Lesson 57: Biomes and Climate
Long-term patterns of temperature and rainfall help shape biomes and their communities of organisms. The lesson compares weather with climate and considers why adaptations suited to one environment may not suit another.
Key Ideas
- Weather describes conditions now. Climate describes patterns over many years. Biomes are large regions with similar climates and kinds of living things.
- Temperature and rainfall help determine which plants can grow in a place. Soil, seasons, and other conditions matter too.
- Different living things have traits that help them in different conditions. A trait useful in one biome may be less useful in another.
- Conditions often change as we go up a mountain. Different plants may grow at different heights.
- People use shelter, clothing, and tools to live in many climates. Other living things also have ways to cope, but every organism has limits.
Vocabulary
- Tree line: The boundary beyond which trees cannot grow because local conditions are too difficult.
- Climate: The pattern of weather in a place over many years.
- Biome: A large region with a particular climate and characteristic kinds of plants and animals.
- Weather: What the air and sky are like at a particular time and place.
Discussion Questions
- If a region's average temperature rose several degrees over decades, what might happen to which biome it is?
- People sometimes replace thirsty lawns with locally suitable dry-climate plants. How could that reduce irrigation needs?
- A single hot summer or a single cold winter does not prove climate has changed. What kind of evidence would?
Supplies
- Internet or almanac access to look up local average temperature and rainfall