
• All the nutrients are in the trees.
• Many plants Have a beneficial relationship with
  nitrobacter forming mycorrhizae

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Biota

• Vegetation forms stratified layers called
  canopies.
• Plants live on the treesepiphytes
• The tallest are broad leaf bearing trees which do
  not lose there leaves.
• Animals include kopibarra, sloths

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Desert Biome

• Largest range of temperature 7C and 38C
• Dry less than 25 cm of rain.
• Soil sandy and poor
• Plants have adapted to storing water.
• Waxy Leaves
• Animals burrow/ nocturnal / large surface areas.
• It takes a long time for species to grow.

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Deserts

• 2 types
• Tropical deserts
• Sahara
• Temperate deserts
• The great American desert
• Both have the largest temperature changes of any
  biome.
• Low diversity

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Chaparrel

• Temperature change is seasonal-mild
• 30f to 100f
• Sunny
• High diversity
• Rain10-17 in
• Highly flammable in the summer. Burns 25 years
• High population density.