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Adaptation of mammals in arid and semi arid
Introduction to desert biome
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QUESTIONS:
1. What biome did you choose to research and study?
My choice for study and research was the desert.
2. Describe your biome using specific information about precipitation patterns, plants, animals, and general locations. (you can include pictures)
A desert is the driest of all the biomes, receiving, on average, less than 10 inches of precipitation per year. Deserts cover about one fifth of the Earth's land surface and can be classified as hot and dry or cold deserts. The hot and dry deserts are located near the Southern or Northern Tropic, and, just as their name suggests, can receive extreme temperatures of 43-49°C during day and usually have very little rainfall and/or concentrated rainfall in short periods between long rainless periods, averaging about 250 mm of rain per year. The cold deserts are situated near the Arctic Circle and are mostly covered in snow, but can receive rainfall during spring(usually around 15-26 cm per year). Temperatures range from -2 to 26°C.
Contrary to popular belief, deserts have usually high biodiversity. Both the flora and fauna are adapted to conserve water and for heat tolerance. Also, the populations of plants and animals are not numerous and very spaced out. We can see plants like cacti, short grass, yucca, joshua trees, etc. Animals hide during daylight to control body temperature, but we can spot kangaroo rats, armadillos, coyotes, lizards, pygmy owls and many insects and arachnids.
Many deserts are found in bands along 30 degrees latitude north and 30 degrees latitude south. The largest desert is the Antarctic desert, followed by the hot Sahara. USA has four deserts: the Mojave desert, the Chihuahuan desert, the Sonoran desert, and the Great Basin desert.
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...were deaths of a certain type of fish, which occured shortly after the birds incident. Interestingly, the same phenomenon happened in certain regions of countries like Italy, Sweden, Brazil or New England.
Autopsy reports of these birds reveal that their mouths had turned pale blue after they died. While there is no scientific evidence of the cause of the birds’ deaths, the article presents a few possible causes to it, but leaves the pollution hypothesis aside, as if this could be the last cause. In the same way, the people in the town where the incident occured would rather think of senseless and unsound theories like the apocalypse, instead of mentioning the most likely cause of it: the pollution of the environment. This makes me think that people are still not aware of the state the environment is in and the possible effects of pollution.
Works Cited
wikipedia
When you think of an ecosystem, you might think of lush forests, or wide oceans, abundant with wildlife. However, the Saguaro desert is unique in its own way. Hidden amongst the 91,446 million acres of this hot, harsh, desert, are a world of organisms that thrive to survive. Located in Arizona, this park’s variety of plant and animal life surpass all other North American deserts. It is divided into two districts, named after the mountain ranges that surround the park; named the Tuscan and Rincon. The saguaro cacti are very important to this ecosystem. In fact, the ecosystem is named after this massive cactus that calls this place its home. One very important organism that lives in the Saguaro desert is the horned lizard.
What is a biome? Biomes are major life zones characterized by vegetation type or by the physical environment. Climate plays a role in determining the nature and location of Earth’s biomes. Texas has 10 different ecosystems with lots of diversity. Minnesota has 4 different ecosystems which are also quite diverse. Regardless of the size of the biomes or the number of biomes in each state, they are all important not just to the locate environment but on a global level because of the life they support. We are going to take a look at the different biomes, comparing climate and rainfall, as well as vegetation fauna.
The Sahara desert affected the development of North Africa. The Sahara’s large temperature range and small supply of water can make the region difficult to thrive upon. However, it is not impossible. As stated in document 2, temperatures can reach up to 120 degrees fahrenheit and supplies of water are scant. Journeying through the Sahara was very difficult until the camel was introduced for travel. As stated in document 2, the camel could travel long distances
The Taiga Biome is a large, naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major part of both Siberia and North America. It is usually found at high elevations at more temperate latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the largest terrestrial biome on earth, covering around 50 million acres of land (NP, UC Santa Barbara). It is known for its subarctic climate that ranges between -51 to -1 °C in the winter and -21 to 7 °C in the summer. The two main season found in the taiga are summer and winter as autumn and spring are usually very short and barely noticeable. Winter makes up around six months of the year, with only around 50-100 frost-free days during the summer. Summer is also the season during which the taiga receives the most precipitation in form of rain. The remainder is made up of snow and dew, which adds up to around 30-85cm of precipitation yearly (NP, S.L. Woodward).
