Biomes

Unit Review Sheet

Facts and Definitions

Lesson 1: What Is a Biome?

• The prefix "bio" means life.
• All of an ecosystem's components are connected in some way.
• Biotic refers to living things within an ecosystem, and abiotic refers to nonliving things.
• An individual is a single organism within an ecosystem.
• A population is a group of individuals of the same species living together within an ecosystem.
• A community includes the populations that live together in the same area and interact.
• A habitat is the area in which a population lives and finds everything it needs to survive: water, food, shelter, and space.
• A niche is the role an organism plays within its ecosystem. It includes the organism's behaviors and activities that allow it to survive and how it interacts with the biotic and abiotic parts of the ecosystem.

Lesson 2: Cycles in Biomes

• Evaporation is the process of a liquid turning into water vapor (a gas).
• Condensation occurs when water vapor gets cold and changes back into a liquid.
• Precipitation occurs when water condenses in the sky and falls back to the ground in the form of rain, snow, hail, or sleet.
• Water, carbon, and nitrogen are fixed resources that can never be created or destroyed within the Earth's atmosphere; they can only be changed.

Lesson 3: Grasslands

• Grassland biomes are the most common on earth and can be found on every continent except Antarctica.
• The two types of grassland biomes are savanna and prairie.
• As you move farther away from the equator, the climate gets cooler and dryer.

Lesson 4: Forest Biomes

• Rain forests get more rain than any biome on earth.
• Temperate forests primarily have deciduous trees.
• The taiga, also called the boreal forest, has coniferous trees.
• Coniferous trees have needles and do not lose them every year.
• Deciduous trees lose their leaves every year.

Lesson 5: The Tundra

• Many animals in the tundra have adaptations that help them survive the harsh environment.
• An analogy is a comparison between things that are related in some way. One pair of words corresponds to a second pair of words based on the relationship between both words in the pair. ( ___ is to ___ as ___ is to ____, or __:___::___:__)
• Plants in the tundra are small and strong; they grow close to the ground to avoid the cold winds.

Lesson 6: The Desert

• Many desert animals make their homes underground to protect themselves from extreme temperatures.
• Transpiration is the process of water being taken into and evaporating from plants.
• Stomata are the tiny holes on the leaves of plants where water is released.
• Desert plants have few stomata that are open so that less water vapor is released through transpiration.

Lesson 7: Wetlands and Freshwater Biomes

• There are two types of aquatic biomes — freshwater and saltwater.
• Freshwater biomes include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, and wetlands.
• Wetlands are ecosystems that help protect against flooding and run-off by absorbing water when it rains.
• More organisms are found in still water than in moving water because the organisms are not in danger of being carried away by the current.

Final Project: Biomes and Ecosystems in Your State

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