World Biomes and Climate Zones

• To identify where different biomes are located.

• To make links between biomes and climate zones.

• To implement this new knowledge in a piece of extended writing.

• To understand what biomes are and where they are located across the world.

Learning Objective

Success Criteria

An ecosystem is a system of plants and animals which are interconnected and working together.

Some ecosystems are found under a stone or in a pond and are very small, whereas others are very large and cover the majority of a continent.

An ecosystem covering a large area of a continent is called a biome.

What Are Ecosystems and Biomes?

Types of Biomes

alpineColder climates found at high altitudes in mountain ranges. Populated with coniferous trees such as firs and pines.

chaparralHot and dry like a desert, but has more rain and therefore more plants and animals, including yucca, trees and cacti, coyotes, deer, lizards and jack rabbits.

deciduous forest

Warm, wet and mild areas and dominated by deciduous trees (trees that lose their leaves in the autumn).

desert

Deserts are dry; less than 25cm rain per year. They can be hot and sandy or cold and icy. Both hot and cold deserts can support life as long as it is well adapted, such as cacti and silver ants in hot deserts, and penguins in cold deserts.

desertscrub

Very dry areas of hot deserts populated with grasses, herbs and shrubs adapted to live in very arid areas.

grasslands

Areas where a variety of grasses grow. There are few other trees or plants apart from near to water sources. The grasslands are very hot places in summer. Some become extremely cold in the winter.

rainforest

Warm, wet and humid, rainforests are home to half of the world’s species and are populated with dense vegetation and trees. Rainforest animals include sloths, howler monkeys and jaguars.

Types of Biomes

Grasslandssavanna

This is a mixture of grasslands and woodland. There are some trees but they are spread out enough to allow the sunlight to reach the ground and grasses in between. Animals that live here include zebras, giraffes and lions.

Types of Biomes

Rainforesttaiga

Very wet and cold, receiving plenty of snow during the winter. Coniferous trees are evergreen and remain green all year round. The soil is not very nutritious and therefore, the variety of vegetation is limited.

tundra

Cold, harsh and difficult for much vegetation to survive. Found at the top of mountains and the Poles. These areas are snow-covered and all life here is very hardy, including mosses, birds and mountain goats.

Grasslands

Biome Locations

Grasslands

Linking Biomes and Climates

Area Biome Climate

North Africa

Northern Russia

India

Central Australia

Eastern USA

UK

Task 1: Use an atlas (or online Google maps) together with your coloured biomes map to complete the ‘Biome’ column in the table below (which is on your sheet).

What is Climate?

The average weather conditions of a location over a

long period of time. The UK has a temperate climate:

warm summers, mild winters and some rainfall all year.

Australia

New York (USA)

Jamaica

Brazil

India

EgyptSpai

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The

Alps

U

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Greenlan

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Click on the circles to find out about the climate of each place.

Equator

Greenland

• Greenland is within the Arctic Circle.

• There are very long winters and very

short summers.

• Over 80% of Greenland is covered

with snow and ice.

• The temperature is rarely above

freezing.

• It is around 10°C in the summer.

• In winter the temperature can drop to

around -16°C.

Average

Temperature:

- 4.6°C

Photos courtesy of greenland_com and Greenland Travel @flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

Back

United Kingdom

• The UK has warm summers and cool

winters. Summers are cooler than

others in Europe but winters are

milder.

• July and August are the warmest

months in the UK.

• January and February are the coldest

months.

• The west of the UK is the wettest.

• It rains throughout the year.

Average

Temperature:

9.3°C

Photos courtesy of Leimenide and dominiqs @flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

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The Alps - Europe

• The Alps are a mountain range in

Europe. They stretch across eight

countries: Austria, Slovenia,

Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany,

France, Italy and Monaco.

• The Alps are very cold as the

mountains are high up.

• Rain and snow fall on the mountain

peaks for most of the year.

• Warm winds make the snow on the

mountains melt, which causes

avalanches.

Average

Temperature:

8.9°C

Photos courtesy of Artur Staszewski and Tambako the Jaguar @flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

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New York (USA)

• New York has cold winters.

• Summers are very warm and the air is

moist.

• January is the coldest month.

• July is the warmest month.

Average

Temperature:

8.2°C

Photos courtesy of All Kinds of New and Anthony Quintano @flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

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Spain

• Spain has 4 different climates -

Mediterranean, Mountain, Continental

Mediterranean and Oceanic.

• Summers are clear, hot and dry.

• Winters are cloudy and cool.

• Rain falls mostly in spring and

autumn.

Average

Temperature:

15.5°C

Photos courtesy of dynamosquito and Thomas Tolkien @flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

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Jamaica

• Jamaica has a tropical climate.

• It is hot and warm all year round

because it is close to the equator.

• There is little rainfall.

• Hurricanes happen between June and

November.

Average

Temperature:

25.4°C

Photos courtesy of MSMcCarthy Photography and Yatmandu @flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

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India

• India doesn’t have the same seasons

as ours. It has:

Winter: from November to January.

Summer: from March to May.

Monsoons: from June to September.

Spring: A hint of spring in early

November.

• Monsoons are winds that blow from

cold to warm places that bring heavy

rain.

Average

Temperature:

24.2°C

Photos courtesy of mallika.viegas and nevil zaveri @flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

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Brazil – The Amazon Rainforest

• Around 60% of the Amazon rainforest

lies in Brazil.

• There is a lot of rainfall.

• It is hot and very humid throughout

the year.

• It is close to the equator.

Average

Temperature:

24.5°C

Photos courtesy of CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture and ggallice @flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

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Australia

• In the summer, Australia is mostly hot

everywhere.

• There is very little rainfall overall.

• There are no extreme cold

temperatures.

• There are different seasons in

different regions.

Average

Temperature:

17.7°C

Photos courtesy of mallika.viegas and nevil zaveri @flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

Back

Types of Climate Zone

Polar Very cold and dry all year round Antarctica

Biome Description Example

Temperate Cold winters and mild summers UK

Arid Dry and hot all year round Sahara Desert

Tropical Hot and wet all year round Brazil

Mediterranean Dry, hot summers and mild winters Spain

Mountain Very cold, sometimes wet, all year Himalayas

Grasslands

Climate Zone Locations

Grasslands

Linking Biomes and Climates

Area Biome Climate

North Africa

Northern Russia

India

Central Australia

Eastern USA

UK

Task 2: Now use your knowledge of where these places are located, together with the coloured climate zone locations map to complete the ‘Climate’ column in the table below (which is on your sheet).

Imagine you are on holiday anywhere in the world!

Write a postcard, email or letter describing the climate and the landscape.You should include a description of the type of weather you are experiencing.You should describe the types of plants and animals you can see there.

Report It!