Summary #5Places to Live Around the World

*Tundra Biome*

In the very cold places of the world, isn´t easy to survive. The soil is frozen, its top surface thawing only during summer, and no trees can grow. Yet plants and amimals that are adapted for the harsh condition thrive. This biome is called tundra. Most of the world´s tundra is found in the north polar region. It is called Artic Tundra. There is a small amount of tundra on parts of Antartica that are not covered with ice. Plus, tundra is found on high altitude montains and is called alpine tundra.

*Taiga*

Taiga, also called boreal forest, is the largest land biome.These forests are found in a broad belt across Europe, Asia and North America : about two thirds are in Siberia, and the rest are in Scandinavia, Alaska and Canada.
In this biome, summers are short and mild and the winters are long, cold and dry.
Plants are mostly evergreen conifers with leaves like needles, such as pine, fir and spruce. Leaves like this minimise water loss and do not get weighed down with snow. The snow slides off the needles. The forest canopy lets in a restricted amount of sunlight, and this limits the understorey growth. The ground is covered with a thick layer of needles and dead twigs, matted together by fungus
Rainfall, or precipitation, mostly falls as snow, usually 40-100 cm each year. Soil is thin and lacking in nutrients.

Animals found in taiga include woodpeckers, hawks, moose, bear, weasel, lynx, fox, wolf, deer, hares, chipmunks, shrews, and bats. Mammals living in the boreal forests have all adapted in various ways to survive the long cold winters. Generally they have heavy fur coats and many hibernate through the winter.
There is extensive logging in boreal forests which is threatening their survival.

*Desert Biome*

A desert is a place that gets just bit of rain every year.

Some deserts not get rain at all.

A desert can be very hot at daytime and cold at night.

Some desert are cold all the time.

*Grassland*

Grasslands are big open areas that get between 25 and 75cm of rain per year. This is less rain than a forest gets and more than a desert  gets.

Grasslands are found on every continent except Antartica. About one quarter of Earth´s land is in the grasslands biome. Grasslands have different names in different countries, such as pampas (South America), prairies (North America), savannahs (Africa), or steppes (Asia).

There are 3 types of grasslands:

*Tall Graslands*

*Mixed Grasslands*

*Short Grasslands*

*Decidous Forest*

Location: Midlatitudes

Climate: Relatively mild summers and cold winter, 76-127cm (30-50 inches) of precipitation a year.

Soil: Rich topsoil over clay.

Plants: Hardwoods such as oaks, beeches, hickories, maples.

Animals: Wolves, deer, bears, and a wide varity of small mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and insects.

*Tropical Rain Forest*

Location: Near the Equator

Climate: Hot all year round, 200-460 cm (80-180 inches) of rain a year.

Soil: Nutrient-poor

Plants: Greatest diversity of any biome; vines, orchids, ferns, and a wide variety of trees.

Animals: More species of insects, reptiles, and amphibians than any place else; monkeys, other small and large mammals, including in some places elephants, all sorts of colorful birds.