PLEASE HELP WITH HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Climate and Biome Distribution Purpose The

Question

PLEASE HELP WITH HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

Climate and Biome Distribution

Purpose

The purpose of this lab is to construct and analyze a climograph (also called climatogram), and describe the relationship of the climate (i.e., amount of rainfall and variance of temperature) and the effect of the distribution of biomes globally.

Background

Weather is a local area’s short-term temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, and other physical conditions of the lower atmosphere. Climate, on the other hand, is a geographic area’s pattern of atmospheric or weather conditions over long periods of time. Average temperature and average precipitation are the two main factors determining climate, which are controlled by factors such as latitude (distance from the equator), land/water contrasts (continental and maritime locations have differences in atmospheric heating due to moderating effect of water), ocean currents, wind patterns, and mountains (creates changes in altitude -distance above sea level, and rainshadow effect).

Biomes

are large terrestrial regions characterized by similar climate, soil, plants, and animals, regardless of where they are found in the world. Biomes are closely associated with climate. You can easily associate the climate of your own locality with the biome found there. Only by extensive travel, however, can the close relationship of particular climates with particular biomes be learned on a worldwide basis. This exercise is a poor substitute for such travel; but if it is carried out thoughtfully and with frequent reference to the description of biomes in the text, it can help you understand the biological relationships that make up the diversity of the biotic communities found on land. Below you will find six examples of climographs, grids on which averages of precipitation and temperature at a particular location are plotted together. These climographs show variations in only two important climatic factors during a year. Other factors may greatly affect climate, but a climograph does give a rough idea of climate in the location from which the data were obtained. There are four additional biome examples that you will need to graph the climate information for. These climographs will be associated with Tropical Deciduous Forest, Chaparral, Tropical Grassland, and Tropical Desert (providing you with a total of 10 biome/climate associations). Use Microsoft Excel to graph the information provided and make the climographs similar to the examples provided with temperature as a line graph (temperature measurements are on the right side) and precipitation shown as a bar graph (precipitation measurements are on the left side of the graph). Use the Week 3 Project Guide to help you create the climographs if needed.

Finally, you will make a climograph for San Francisco, California (also in Microsoft Excel). Compare this to the other climographs to determine the biome classification and to answer the following questions.

Climogrphs 1. copy the climographs you produced to a word document (there should be 5 of them) and turn them into Dropbox with the following answers. (5 points) Examination of the known biomes (1 point each)

2. How are the Tundra and Desert similar?

3. How are the Tundra and Desert different?

4. How do the Tropical Rain and Tropical Deciduous Forests differ?

5. Based on the biome descriptions in Table 16.1 of the textbook and the climate descriptions in Chapter 7, what creates the difference in vegetation type of Tropical Rain and Tropical Deciduous Forests?

6. Lawrence, Kansas and Nashville, Tennessee occupy similar latitudes. Why is one found in a grassland and the other in a forest biome (i.e., what other factor(s) is/are coming into play)?

7. Considering that the information in your climographs is presented on a monthly basis, How would you determine which biomes are located in the southern hemisphere? Examination of San Francisco biome (2 points each)

8. Which of the known biome climographs closely resembles San Francisco?

9. Would you consider them to truly be the same biome? Explain (how are they similar/different)?

10. During the thirty-year period used for the figures in the San Francisco climograph there were four drought periods. How would this effect the appearance of the climograph?

Taiga TUNDRA Barrow, Alaska CM Anchorage, Alaska TEMP CM RAIN 36 34 TEMP °C 36 32 °C 36 32 28 RAIN 36 34 32 30 28 26 24 20 30 28 26 24 20 20 12 12 20 24 28 32 36 28 32 36 4 J FMAMJJ ASON D J F MAMJJ ASOND

Explanation / Answer

1) Tundra: Very low temperature throughout the year. It has rare rainfalls.

Taiga-A little higher rainfall. It rains in July to November

Grasslands. Moderate rainfall and temperature to survive the vegetations

Deserts: High temperature but rare rainfall

San Fransisco: Mediterranean biome: has precipitation during early months and moderate temperature.

2) :They both are similar in precipitation as precipitation is very rare in both regions .They both experience extreme temperatures. No vegetation or very limited vegetation survives in these two regions.

3) They are different as a tundra region is usually extremely cold while dessert region is extremely hot.

4) Deciduous forests drop their leaves during automn while rainforests remain green throughout the year. There is moderate precipitation in deciduous forests and are found in temperate zones. Rainforests are found in tropical zone having high precipitation.

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