Paper 3

• What are the biomes found around the equator 


  Tropical rainforest, tropical grasslands, mountains
• biomes located north of the Tropic of Cancer 


  tundra, taiga forest, Mediterranean, temperate grassland
• Biomes located south of the equator

  Temperate forest, temperate grasslands, mountains, desert
• countries with a TRF

  Brazil, madagascar, Gabon, indonesia, Papuan New Guinea
• Countries with temperate grasslands 


  Australia, china, Mongolia
• What countries have a tundra biome

  Russia, Finland, Sweden, Canada, America
• What biome mostly converse Europe

  Temperate forest
• what do local factors affect in biomes

  Altitude, rock and soil type, drainage
• What are the abiotic and biotic components

  Components of an ecosystem that interact
• what are abiotic components

  long cold winters, low precipitation, frozen soil
• What are biotic components

  Only specialised plants that can tolerate poor soils, low light, cold temperatures; small amount of plant food = numbers of animals
• Definition of biotic 


  The living things in a ecosystems plants and animals
• what does flora refer to

  Plants
• What does fauna refer to

  Animals
• Definition of abiotic 


  The non-living things in a ecosystem like soils, rocks, water and the atmosphere
• Definition of biodiversity

  The variety of biotic components in a ecosystem

  (high biodiversity = thousands of different plants and animals)
• what are the L, B and S of the nutrient cycle

  Litter, Biomass, Soil
• What is this called

  Nutrient cycle

  
• What does altitude affect

  Different plants grow at different temperatures within the same biome. The higher the altitude the lower the temperature
• Rock and soil type 


  this can affect how fertile different areas within the biome
• Drainage


  Swamps and bogs occur where drainage is poor. Fewer, more specialists plants grow in boggy areas
• What is the biosphere

  It provides humans with some of our most essential resources
• What resources does the biosphere supply

  Food, medicine, building materials and fuel
• In developed countries few people now use resources directly from the biosphere
• who usually uses the resources from the biosphere

  Indigenous and local people
• how does the food from the biosphere provide for people

  Natural vegetation can be replaced with crops like wheats and rice

  sustainable harvesting of fruits, berries and nuts

  fish and meat are part of the biosphere
• How does medicine from the biosphere help with

  The periwinkle plant is used to treat leukaemia and Hodgkin’s disease

  the aloe plant has soothing properties and aloe Vera is used in many cosmetics

  poppies are the source of the painkiller morphine
• how does fuel form the biosphere help people

  Animal dung is dried and burnt as fuel

  wood from trees and shrub

  biofuels from plants being made
• Examples of biofuels

  Bioethanol
• how does building materials from the biosphere help

  Straw, the dry stalks of cereal plants, is used for roofing and for insulation

  animal dung can be mixed with clay and straw to create bricks

  timber, essential for construction, comes from trees
• The biosphere is increasingly exploited for its resources give an example of how

  The demand for some fish species has led to overfishing and huge declines in fish numbers
• The biosphere provides essential services for all of life on the earth. It is the life-support system of the planet
• One example of what the biosphere does for us

  It regulates the water cycle - plants slow the flow of water to rivers and filter water to make it clean
• A second way the biosphere helps us

  It regulates the gases that make up the atmosphere - plants absorb carbon dioxide and produces oxygen for us to breathe in
• The final way the biosphere helps us

  It keeps the soil healthy for plants to grow - new nutrients are provided by rotting plant material
• 5 reasons to protect the rainforest

  Protecting biosphere, climate change, protects the soil, cloud forests, way of life
• What does protecting biodiversity help

  The rainforest is the most biodiverse ecosystem on Earth. 7000 drugs have rainforest origins. How many more drugs are still to be discovered
• What does climate change mean to the rainforest

  Plants soak up CO2 from the atmosphere. The Amazon rainforest soaks up 2 billion tons of carbon a year
• why does protects the soil mean save the rainforest 


  The forest canopy protects the soil from being eroded by heavy rainfall. Without the trees, flash floods and landslides are more likely to occur
• Cloud forests strip water away from the atmosphere and release it slowly throughout the year into the regions rivers and streams