Environment for SSC & Bank Exams – Types of habitats (Part 2)
2 years ago .
In part 1 of ‘Types of habitats – Where do you live‘, we discussed the Polar regions habitat, Coniferous or Taiga forests and Temperate forests habitat. If you are appearing for SSC CGL, CHSL, MTS, etc. or for upcoming Bank or Insurance exams (SBI, RBI, IBPS, etc.), you need to know more! To cover Environment for SSC & Bank Exams, this article will now teach you about Grasslands, Deserts, Tropical forests, Wetlands, and Mountains.
After you are done reading this article, you can download it as PDF and make sure you keep revisiting the pictures in this article to remember more information about ecology and environment for upcoming SSC CGL and Banking exam.
Ecology for SSC & Bank Exams – Grassland Habitat
Physical Features/Temperature: A grassland does not receive enough rainfall to grow into a forest. Nor its rainfall is too light to turn it into a desert. We can consider grasslands as an intermediate stage between forests and deserts.
Why can’t a Grassland become forest:Along with inadequate rainfall, there are several factors which prevent tree seedlings from growing:
- Dry climate
- Poor soil
- Grazing and browsing by wild animals
- Frequent fires
Types of Grasslands
1. Temperate grasslands
2. Tropical grasslands
Let’s have a quick look at Mediterranean grasslands also known as temperate grasslands. Temperate grasslands have grasses as their dominant vegetation. And, the soil of temperate grasslands has a nutrient-rich upper layer due to the decomposition of deep grass roots.
The soil of tropical grasslands is porous allowing easy drainage of water. The major difference between temperate and tropical grasslands is their climate. Just as the name indicates, temperate grasslands have moderate temperatures and low rainfall. Tropical grasslands have relatively higher temperatures and seasonal rainfall.
|Note: “Savannas (tropical grasslands) are found in warm or hot climates where the annual rainfall is from about 50.8 to 127 cm (20-50 inches) per year. It is crucial that the rainfall is concentrated in six or eight months of the year, followed by a long period of drought when fires can occur. If the rain were well distributed throughout the year, many such areas would become tropical forests.”|
[The grassland biome]
Environment for SSC & Bank Exams – Deserts Habitat
A place that receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain per year is considered a desert. (This is why Antartica is a desert!) Though rainfall is too low to develop into grasslands or forests, deserts have plants and tree adapted to their arid environments such as date palm and cactus.
Due to the scarcity of water, there are few clouds in a desert. Thus, when the sun sets, deserts become colder as there are not enough clouds to trap heat radiated by the land to the sky. [Refer: Global warming and greenhouse effect]
Deserts plants are mainly desert ephemerals and succulents. Desert ephemerals are wiry grasses growing and flowering after a good shower. They die back to their underground parts when the desert dries.
|Note: Can you guess why grasses reappear in June in your surroundings?|
Because of grazing, in grasslands, it is difficult for plants to grow. But grasses overcome this grazing and regrow. How?
Succulents like cactus stores water in rainy seasons for summer. They have long tap roots to collect moisture present deep in the soil and spread surface roots to collect rainwater and moisture from heavy dew before it evaporates into the air.
Succulents keep their stomata open during nights to collect carbon dioxide and convert this carbon dioxide into carbonic acid. They convert this carbonic acid back into carbon dioxide and use in daytime for photosynthesis. Hence, stomata remain closed during daytime and avoid water loss through transpiration.
Environment for SSC & Bank Exams – Tropical Habitat
Tropical forests are found in regions closer to the equator. They receive heavy rainfall (seasonal or throughout the year). They have a relatively uniform temperature (20 – 35-degree Celcius). This is because they receive more sunlight and more clouds are formed, and because of the greenhouse effect by clouds, heat does not escape into the atmosphere at nights.
Epiphytes, plants growing largely on trees for support, are largely seen in tropical forests along with mahoganies, teak, and rosewoods.
Environment for SSC & Bank Exams – Wetlands Habitat
Wetlands are places covered by shallow water regularly or permanently and are areas of distinct and great biodiversity.Types of wetlands according to the Ramsar Convention
1. Swamps and marshes
2. Lakes and rivers
3. Wet grasslands and peatlands
4. Oases, estuaries, deltas and tidal flats
5. Nearshore marine areas, mangroves, and coral reefs
6. Human-made sites like small dams
Environment for SSC & Bank Exams – Mountains Habitat
Mountains encompass other types of habitats like coniferous forests, grasslands, temperate forests and tropical forests. They are formed because of the movements of earth’s plates.
The topic of biology and environment for SSC and Bank exams is very important. We hope that this article along with the previous one will help you understand everything you should know about different types of habitat. If you have other topics apart from science and environment for SSC exams, then let us know.
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