EnchantedLearning.com Biomes - Habitats

Biomes Calendar A calendar to print, color, and read.

The Earth has many different environments, varying in temperature, moisture, light, and many other factors. Each of these habitats has distinct life forms living in it, forming complex communities of interdependent organisms. A complex community of plants and animals in a region and a climate is called a biome.

Some of the biomes on Earth include:

• Desert - very dry, either hot or cold
• Tundra - cool, treeless, and dry
• Chaparral or scrub - coastal area with hot, dry summers and mild, cool, rainy winters
• Taiga or Coniferous Forest - cool and dry, with coniferous trees
• Temperate Deciduous Forest - cool and rainy, with deciduous trees
• Grassland - Windy, partly dry sea of grass with few trees, including tropical savanna, prairie, steppe, pampas, etc.
• Mountain biomes: there are a lot of different mountainous biomes, from grasslands at low altitudes, taiga (coniferous forests) below the treeline, and alpine (the same as tundra)
• Temperate Rain Forest - cool and wet
• Tropical Rain Forest - warm and very wet
• Land Caves - cool and dark
• Wetlands - there are many types of wetlands, including swamps, marshes, moors, bogs, fens, sloughs, etc.
• Freshwater Marsh - a wetland located near creeks, streams, rivers and lakes
• Temperate ponds
• Marine (ocean or sea) - including
  • euphotic (sunlit) zone
    • littoral or intertidal zones
    • coral reef (warm shallow salt-water environments based on coral formations)
    • estuarine biomes (where rivers meet oceans)
    • pelagic biomes (open seas near the surface)
  • disphotic (twilight) zone
  • midnight (aphotic) zone
    • benthic biomes (bottom)
    • sea trenches
    • sea Caves
• And many more.

Some Land (Terrestrial) Biomes:

Biome	Water	Temperature	Soil	Plants	Animals
Desert	Almost none	hot or cold	poor	sparse - succulents (like cactus), sage brush	sparse - insects, arachnids, reptiles and birds (often nocturnal)
Chapparal (scrub)	dry summer, rainy winter	hot summer, cool winter	poor	shrubs, some woodland (like scrub oak)	drought and fire-adapted animals
Tundra	dry	cold	permafrost (frozen soil)	lichens and mosses	migrating animals
Taiga (coniferous forest)	adequate	cool year-round	poor, rocky soil	conifers	many mammals, birds, insects, arachnids, etc.
Temperate Deciduous Forest	adequate	cool season and warm season	fertile soil	deciduous trees	many mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, arachnids, etc.
Grassland	wet season, dry season	warm to hot (often with a cold season)	fertile soil	grasses (few or no trees)	many mammals, birds, insects, arachnids, etc.
Tropical rain forest	very wet	always warm	poor, thin soil	many plants	many animals
Swamp	very wet	warm	nutrient-rich soil	many plants	many animals
Cave (terrestrial)	variable	cool (and dark)	rocks	almost no plants	few animals
Biome	Water	Temperature	Soil	Plants	Animals

Related Activities:

Biome Word Pieces Puzzle In this puzzle, combine pairs of word segments to make biome-related spelling words. Words: cave, desert, grassland, chaparrel, marsh, prairie, rainforest, reef, savanna, swamp, taiga, tundra. Or go to the answers.	Biome Report Chart #1 In this printable graphic organizer, the student can organize facts about a biome, including the biome's name, location, weather, plant and animal life, a food chain, and general comments. Or go to a pdf of the worksheet.	Biome Report Chart #2 In this printable graphic organizer, the student can organize facts about a biome, including the biome's name, location, weather, plant and animal life (including adaptations, endangered species), a food chain, soil, and general comments. Or go to a pdf of the worksheet.
Biome Report Chart #3 In this printable graphic organizer, the student can organize facts about a biome, including the biome's name, location, weather, plant, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores (plus adaptations), endangered species, a food chain, soil, and general comments. Or go to a pdf of the worksheet.	Biomes: Write a Question for Each Answer In this worksheet, the student is given a series of short answers using biome-related words. For each answer, the student writes a short question.

An Enchanted Learning Web Page Biomes - Habitats

Arctic	Desert	Chaparral or Scrub		Taiga = Coniferous Forests	Grassland		Tropical Rainforest	Pond	Ocean
Antarctic	Tundra	Cave	City	Temperate Deciduous Forest	Savanna	Prairie	Freshwater Marsh	Swamp	Intertidal Zone	Coral Reef	Sunlit (Euphotic) Zone	Twilight (Disphotic) Zone

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