Teri and Jairus: Biome Buddies

Resource for Grades K-8

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Running Time: 3m 46s
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Teri and Jairus: Biome Buddies (Audio Description) (Video)

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Background Essay

The Earth supports an astounding diversity of plant and animal life. Move from one continent to another, change latitude by 10 or 20 degrees in either direction, or ascend or descend a mere 2,000 feet in elevation, and you're likely to find groups of plants and animals that are dramatically different from the ones you left behind. In comparing the ecological communities in different geographical regions, scientists have found that various life forms are not scattered randomly around the earth, but are instead arranged in obvious patterns. Not surprisingly, these patterns closely mirror precipitation and temperature patterns. For example, hot, dry areas are characterized by certain types of plants and animals, while locations that are cool and wet host an entirely different set of organisms.

Scientists often refer to large geographical areas that have their own distinct set of plants, animals, and climatic conditions as biomes. There are four major terrestrial, or land, biomes: forest, grassland, tundra, and desert. And ecologists usually divide these further into what they call biome subtypes. There are, for example, several subtypes of the forest biome. Some, like tropical rainforests, grow very near the equator; others, like the taiga (boreal) forests of Canada and Eurasia, are found just below the Arctic Circle.

While no two biomes or biome subtypes are identical, few are as different from one another as the desert of Death Valley and the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. Separated by only 1,000 miles, or about 10 degrees in latitude, these two locations are a world apart. In the Pacific Northwest rainforest, rainfall is measured in feet (about 12 feet each year), while in Death Valley, one of the driest places on earth, it rains less than two inches each year. Temperatures also differ wildly in these two locations. In the summer, Death Valley may reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit -- as much as 60 degrees warmer than the average daytime high in the temperate rainforest.

As in other biomes, plant types reflect the climatic conditions. Desert plants have evolved a wide variety of structural characteristics that limit the amount of water they lose to the atmosphere -- from dense clusters of spines on some cactuses that create shade for the plant underneath, to waxy coatings on the surfaces of leaves. Temperate rainforest plants receive plenty of water and thus don't require physical traits that help them limit water loss. Sunlight, however, is less plentiful, especially on the forest floor. Consequently, plants that grow in temperate rainforests have the ability to carry out photosynthesis at very low light levels. They also have the ability to grow quite rapidly when the opportunity presents itself, such as when a nearby tree falls and creates a break in the canopy.

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Discussion Questions

How would you describe the environment in which you live? What are some of the organisms that live there?

Choose a plant or animal that has adapted to life in Death Valley. What features does the organism have that enable it to survive in this extreme environment?

Now choose a plant or animal from the rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. What features help it live successfully in its environment?

How does learning about an extreme environment help you to understand what is meant by the term adaptation?

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Transcript

TERI A.: (knocking) Hello, I'm Teri. I live here in Death Valley,one of the driest and hottest places on Earth. I used to have a friend named Jairus who lived here, but he moved away to the rain forest.

"Hi, Jairus."Sometimes I think of you "in your nice, cool rain forest. Your friend, Teri."

JAIRUS P.: Hi, I'm Teri's friend, Jairus. I used to live in one of the driest places in the world but now I live in one of the wettest places in the world. This is the Hoh Rain Forest in Washington state. It rains over 12 feet a year here. It's kind of unusual because it's sunny today. What's neat about it is that it's a temperate rain forest. That means it's never too hot or too cold and it always rains a lot.

"Dear Teri, we've just had a ton of rain. "Everything in the rain forest seems to be alive. "Stay cool. Your friend, Jairus."

TERI: Here in Death Valley, we get about 1 1/2 inches of rain a year, and everything here has adapted to not need so much water. Death Valley is an extreme desert. I mean, when you live here, it's like living in an oven. The high every day is in the 120s somewhere, so it's really hot.

"Hi, Jairus. "It got up to 120 degrees today. "Hey, I was wondering, how long do you think one of those banana slugs would survive out here in Death Valley?"

JAIRUS: Not long. What's neat about banana slugs is that their slime is weird. Their color is cool, and the way they move is neat. What's neat about this rain forest is there's lots of animals—elk, bears, owls and, of course, bugs (grunts). This is a millipede. They spray acid and it unleashes this really bad smell.

"Dear Teri, the water here is fresh and cold, not like at Badwater."

TERI: You know how when you come out of swimming in the sea and you have... the salt dries on your skin, and you can see the salt and taste the salt? Well, that's kind of what happened here in Death Valley. This used to be a big lake, but the lake dried up and left the salt.

This is a spring that came up out of the ground, and when the water meets the salt, it becomes salty. So that's why they call it Badwater. Even here in Badwater, plants and animals have adapted to the extreme saltiness and heat. The pickleweed, for instance. It can drink this salty, hot water. And the insect larva—they have to live inside really salty and really hot water.

JAIRUS: This is a nurse log, an old tree that has fallen down. As it rots, it feeds the new trees that are growing on top of it. This is moss growing from a tree. It likes lots of water, but it doesn't like sun. Whoa! Because it rains here so much, these huge trees don't have to have deep roots.

TERI: This is a mesquite tree, and one of the main ways that it has adapted to deserts is by having really, really long roots. The roots go 40 feet deep down so they could get all the water that's down there. A lot of times, after I've come back from a hike, I think of Jairus, because where he lives, there's moisture everywhere. I mean, it rains every day.

JAIRUS: I hear it's going to rain soon. Got to go—bye.

TERI: Humans have adapted, but not well enough, so I better get out of the sun before I dry up and blow away. See ya!