Chapter 5
Climate and Biodiversity
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Recall and apply all key terms (Definitions can be found on my website)
Describe how differences in climate lead to formation of tropical, temperate, and polar deserts, grasslands,
and forests.
Distinguish between weather and climate.
Describe three major factors that determine how air circulates in the lower atmosphere.
Describe how the properties of air, water, and land affect global air circulation.
Define ocean currents and explain how they, along with global air circulation, support the formation of forests,
grasslands, and deserts.
Define and give four examples of a greenhouse gas. What is the greenhouse effect and why is it important to
the earth’s life and climate?
What is the rain shadow effect and how can it lead to the formation of deserts? Why do cities tend to have
more haze and smog, higher temperatures, and lower wind speeds than the surrounding countryside?
What is a biome? Explain why there are three major types of each of the major biomes (deserts, grasslands,
and forests).
Describe how climate and vegetation vary with latitude and elevation.
Describe how the three major types of deserts differ in their climate and vegetation. How do desert plants and
animals survive?
Describe how the three major types of grasslands differ in their climate and vegetation.
What are the three major types of forests?
Describe how these three types differ in their climate and vegetation.
Why is biodiversity so high in tropical rain forests?
Why do most soils in tropical rain forests hold few plant nutrients?
Describe what happens in temperate deciduous forests in the winter and fall. What are coastal coniferous or
temperate rain forests?
What important ecological roles do mountains play?
Describe how human activities have affected the world’s deserts, grasslands, forests, and mountains.
What are this chapter’s three big ideas? Describe the connections between the climates, terrestrial systems,
and the principles of sustainability (see back cover).
Things I Should Know:
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Key factors that determine the earth’s weather are short-term atmospheric conditions such as
temperature, pressure, moisture content, sunshine, cloud cover, precipitation, wind direction, and wind
speed.
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Climate is a region’s long-term atmospheric conditions over decades. The two main factors in determining
climate are average temperature and average precipitation.
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The average climate—annual precipitation and temperature—determines terrestrial regions with
characteristic types of natural ecological communities. According to these two factors, biomes form.
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The major types of desert biomes are hot, temperate, and cold. Human activities have created large
desert cities, destroyed soil through urban development and off-road vehicles, salinized the soil through
irrigation, depleted underground water supplies, disturbed land and polluted, stored toxic and radioactive
wastes, and located arrays of solar cells and solar collectors.
Climate and Terrestrial Biodiversity
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The three major types of grasslands are tropical or savannas, temperate grasslands, and polar
grassland/tundra. The savannas have been destroyed by grazing cattle, which destroy vegetation and kills
grass through fecal droppings. The temperate grasslands have been used to grow crops and graze
animals. As a result, the grasslands have disappeared. The arctic tundra has been compromised by oil
drilling, mines, and military bases.
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The three main types of forest biomes are tropical, temperate, and polar/boreal. Human activities have
destroyed much of the native trees; grazing has compromised the vegetation and eliminated food sources
for native animals. And the deforestation has changed the tropical forest’s ecosystem, leading to death of
plants and animals. The temperate forest has a fewer number of broadleaf trees and rich forest soil; but
fires, logging, and hunting have undermined this type of forest. The evergreen firs of the polar forest
support a variety of wildlife. But oil drilling and oil spills have compromised the water, the wildlife, and
the vegetation in the arctic.
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Mountain and arctic biomes play important ecological roles; they help regulate climate and effect sea
levels. Mountain biome degradation arises from timber and mining extraction, from hydroelectric dams
and reservoirs, from air pollution, increased tourism, and radiation from ozone depletion.
 Global: the Montreal Protocol; Kyoto Protocol.
Montreal Protocol, formally Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone
Layer, international treaty, adopted in Montreal on Sept. 16, 1987, that aimed to regulate the production
and use of chemicals that contribute to the depletion of Earth’s ozone layer. Initially signed by 46 countries,
the treaty now has nearly 200 signatories. In the early 1970s, American chemists F. Sherwood
Rowland and Mario Molina theorized that chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) compounds combine with solar
radiation and decompose in the stratosphere, releasing atoms of chlorine and chlorine monoxide that are
individually able to destroy large numbers of ozone molecules. In 1978 CFC-based aerosols were banned in
the United States, Norway, Sweden, and Canada. Further validation of their work came in 1985 with the
discovery of a “hole” in the ozone shield over Antarctica. It is important to note that ODC (ozone depleting
chemicals) phase-out schedules differ between developed and developing countries. The period for
developing countries to come into compliance is slightly longer, owing to the fact that they have fewer
technical and financial resources to introduce substitutes. In developed countries the production and
consumption of halons formally ended by 1994, several other chemicals (such as CFCs, HBFCs, carbon
tetrachloride, and methyl chloroform) were phased out by 1996, methyl bromide was eliminated in 2005, and
HCFCs are scheduled to be completely phased out by 2030. In contrast, developing countries phased out
CFCs, carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform, and halons by 2010; they are scheduled to phase out methyl
bromide by 2015 and eliminate HCFCs by 2040.
 Montreal Protocol- phase out of ozone depleting substances.
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Kyoto Protocol- Controlling global warming by setting greenhouse gas emissions targets for developed
countries.
Web Resources
Introduction to Biomes
http://www.runet.edu/~swoodwar/CLASSES/GEOG235/biomes/intro.html
An exploration of the major biomes of the world.
Coriolis Effect http://geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/a/coriolis.htm
Climate and Terrestrial Biodiversity
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