The
Earth Rage Against The Machine
: Killing in the Name of
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've all heard it. "Save the earth" "Save
the rainforest" "Save at the quicky-mart". Well I'm tired
of it. Destroy it all. Blow it all up. Pollute.
Litter. Cut the forests down, burn everything in sight. What was there
anyway?
Well, to see what was there, you must take a close look at the
Earth itself.
The earth is somewhat of a sphere, actually with
the mountains it's quite square, but not by much. Because of the roundness
of the earth and the tilt of the axis, light doesn't hit all points on
the earth in the same way. This creates uneven heating which causes wind,
which causes weather (in a way). The uneven heating also creates different
environments. But other variables, such as altitude, affect the climate.
Temperature depends on these two factors, while precipitation depends on
the airflow, heating, and altitude.
Now we have that out of the way. Lets see what happens when we take
all these variables (and many more) into account and classify the environments.
Below are the biomes respectively.
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- Low average temperature.
- Short growing season.
- During winter, ground frozen. During summer, topmost layer of soil
thaws. Underneath, permafrost, is still frozen.
- 10-12 cm rain a yeay.
- Vegetation- Lichens, mosses, grasses, sedges, and shrubs.
- Animals- Reindeer, musk oxen, caribou, wolves, arctic hares, arctic
foxes, lemmings, snowy owls, and ptarmigans.
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TUNDRA
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- Cold winters where the ground is covered in deep snow.
- Longer growing season than tundra (about 120 days).
- Summers are warmer, and the ground thaws completely.
- 50-100 cm rain a year.
- Vegetation- Pines, firs, spruce,willows, birch, and shrubs.
- Animals- Moose, wolves, bears, lynx, deer, elks, wolverines, martens,
snowshoe hares, porcupines, and various rodents, birds, and insects.
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TAIGA |
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- Summers are hot and humid.
- Winters are cold.
- 75-150 cm rain a year.
- Vegetation- Oak, maple, hickory, beech, chestnut, and birch.
- Animals- Wolves, gray foxes, bobcats, deer, raccoons, squirrels, and
chipmunks.
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TEMPERATE FOREST
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- Temperate and tropical climates.
- 25-75 cm rain a year.
- Not enough rain for trees, but deep rich soil.
- Vegetation- Grasses, and wild flowers.
- Animals- Coyotes, badgers, rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, jackrabbits,
squirrels, bison, pronghorn, cattle, sheep, zebras, giraffes, gazelles,
lions, meadowlarks, ringnecked pheasants, prairie chickens, hawks, and
owls.
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GRASSLANDS |
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- Most precipitation in winter, therefore, summers are desert-like.
- Shrubs and trees are common.
- Mediteranean climate region.
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CHAPARRAL
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- Occur in regions too dry to support grasses.
- Less than 25 cm rain a year.
- Temperature varies from 300 C at night, to over 1000
C during the day.
- Vegetation- Cactus, yucca, mesquite, sagebrush, and creosote.
- Animals- Fennec, snakes, lizards, spiders, and insects.
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DESERT
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- Expansive grasslands dotted with trees.
- Occur on either side of tropical wet and dry climate regions and in
subtropical steppes.
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TROPICAL SAVANNAH |
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- Uniform climate all year. 250 C throughout the year.
- 200-400 cm rain a year.
- Very dense tree cover. Trees have shallow root systems that allow then
to absorb nutrients from the thin layer of wet soil.
- Vegetation- A lot of trees.
- Animals- A VERY wide variety.
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TROPICAL RAINFOREST
Even though we've heard
about it enough, here it is again.
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Basically, in the alpine, as you go up in altitude, you
hit the different biomes. Tropical rain forest, deciduous forest, coniferous
forest, alpine meadow, and ice and snow. |
ALPINE |
Water biomes are the basic things, water, fish, whales, dolphins, seaweed,
yadda yadda yadda. Look it up for more info.
Whew. Quite a bit. Maybe there was something on earth afterwards. I
guess we should be a little more careful with what we've got. Stop pollution,
start rebuilding nature, and all that other junk those ecologists talk
about. Maybe they're not just insomnia cures after all. I guess people
had better wake up while they can.
Where did I get the juicy info? The book mainly, but the
pics and some more info can be found at College
of the Siskiyous Geography Slide Shows .
Mommy,
I want HOME!!!!!