A.

Briefly described the following terms:

1. Ecosystem

❖ In a specific unit of space, the ecosystem, the complex of living organisms, their
physical environment and all their inter-relationships. An ecosystem, consisting
of all its living members, can be divided into its abiotic constituents, including
minerals, atmosphere, soil, water, sunlight, and all other non living components,
and its biotic constituents. There are two key factors connecting these
constituents together: the transfer of energy through the environment, and the
cycling within the ecosystem of nutrients.

2. Biomes

❖ Biome, also known as the main life zone, is the largest regional biotic unit, a
major plant and animal group with common life forms and ecological conditions.
It includes numerous ecosystems, such as grassland or coniferous forest, and is
named for the dominant type of vegetation. A biome type is made up of many
related biomes, the deciduous forest biomes of Asia, Europe, and North America
are included in the temperate deciduous forest biome type, for example. The
European term for the definition of the North American biome is "major life
zone."

3. Desert

❖ A desert is a region of land that is very dry where few plants and animals can
survive. You would have no company except for the occasional lizard or
scorpion if you find yourself lost in the middle of the desert. The desert,
abandoned or lying in waste, comes from the Latin desertus. This can apply to a
vast, vegetation less sandy region or any empty, lifeless expanse. It means, as a
verb, to abandon somebody or something. A soldier running away from the army
is referred to as a deserter. You will sometimes hear anyone say, "He got his just
deserts," which has nothing to do with abandonment; it means he has what he
deserves.

4. Grassland

❖ Grassland, a region where the landscape is covered by almost continuous grass

cover. In conditions conducive to the growth of this plant cover, grasslands
occur, but not to those of taller plants, particularly trees and shrubs. The factors
preventing such taller, woody vegetation from being formed are varied.
 Grasslands are one of the world's most common of all the main forms of
vegetation. However, this is only because the natural vegetation has been
drastically altered by human manipulation of the land, creating artificial
grasslands for cereal crops, pastures and other areas that involve some sort of
repetitive, unnatural disturbance, such as planting, heavy grazing, burning,
burning, to persist, or to mow. However, this discussion focuses on natural and
nearly natural grasslands.

5. Forest

❖ An region of land covered by trees is a forest. Throughout the world, hundreds of

forest concepts are used, integrating variables such as tree density, tree height,
land use, legal status and ecological role. A forest covering more than 0.5
hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10
percent, or trees capable of meeting these thresholds in situ, is specified by the
Food and Agriculture Organisation. It does not cover land which is primarily
used for agricultural or urban land use. Using this description, FRA 2020 found
that, in 2020, forests occupied 4.06 billion hectares, or around 31 percent of the
global land area, but are not spread evenly across the globe.

6. Taiga

❖ In northern circumpolar forested regions characterized by long winters and

moderate to high annual precipitation, Taiga, also known as boreal forest, is a
biome (major life zone) of vegetation consisting primarily of cone-bearing
needle-leaved or scale-leaved perennial trees.
❖ The name of the taiga, "land of the little sticks" in Russian, derives from the
collective term for Russia's northern forests, especially Siberia. The taiga, also
known as the boreal (northern) forest zone, occupies around 17% of the Earth's
land surface area in the far northern hemisphere's circumpolar belt. The taiga
merges northward beyond this boundary into the circumpolar tundra.

7. Tundra

❖ Tundra, the main treeless or rolling land zone found in cold areas, often north of
the Arctic Circle (Arctic tundra) or above the high mountain timberline (alpine
tundra). Tundra is renowned for large stretches of bare soil and rock, and for low-
vegetation patchy mantles such as mosses, lichens, herbs, and small shrubs. This
surface hosts a limited but distinctive number of species. The Finns named their
northern treeless reaches the tunturi, but the Russians established the idea of a
vast frozen plain as a special ecological domain called tundra.

8. Permafrost

❖ Permafrost, a naturally occurring material with a constant temperature colder

than 0 ° C (32 ° F) for two or more years, is perennially frozen soil. Such a layer
 of frozen soil is designated solely on a temperature basis. Depending on the
chemical composition of the water or the depression of the freezing point by
capillary forces, some or all of its moisture can be unfrozen.
❖ For example, permafrost with saline soil moisture can be colder than 0 °C for
many years, but it does not contain ice and is therefore not firmly cemented.
Most permafrost is consolidated by ice, however.

B. Why are tropical rainforests so interesting to scientists and so potentially valuable to human
society?

❖ Rainforests also play a practical role in keeping our world safe, in addition to the colorful
beauty that comes with great variety in plants and animals. By absorbing carbon dioxide
and releasing the oxygen on which we rely for our survival. The absorption of this CO2
helps balance the atmosphere of the Planet as well.
❖ By contributing water to the atmosphere through the transpiration process that produces
clouds, rainforests also help to sustain the world's water cycle. Water produced in
rainforests spreads around the world; researchers claim that in the forests of Africa,
moisture produced ends up falling as rain in the Americas.

C. Differentiate the following:

1. Deciduous forest from evergreen forest

❖ The key difference between evergreen and deciduous forests is that during a
certain season the trees in an evergreen forest do not shed their leaves, while
during the dry season the trees in a deciduous forest shed their leaves. In
addition, more than 200 mm of annual precipitation is received by a typical
evergreen forest, while a deciduous forest receives only 200-70 mm of annual
precipitation.

2. Woodland from Shrubland

❖ Oak trees, woody shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers are made up of woodland.
Shrublands consist of the same things, but a lot less oak trees. This biome is
renowned for its humid, dry summers and mild, damp winters.

3. Tropical Rainforest from Tropical Seasonal Forest

❖ In the tropics, both tropical rainforests and tropical deciduous forests exist - the
band bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn across the
 equator. Both forest types include trees and other plants that accelerate
photosynthesis with wide broad leaves. The distinction between the two forms of
tropical forests is that, in order to minimize evaporative losses, deciduous forest
trees and shrubs drop their leaves during the 6-8 weeks or more of the annual
summer dry season. (Note that temperate deciduous forests, by comparison, drop
leaves to survive the cold winter season).

4. Savanna from Thornwood

❖ In regions that have regularly heavy rainfall throughout the year (no discernible
dry season), tropical rainforests grow. These forests are evergreen, meaning trees
and shrubs retain their large leaves throughout the year. When aged, leaves are
shed, but not all at once, like deciduous trees, and are constantly regrown.

D. Describe the environmental variables and explain their importance to plants and animals.

❖ The climate significantly influences plant growth and geographical distribution. It restricts the
growth and/or distribution of a plant if any environmental factor is less than optimal. Only plants
adapted to small quantities of water may survive in deserts, for instance. Light, temperature,
water, humidity, and nutrition are environmental factors that impact plant growth. It is important
to understand how plant growth and development are influenced by these factors. You may be
able to manipulate plants to meet your needs, whether for increased leaf, flower, or fruit
production, with a fundamental understanding of these variables. You would also be better able to
diagnose plant problems caused by environmental stress by knowing the functions of these
variables.