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Latitude - A geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position

of a point on the Earth's surface relative to the equator. Think lat-i-tude
rhymes with fat-i-tude!

Taiga – This is a cold woodland or forest, often on marshy land. This

biome spans the northern parts of North America, Europe, and Asia.
Pines, spruces, firs, and larches are the dominant tree in these forests.
This is the largest biome and covers about 50 million acres (17% of the
Earth’s land area).
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Tundra – This is a cold, treeless area; it is the coldest biome. The tundra
has low temperatures, very little precipitation (rain or snow), a short
growing season for plants, few nutrients, and low biological diversity.
Found in the Arctic region of Europe, Asia, and North America in which the
subsoil is permanently frozen.

Savanna – This is a hot, seasonally dry, grassy plains with few trees. This
biome is intermediate between a grassland and a forest. Savannas are
found in dry tropics and subtropics, often bordering a rainforest. They have
an extended dry season and a rainy season.
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Chaparral – This is a shrubby, coastal area that has hot dry summers and
mild, cool, rainy winters. Chaparrals consists of regions of tall, dense
shrubs with leathery leaves or needles, the shrubs are interspersed with
some woodland (scrub oak). The total annual rainfall in a chaparral ranges
from 15 to 40 inches per year (36-100 cm).

Grassland – This is a large open area covered with grass that gets hot in
the summer and cold in the winter. Most of the interior of North America
was a prairie grassland before European settlement converted it to farm
land. Even now, the grassland is a large area. Animals have adapted to a
semi-arid, windy environment that has few trees or shrubs. Animals and
plants that live in grasslands must withstand a great range in temperature,
from well below freezing in the winter to sweltering heat in the summer.
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Rainforest – This is a luxuriant, dense forest rich in biodiversity, found

typically in tropical areas with consistently heavy rainfall. There are also
temperate rainforests, such as in the Pacific Northwest of North America.
Tropical rainforests are found all over the world, but the majority lie in
South America and Brazil. They cover 7% of the Earth’s surface.

Temperate forest – These are forests in cool, rainy area; they have trees
that lose their leaves in Fall and regrow them in Spring. Temperate forests
are found in the middle latitudes around the globe and have four distinct
seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. In the Norther Hemisphere,
these forests are found in North America, Europe, and Asia. In the
Southern Hemisphere, there are smaller areas of these forests, in South
America, Africa, and Australia.
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Desert – Cover about one-third of the Earth’s land area. The desert is a
harsh environment with very little rainfall and extreme temperatures.
Desert plant life in not abundant; neither is animal life. Sime deserts get
both very hot (during the day) and very cold (during the night, when
temperatures can drop below freezing). Animals that live in the desert
have adaptations to cope with the lack of water, the extreme temperatures,
and the shortage of food.

Biodiversity – The variety of life and its processes; including the variety of
living organisms, the genetic differences among them, and the communities
and ecosystems in which they occur.