Made by Lauren Shepard
Biomes are the world’s major communities where
insects, animals, plants, and people live in a certain
type of climate.
 The biomes we will be covering in this lesson are:
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Desert
Deciduous Forest
Arctic tundra
Tropical Rainforest
Grasslands
Taiga
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Characteristics:
 Hot and dry
 Desert covers about 1/5 of the Earth’s land surface
 For the plants to survive they adapt:
 Store water for long periods of time
 Stand the hot weather
Hottest biome on earth
Can be over 100 degrees during the day and below
32 degrees at night
 There is very little rain in the desert but when it does
rain, it pours
 After a storm, it may not rain again for weeks or
months
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Plants in the desert may have to go without water
for over a year!
 Here some examples of desert plant life:
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Chainfruit Cholla
Creosote Bush
Jumping Cholla
Saguaro cactus
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Some animals that live in the Desert include:
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Bobcat
Cactus Wren
Coyote
Javelina
Thorny Devil
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Characteristics:
 5 different zones
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Tree Stratum: trees between 60 and 100 feet high
Small tree and sapling: young and short trees
Shrub zone
Herb zone
Ground zone
Has four distinct seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn,
and Winter
 Almost all deciduous forests are located by an ocean
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 The ocean and the wind are two main reasons that the
temperate and climate change so much during the year
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Some examples of deciduous forest plants are:
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American beech
Guelder Rose
Pecan
White Birch
There are a lot of animals that live in the deciduous
forest biome but some examples are:
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American Bald Eagle
Duckbill Platypus
Eastern Chipmunk
Least Weasel
White-tailed Deer
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Characteristics of the Arctic Tundra:
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Treeless
Very cold
The ground is permanently frozen
There is barely any plant life, but there are animals
Unusually cold and dry climate
The Tundra is cold through all months of the year
The short summer lasts only 6 to 10 weeks and does
not get any warmer than 45-50 degrees
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There are few plants that can grow in the arctic
tundra, but some that can include:
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Arctic Moss
Bearberry
Pasque Flower
Tufted Saxifrage
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Animals that live in this biome include:
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Arctic Fox
Caribou
Musk Ox
Polar Bear
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Characteristics:
 Forest of tall trees
 The rainforest now covers less than 6% of Earth’s land
 Layers
 Emergent: trees are 100- 240 feet tall!
 These trees grow above everything else
 Upper canopy
 The trees are 60-130 feet tall
 Most of the animals live in this layer
 Understory or Lower canopy
 Trees are about 60 feet tall
 The Forest Floor
 Completely shaded and very few plants
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In the rainforest the climate is:
 Very humid because of the heavy rainfall
 Very hot and wet
Tropical rainforests produce 40% of Earth’s oxygen,
some of the plants that live in this biome include:
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Bengal Bamboo
Coconut tree
Kapok Tree
Mangrove Forests
Half of the world’s plants and animals species live in
the rainforest! Here are some of the many animals:
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Bengal Tiger
Chimpanzee
Toco Toucan
Sumatran Rhinoceros
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Characteristics
 Large rolling fields of grasses, flowers, and herbs
 Drought and fire percent large forests from growing
 Grass survives the fire because they grow from the bottom
instead of the top
There are many different types of grasslands around
the world. But the climate in the United States is:
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 The temperature is moist and humid
 The summers are warm and humid but the winters are not too
cold
 There is constant Wind
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Some plants that thrive in this biome are:
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Ironweed
Common teasel
Dogbane
Queen Ann’s Lace
Animals that are commonly found in the grassland
are:
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 Red milkweed beetle
 Bison
 Przewalski’s horse
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Characteristics:
 Coldness and food shortages make things very difficult
 The largest biome in the world
 Known as the boreal forest
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The climate in the Taiga is:
 The winter is freezing cold
 The temperature range goes from -65 degrees Fahrenheit all the
way to 70 degrees
 Average rainfall is between 12-33 inches
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Plants that are able to survive in the taiga include:
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Balsam Fir
Jack pine
White fir
White Spruce
Most animals in the taiga hibernate in winter or fly
south but some stay which is very difficult! Here are
some examples of animals that live in the taiga:
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Bobcat
Long-Eared Owl
River Otter
Wolverine
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/
http://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/15science/62-biomes.html
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