DESERTS

● Deserts are biomes that receive very limited amounts of precipitation each year. Less
than 250mm of rain or other precipitation must fall annually to be classed as a desert
area. Deserts are not always the hot and sandy areas we imagine them to be; there are
also cold deserts.
● Antarctica, the coldest, driest continent of all, is the world’s largest desert, stretching
over 14,000,000km2 . Whether deserts are hot or cold, their extreme conditions create
challenges in supporting vegetation and wildlife.
Vegetation in hot deserts
● The vegetation that grows in hot desert areas has adapted to be able to cope with the
extremes in rainfall and temperature, which may reach 50°C during the day and may
fall to below 0°C at night. The cactus is a good example of a plant that has adapted to
its environment.
● Many desert animals are nocturnal, only coming out in the cooler night to hunt and
eat, and many spend most of their time underground in burrows where it is a lot
cooler.
● Due to the lack of available prey to hunt, most animals in the desert are herbivores,
which means that they eat desert plants and seeds.
● Some animals get all of the water they need from the insects, bulbs and seeds they eat
and do not need to drink water even when it is available; for others, the morning dew
is enough to maintain their water intake.
● Camels have long, shaggy fur that keeps them warm but which they can shed during
hot months.
● Their wide hooves keep them from sinking in the sand. The energy-rich fat stored in
their humps enables them to survive long periods without food.
Adaptation of desert flora

Can you think of 3 ways in which a camel has adapted to its environment?

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RAINFORESTS

● Rainforests are a
unique natural
environment in
that they cover
only a fraction of
the Earth’s surface
– about 6 per cent
– but are home to
over half the
species of plants
and animals in the
world.
● Their location close to the equator ensures a warm and humid climate with plenty of
rainfall, which means that vegetation grows in abundance.
● Tropical rainforests are hot, moist biomes that are found near the equator, between
the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. They are characterized by the
following climate conditions:

The layers of vegetation in the rainforest

Rainforest wildlife
● In addition to large animals such as gorillas, jaguars and tigers, small animals
including monkeys, birds, snakes, rodents, frogs and lizards are common in the
tropical rainforest. Many never set foot on the ground, favouring the tall trees and
under the canopy to provide shelter, hiding places from their predators and a source of
food.
 ● Adaptation is a way of overcoming this problem, and one of the most common
adaptations is to eat food that is eaten by no other animal.
● The toucan, for example, has a long bill that allows it to reach fruit on high branches
that are too small and weak to support their body weight. The bill is also sharp enough
cut fruit from the trees.

● Aquatic environments are water-based natural environments and can be categorized

into freshwater and marine areas. The freshwater biome is defined as having a low salt
content whereas the marine biome is predominantly saltwater like the ocean.
● Freshwater natural environments can be categorized into three groups: lakes and
ponds, streams and rivers, and wetlands. They cover approximately 20 per cent of the
Earth and are found in various locations all over the world.

Lakes and ponds

● Lakes and ponds make up just 3 per cent of the Earth’s surface area. Lake Superior in
 North America is the largest freshwater lake by area. Ponds are lakes are, however,
divided into different zones, each having its own distinct biodiversity.
● streams and rivers are bodies of flowing water moving in one direction – travelling
from the source to the mouth.
● The source of the river is found in higher ground and the mouth is where the river or
stream meets a larger body of water that it discharges into.
● Due to rivers rising in higher ground, the temperature at the source of the river is
cooler than at its mouth.
● At higher altitude, the water is generally clearer as it is often less accessible to
humans. As the river reaches the middle of its journey, the channel widens.
● it can support a wider diversity of species such as plants and algae. The types of plant
and algae differ depending on where the river is located.
● Along the edge of the river where the water is moving slower and may include willow
trees and river grass. As it moves from its middle to lower course the water becomes
murky from all the sediments that it has picked up upstream.
● This decreases the amount of light that can penetrate the water. This in turn produces
lower oxygen levels, which means that the river can only support fish that require less
oxygen.
● As with the plants found near rivers, the wildlife also differs depending on the river’s
location in the world but, in addition to fish, may include snails, crabs, snakes,
crocodiles, otters and beavers.

