•Description – hot and wet throughout the year.

•Precipitation Wet – 80 + inches a year - Rains daily

• Temperatures about 80 all year

• vegetation - Lush and diverse – 6% of earth, but more than half the plant and animal species.

•Canopy – layers of broadleaf evergreen trees. Leaching – continuous rain pulls the nutrients out of the soil (not arable)

Amazon River Basin

Congo River Basin

Indonesia

•Description – grassland with distinct dry and wet seasons. Winter is dry.

•Summers have 20 – 100 inches of precipitation a year. Winter is dry. Dry season is dramatic.

•High year round temperatures around 80.

•Vegetation – clumps of coarse grass and few trees.

•Llanos of Venezuela

•Caribbean Islands

•Serengeti of Tanzania

• Description – dry, largely treeless grassland.

•Location – Low & mid latitudes. Border deserts & interior of continents (leeward side)

•Precipitation 10 – 20 inches a year

• Vegetation - Grassland with few trees or cactus. Desertification - spread of desert-like conditions to semi-arid areas is a serious problem in the Steppe

Description – dry area with sparse plant life that covers about 1/3 of the world’s land. There are two types of terrain:

reg – desert pavement (gravel, rocks, and sand)

erg – dunes

•Precipitation – 10 in. or less a year

• Temperatures: Desert does not mean hot – it means dry!!! Day and night temperatures vary drastically.

•Vegetation - scrub and cactus Oasis is an area in the desert where water is available.

•Description – ocean winds bring cool summers and damp winters.

• Location – 30-60º on the west coast in N. Hemisphere and east coast in S. Hemisphere. Located on Westerlies.

Precipitation: Ocean air brings abundant rainfall.

• Vegetation: large coniferous – evergreen forests called temperate rainforests and mixed forests - both coniferous and deciduous trees.

•Description – mild, rainy winter and hot sunny summers.

•Precipitation: 15 – 30 in (mostly in the winter)

•Vegetation - Chaparral – underbrush, woody bushes and short trees – cork, olives, grapes, etc. Leathery leaves hold moisture

•Description – short, mild winters and nearly year round rainfall. hurricanes & typhoons.

• HOUSTON is in HST

•Precipitation: year round

Vegetation – fruits, rice, vegetables, inland grasslands, and mixed forests - deciduous and coniferous trees.

•Description - 4 distinct seasons. Storms and continentality - far in the interior of continents influence climate.

•Location - interior mid-latitude in N. Hemisphere

•Temperatures: winters longer as you travel north and inland.

• Vegetation: Agriculture has replaced natural prairie grass, and short coniferous forests.

• Description – bitterly cold winter and short, cool summers.

•Temperatures: Widest temperature range between summers and winters.

•Vegetation: Taiga (Russian word for forest) a boreal forest – needled evergreens.

•Permafrost – only a small layer of the ground thaws.

• Description – very cold with polar night for ½ of the year.

•Location – far north in the northern hemisphere

•Temperature: Cold: rarely above 50° - at least 9 months below freezing – some below 0º

•Vegetation: Short bushes, short grass, mosses, and lichen. permafrost bogs in summer.

• Description – snow and ice cover this area up to 2 miles thick

•Polar night – 6 months a year the sun does not rise above the horizon (24 hours dark)

•Polar desert – moisture in the air does not reach the dew point, so it does not precipitate. Far away from Equator (dry & cold as move away)

•Temperature: Below freezing all year - Many months below zero.

•Vegetation: Possibly lichen and moss