Name 4 Important Facts About Each Biome? See the Next Page

Name 4 Important Facts About Each Biome? See the Next Page

Chapter 23 Study Guide

  1. What are the 8 biomes? Rainforest, Desert, Grassland, Deciduous forest, Boreal forest or Taiga, Tundra, Freshwater, and Marine Biomes

Name 4 important facts about each biome? See the next page.

  1. What is a food chain? A series of events in which one organism eats another. food web? The pattern of overlapping food chains in an ecosystem.
  2. What is a producer? An organism that makes its own food.
  3. What is a consumer? An organism that obtains energy by feeding on other organisms.
  4. What is a decomposer? An organism that breaks down large chemicals from dead organisms into small chemicals and returns important materials to the soil and water.
  5. What is an energy pyramid? A diagram that shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web.
  6. How does the water cycle work? It is the continuous process by which water moves from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere and back using the processes of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
  7. What are the means of dispersal of an organism? Wind, water, or living things, including human beings.
  8. What factors limit dispersal? Physical barriers, competition, and climate.
  9. Where does photosynthesis occur in water biomes? Near the surface or in shallow waters.
  10. Where does primary and secondary succession take place? Primary occurs where no ecosystem previously existed and secondary occurs where it has previously existed.
  11. What is succession? The series of predictable changes that occur in a community over time.
  12. How does the nitrogen cycle work? Nitrogen moves from the air to the soil, into living things, and back into the air.
  13. What is a herbivore? An animal that eats plants. carnivore? An animal that eats only other animals. omnivore? An animal that eats both plants and other animals.
  14. What is the difference between condensation, evaporation, and precipitation? Condensation is when a gas changes to a liquid. Evaporation is when molecules of a liquid absorb energy and change to the gas state. Precipitation is rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
  15. What mostly determines the biome in an area? Climate- temperature and rainfall
  16. What is a scavenger? A carnivore that feeds on the bodies of dead organisms.
  17. What is the intertidal zone? The area between the highest tide high-tide line and the lowest low-tide line. neritic zone? The region of shallow ocean water over the continental shelf.
  18. What is continental drift? The very slow motion of the continents.

2. Rainforest:

  • warm and humid
  • 300 centimeters of rain per year
  • Thick vegetation
  • Sun shines but does not reach most of the rainforest vegetation
  • Temperate and tropical

Desert

  • Less than 25 centimeters of rain
  • Hot during the day and cold at night
  • Evaporation is greater than the amount of precipitation
  • Most animals are active at night due to cooler temperatures

Grassland

  • 25-75 centimeters of rain per year for the prairies and 120 cent. In the savannas near the equator
  • Comfortable temperatures
  • Largest herbivores live there, such as, bison, rhinos, giraffes, etc.

Deciduous forest

  • Leave shedding (deciduous) trees
  • At least 50 centimeters rain per year
  • Varying temperature
  • Various plants and animals

Boreal forest or Taiga

  • Coniferous trees- seeds are in the cones and they have needle-shaped leaves
  • Winter very cold
  • Water frozen most of the year
  • Snowfall heights well above your head
  • Rainy summers warm enough to melt the snow

Tundra

  • Driving winds and extreme cold and dry not much snow
  • Frozen soil called permafrost. The top layer thaws during the summer, but the under layer remains frozen.
  • Plant growth is only during the summer and it is a very short season.
  • Mammals that remain in the winter are very thick coated animals.

Fresh water

  • Sunlight is important so that photosynthesis can take place in shallow water.
  • Most common producers are algae in ponds and lakes, but in rivers and streams the water is moving to fast for algae to form.
  • Plants take root in the slower water.
  • Animals must be able to stand strong currents in streams and rivers.

Marine

  • Ocean has many different sunlight amounts: estuaries- shallow sunlit area with a rich habitat.
  • Intertidal zone- organisms have to survive the pounding wave action.
  • Neritic zone- photosynthesis takes place. Lots of living things. Shallow water.
  • Surface zone- photosynthesis is carried out. The algae that is produced are the producers that are the base of most ocean food webs.
  • Deep zone- water completely dark where organisms feed on remains.
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