Another biome in the park is their temperate forest. Temperate forests have high humidity, high levels of precipitation, and variety of trees are also included. Freshwater biomes surround the park as well.
In North China, there is high temperature and low rainfall. High summer temperature is due to continental climate. Also, hot dry winds occasionally blow towards Loess Plateau from Gobi Desert in the north. Summer temperature of Less Plateau is high, e.g. Xian ever reached 42.5℃. High summer temperature causes the high evaporation and lead to dryness. The precipitation reduces. Finally, it causes the expansion of dry areas and drought. Water scarcity becomes worse.
8. Taylor, Dan. 1998. Audubon Society Inspired to Action by Bird Die -offs . 17 Jan. 1998 . E-mail . Available bkus@sunstroke.sdsu.edu
The ecosystem I have chosen is tropical rainforest. In the following paragraphs, I am going to firstly introduced the structure of tropical rainforest in brief, with the second part of the plant ecology and last the diversity within this ecosystem.
Imagine if you were in a bird apocalypse, where these birds all of a sudden just became vicious and started attacking everyone. There has to be an explanation to it! In the story “The Birds,” by Daphne du Maurier, demonstrates this story to not only be a survival to the fittest, but also a horror because it is filled with lots of suspense. These birds went from innocent creatures to merciless killers. There are many different explanations to this bird apocalypse. In the short story “The Birds,” the reason why the birds changed their behaviors and got rid of almost all the of the humans is because of the high tides and they hay hated the humans.
What exactly are the conditions to which Australian desert animals have adapted? In the summer, air temperatures can reach more than 110° F, plus intense sunlight can increase the effective temperature to at least 140° F. Also, rainfall is low during this time of year. As a comparison, under these conditions a human would need more than ten quarts of water a day, but red kangaroos adapted to water shortages may only need two to three quarts each week or two. (Dawson, "Red Kangaroos," 44) Also, due to extreme heat, plants sources of food are scarce. (Barboza, 29) How have animals ...
The biodiversity of this particular biome is vast and rapidly growing. One of the main reasons that there are so many species and animals living within this biome is due to the constant warm weather. It also supplies an almost 100% chance of water and food for the animals within. Small animals, including monkeys, birds, snakes, rodents, frogs and lizards are most common in tropical rainforests. Most of these animals and some insects rema...
Livestock in this region include cattle, pigs, poultry, etc. There are also vegetables such as wheat, barley, oats, flax, canola, mustard, potatoes, corn, and sugar beets. In the Interior Plains, during winter it is cold and lasts long. In summer, it is hot and lasts short. Winters in the Interior Plains can go as cold as -30°C and summers can be as hot as 30°C. The reason why it can get very cold in winters is that this region is near a cold ocean current. Interior Plains get the least precipitation in comparison to the other regions of Canada. This is because the westerly winds travel in the direction of west to east and the majority of the Interior Plains region is on the leeward side of the mountain. When moist air is forced to rise, it causes precipitation on the windward side. However, after the precipitation on the windward side occurs, there is only a little moisture in the air on the leeward side. This causes low precipitation on the leeward side of a mountain, where most of the Interior Plains are, especially south-western areas. Approximately, the amount of precipitation in this region is between 300mm and 500mm. South-west Interior Plains is the driest area of the region. On average, there
Fish have more known species than any other vertebrate and their habitats range from the smallest freshwater streams to the deepest parts of the seafloor. They grow from a fraction of an inch to 50 feet and live anywhere from the arctic waters to the tropics. Fish skeletons can either be made of nothing but cartilage or nothing but bone. They can look very awkward or very majestic.
The average winter temperature is about -30°F and average summer temperature is roughly 37-54°F. The yearly amount of precipitation, which includes melting snow, averages about 6 to 10 inches. With these conditions, it makes for a short growing season of about 50-60 days. In some parts, it can be up to 180 days. This is only found in the southern part of the tundra.