Wetlands
● Wetlands include bogs, swamps and marshes. They are lands that are saturated with
water; the land may be submerged all year round or just at certain times.
● Wetlands are often found near other bodies of water, such as lakes and rivers, and can
be instrumental in preventing flooding as they provide an overflow area. Wetlands
also help to purify and filter water of excess nutrients and dangerous pollutants that
may be present in rain and stormwater run-off.
● This takes place before the water reaches the sea, which is vital for marine life and
fishermen.
● The largest predators are alligators and crocodiles with other animals including
beavers, minks, raccoons and deer. Wetland vegetation has adapted to the moist and
humid conditions. Vegetation that thrives in wetland areas includes waterlilies,
cypress trees and mangroves.
Read the case study of Florida Everglades Case study

interactive biome game

Marine environments
● Marine environments are made up of oceans (which cover approximately two-thirds
of the Earth’s surface), estuaries, salt marshes, coral reefs and coastal areas such as
lagoons.
● They are home to fish, aquatic plants, seabirds and smaller, but no less important,
organisms such as krill and plankton.
● The ocean is generally divided into four major ocean basins: the Atlantic, Pacific,
Indian and Arctic oceans.
● They are all believed to be similar below the first 200 metres or so as it is too dark,
cold and murky for much life to exist. However, in the areas where the sunlight can
reach, the characteristics vary greatly.
● The salt content of oceans can vary greatly, depending largely on the amount of fresh
water that it receives and the rate of evaporation that is occurring.
● Ocean temperature varies with proximity to the equator and poles with temperatures
being as high as 27 °C near the equator and as low as –2 °C near the poles.
● The biodiversity of marine environments is highest in areas that support coral reefs.
● These are found in tropical oceans near the equator and between the tropics of
Capricorn and Cancer.
● The phenomenon of coral polyps losing their colour is called bleaching.
The Great Barrier Reef is located off the Australian coast. coral reef

● Corals are a type of invertebrate animal. An individual coral is known as a polyp and
these are small organisms which are formed primarily of a stomach with a tentacle-
bearing mouth on top.
● Corals live together in huge groups to form colonies and it is their hard skeletons that
form coral reefs when they die.
● Reefs occur only in shallow areas that are reached by sunlight as they depend on
algae, which needs sunlight for photosynthesis.
● An estuary is a partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from
rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. Estuaries, and their
surrounding lands, are places of transition from land to sea.
HUMAN IMPACT ON RAINFOREST ENVIRONMENTS

● Rainforests do, however, need to be managed sustainably as human interference can

have a potentially far-reaching and devastating environmental impact.
● Deforestation is the biggest human threat to the natural environment of the rainforest.
The Amazon rainforest has experienced particularly high levels of deforestation,
especially in Brazil.
● Although it is difficult to provide exact rates, according to the World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF), around 17 per cent of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years. This
has occurred for a variety of reasons.

HUMAN IMPACT ON DESERT ENVIRONMENTS

● The human impact on desert environments can be said to be less severe than that on
other natural environments.
● opportunities for human development are heavily limited due to the lack of
commercial plants, natural resources and inhospitable climate.
● Nonetheless, the desert remains a fragile biome and the impact that humans continue
to have on it should not be underestimated. The main threat from humans to deserts
and grassland regions is increased desertification.

Desertification

● Desertification is the turning of land into desert and is one of the major issues faced in
arid and semi-arid regions. As such, it is a real issue in both desert and grassland
regions.
● There is a range of complex and varied reasons why desertification occurs, many of
which can be related to humans and how their choices have led to global
environmental change.
 Click Read the following.

human foot print on marine biomes

plastic in ocean

overfishing