Climate Zones and Biomes

1. Build a sentence that describes what a biome is.

Answer: A biome is a large area with similar plants and animals

A biome is a large natural area defined by its climate and the living things that suit it.

2. The mild climate zone with warm summers and cool winters, where much of Europe lies, is the ____ zone.

• temperatecorrect
• tropical
• polar
• arid

Temperate zones lie between the tropics and the poles and have gentle seasons.

3. Around which latitude, north and south of the Equator, are most of the world's hot deserts found?

Answer: 30 degrees

The subtropical high-pressure belts near 30 degrees north and south are where sinking dry air creates most of the world's hot deserts.

4. Match each climate zone to the conditions that describe it.

Answer: Equatorial = Hot and wet all year; Hot desert = Very dry, with hot days and cold nights; Mediterranean = Hot dry summers and mild wet winters; Polar = Cold and dry all year

Each climate zone has a distinctive temperature and rainfall pattern that shapes the biome found there.

5. Why does high biodiversity matter in an ecosystem? Select all that apply.

• It provides services such as pollination, clean water and fertile soil
• It makes the ecosystem more resilient to disease and disturbancecorrect
• It is a source of new foods and medicinescorrect
• It guarantees that the region will receive more rainfall each year

Biodiversity underpins ecosystem services, resilience and useful resources like medicines, but it does not control how much rain a region receives.

6. On average, only about a tenth of the energy stored at one trophic level is passed on to the next level in a food chain.

Answer: True

Roughly 90 percent of energy is lost as heat, movement and waste at each step, so only about 10 percent passes up to the next trophic level, limiting food chains to a few links.

7. Tall, thick forests grow all across the open tundra.

Answer: False

The tundra is too cold for trees, so it stays open and treeless.

8. Which frozen, treeless biome is found in the far north?

• Tundracorrect
• Savanna
• Prairie
• Steppe

The tundra is a cold, treeless biome where the ground stays frozen.

9. 🦌 This caribou (reindeer) roams which cold biome in summer?

• Tundracorrect
• Rainforest
• Savanna
• Desert

Caribou graze across the open tundra during its short summer.

10. The layer of soil that stays frozen all year in the tundra is called ____.

• permafrostcorrect
• topsoil
• bedrock
• clay

Permafrost is ground that remains frozen throughout the year.

11. In winter, temperatures in the tundra can drop to about how many degrees Celsius?

Answer: -30 degrees C

Tundra winters are bitterly cold, often falling to around -30 degrees Celsius.

12. Match each cold-biome word to its meaning.

Answer: Tundra = Frozen treeless plain; Permafrost = Permanently frozen soil; Taiga = Cold coniferous forest; Polar bear = Thick fur traps heat

Cold biomes include the tundra and taiga, with animals adapted to keep warm.

13. Build a sentence describing the African savanna.

Answer: The savanna is a grassland with scattered trees

The savanna is a tropical grassland with only scattered trees.

14. Which biome is a wide grassy plain with scattered trees, home to lions and elephants?

• Savannacorrect
• Tundra
• Taiga
• Fjord

The African savanna is a warm grassland with scattered trees and big animals.

15. Which animal would you NOT expect to see on the African savanna?

• Polar bearcorrect
• Lion
• Elephant
• Giraffe

Polar bears live in the frozen Arctic, not the warm African savanna.

16. Grasslands like the savanna have a dry season and a ____ season each year.

• rainycorrect
• snowy
• frozen
• foggy

Savannas switch between a dry season and a rainy season.

17. Match each regional name for temperate grassland to the part of the world where it is found.

Answer: Prairies = North America; Pampas = South America; Steppes = Central Asia; Veld = Southern Africa

The world's temperate grasslands go by different regional names, from the North American Prairies to the South American Pampas, Asian Steppes and southern African Veld.

18. Primary succession begins on bare ground with no soil, such as fresh volcanic rock, while secondary succession happens where soil already remains, such as after a fire.

Answer: True

Primary succession starts from lifeless surfaces with no soil; secondary succession is faster because soil and some life survive.

19. A ____ is a spiny desert plant that stores water in its thick stem.

• cactuscorrect
• fern
• palm
• reed

A cactus stores water in its swollen stem to survive the dry desert.

20. Which is the largest hot desert in the world?

• The Saharacorrect
• The Gobi
• The Kalahari
• The Mojave

The Sahara in northern Africa is the largest hot desert on Earth.

21. Build a sentence about fighting desertification in the Sahel.

Answer: Planting trees helps hold the soil in place

Tree roots bind the soil and shelter it from wind, which is why projects like the Great Green Wall plant trees across the Sahel.

22. Hot deserts can become very cold at night.

Answer: True

With few clouds to trap heat, desert nights can turn surprisingly cold.

23. About how many million square kilometres does the Sahara Desert cover?

Answer: 9 million sq km

The Sahara covers roughly 9 million square kilometres, almost the size of the USA.

24. Which of these human actions can speed up desertification in the Sahel? Select all that apply.

• Overgrazing land with too many animalscorrect
• Cutting down trees for firewoodcorrect
• Over-farming until the soil is exhaustedcorrect
• A steady increase in year-round rainfall

Overgrazing, cutting trees for fuel and over-farming strip away plants and expose the soil, while more rainfall would actually reduce desertification.

25. Build a true sentence about rainforest soil.

Answer: Rainforest soils are thin and infertile

Despite the lush plant growth above, rainforest soils are thin and low in nutrients because the nutrients are stored in the vegetation and washed out by rain.

26. Which TWO of these describe the climate of a tropical rainforest?

• Warm temperaturescorrect
• Heavy rainfallcorrect
• Long dry winters
• Frequent snowfall

Rainforests are warm and very rainy, without dry winters or snow.

27. The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest in the world.

Answer: True

The Amazon rainforest covers around 5.5 million square kilometres across nine South American countries, making it by far the world's largest tropical rainforest.

28. The tallest trees that poke out above the rest of the rainforest form the ____ layer.

• emergentcorrect
• canopy
• understorey
• forest floor

A few giant trees rise above the canopy to make the emergent layer.

29. Roughly what percentage of the Earth's land surface is covered by tropical rainforest?

Answer: 6 percent

Tropical rainforests cover only about 6 percent of Earth's land surface, yet they are home to more than half of the world's plant and animal species.

30. Match each layer of the tropical rainforest to its description.

Answer: Emergents = Tallest trees poking above the main forest; Canopy = Continuous leafy layer where most animals live; Understorey = Dim layer of young trees and shrubs; Forest floor = Dark ground layer where rapid decomposition occurs

The rainforest is layered from the towering emergents down through the canopy and understorey to the dark forest floor, each with its own conditions.