文档介绍：国外动物学39-资料
Earth Environment - Overview
Water has physical properties critical to life on earth.
The steady supply otermine the nature of Earth’s many biomes.
Biomes are the major types of ecological associations that occupy broad geographic regions of land or water.
The Distribution of Major Terrestrial Biomes
General Features of Terrestrial Biomes
Vertical stratification is an important feature of terrestrial biomes.
Canopy
Low-tree
Shrub understory
Ground layer
Forest floor (litter layer)
Temperate Deciduous Forest
Temperate deciduous forests receive rain year-round.
Cold winters and hot, humid summers.
Animals may migrate, hibernate, or survive on scarce available food or stored fat through the winter.
Coniferous Forest
Coniferous forests, or taiga, are common in the northern hemisphere.
Evergreens dominant
Colder, less rain than temperate forests.
Coniferous Forest
Mammals that inhabit coniferous forests include deer, moose, elk, snowshoe hares, wolves, foxes, lynxes, weasels, bears.
Adapted for long, snowy winters.
Tropical Forest
Tropical rain forests receive lots of rain and are generally warm year-round.
Stratified
Diverse
Tropical Forest
Canopy – insectivorous birds and bats fly above the canopy.
Fruit bats, canopy birds, and mammals live in the canopy eating leaves & fruit.
Middle zones are home to arboreal mammals (monkeys, sloths), birds, bats, insects, amphibians.
Climbing animals move along the tree trunks feeding at all levels.
Ground level contains larger mammals (capybara, paca, agouti, pigs) as well as a variety of reptiles and amphibians.
Tropical Forest
Nutrients in a tropical forest are tied up in living organisms.
Soil is poor.
Slash and burn agriculture involves removing vegetation to grow crops – but the soil is so poor that the fields must be moved often.
Grassland
Temperate grasslands receive seasonal precipitation and have cold winters and hot summers.
Prairie
Grassland
Grasses and herds of large grazing mammals a