Online Biome Lab
Purpose: Student will observe and describe how different environments, including microhabitats
in schoolyards and biomes, support different varieties of organisms
Directions: Today and tomorrow you will use the website,
http://www.mbgnet.net/index.html, to find out how different biomes support
different varieties of life. You will explore 6 biomes and 6 ecosystems,
answering 75 questions about them. This is a lab grade and is due on
Thursday.
Rainforest
1. What are the two types of rainforest?
2. Where would you find tropical rainforests?
3. Where would you find temperate rainforests?
4. Which one has greater diversity?
5. How many inches of rain a year must a forest receive to be
considered a tropical rainforest?
6.
Fifty seven percent of all tropical rainforests are found in Latin
America. Other tropical rainforests are located in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands (25% of
the world's tropical rainforests) and West Africa (18%). Make a pie graph showing this
information.
7. In which type of rainforest would you find moss, lichens, or ferns?
8. The special characteristics that enable plants and animals to be successful in a particular
environment are called ____________________.
9. What are some adaptations organisms have that allow them to survive in a rainforest?
10. This variety of life is called _________________.
11. According to the website, what is the total # of species on earth?
12. What characteristics do rainforests have that allow them to support the variety of life that lives
inside of them?
Tundra
1. Where would you find tundra?
2. What is the most distinctive part of tundra?
3. What are 3 plants that live in tundra?
4. _____________ is the favorite food of caribou and
musk oxen.
5. What makes it difficult to survive in tundra?
6. What are 2 types of birds that live in tundra?
7. What are 2 types of mammals that live in tundra?
8. Some populations of caribou ___________ hundreds of miles between their breeding grounds on
the tundra and winter feeding grounds farther south.
9. What is the definition for the word featured in the blank?
10. What characteristics do tundra have that allow them to support the variety of life that lives inside
of them?
Taiga
1. Where would you find taiga?
2. What is the largest biome in the world?
3. For how many months of the year is the average temperature
below freezing?
4. Why would you find long nights in the winter and long days in the summer in the taiga?
5. Why does it take a long time for things to decompose in the taiga?
6. Does a taiga have much diversity?
7. What types of trees grow best here?
8. What are some of their adaptations?
9. Name 2 types of mammals that live in the taiga.
10. What characteristics do taigas have that allow them to support the variety of life that lives inside
of them?
Desert
1. What are the two types of deserts?
2. What are the 4 deserts located on North
America?
3. Why is the Old Man Cactus so hairy?
4. Why do desert plants have waxy surfaces?
5. Name 2 types of reptiles that live in deserts?
6. What characteristics do deserts have that allow them to support the variety of life that lives inside
of them?
Temperate Deciduous Forest
1. How many seasons does a deciduous forest have?
2. Translate the bar graph under the deciduous forest
information to a line graph. Make 6 points for each biome and
then connect the dots.
3. Where would you find a temperate deciduous forest?
4. What causes the 4 seasons that occur in a temperate deciduous forest?
5. Name 2 mammals that live in a temperate deciduous forest.
6. Name 2 birds that live in a temperate deciduous forest.
7. What characteristics do temperate deciduous forests have that allow them to support the variety
of life that lives inside of them?
8. How are temperate deciduous forests different than rainforests?
Grasslands
1. Describe grassland.
2. What are the 3 types of grasslands found in the U.S.?
3. What is the difference between the 3 types of grasslands?
4. Which one would you find in Texas?
5. What are grasslands called in South America? In Europe? In Africa?
6. What is best adaptation of the grassland?
7. Name 2 types of mammals that live in the grassland.
8. How fast can a pronghorn run?
9. How does a hyena mark its territory?
10. What organ system does this involve?
11. What characteristics do temperate deciduous forests have that allow them to support the variety
of life that lives inside of them?