UMass Bio 287 – Assignment A2 – Biomes & Climate Diagram

12 Jun UMass Bio 287 – Assignment A2 – Biomes & Climate Diagram

Question
Bio 287 Intro Ecology

Fall 2016

Assignment A2 – Biomes & Climate Diagram
You are part of a team of scientists studying a newly-discovered planet and it’s your job to
characterize the biomes on this new planet. Yes, there’s life on this planet! The data from an unmanned
probe that has landed on two locations at various times are shown in two climate diagrams below.
Your supervisor asks you to predict the biome one may find under these conditions at each location
(‘Biome 1’ and ‘Biome 2’). Be sure to consider the patterns of both temperature and precipitation
(average and seasonal variation) and their interaction (e.g. plants respond differently when it is warm
and wet compared to warm and dry).
You don’t know anything else about these locations (e.g. nothing about disturbances or soil quality),
so you can base your predictions only on the climate diagrams from this new planet and on your
knowledge of Earth’s biomes. Include at which latitude one might find these biomes on Earth (e.g.
tropical, temperate or polar latitudes, or you can give ranges of degrees such as around 30 degrees N/S).
Points are awarded for your reasoning! Be sure to explain both the terrestrial biomes relevant to your
answer and how this relates to the climate diagram. Each biome is worth 5 pts.
If you work with another student

Temperature

Precipitation

Temperature (ºC)

70

I expect you to find the climate
diagram for Biome 1 easier to
interpret.

50
30
10
-10

J

F

M

A

M

J

J

A

S

O

N

D

150
130
110
90
70
50
30
10
-10

Precipitation (mm)

Biome 1: Average annual temperature 13 ºC
Total annual precipitation 1,024 mm

Your write up must be your own work.
If you discuss the data with peers
(which you are welcome to do),
please list their name(s) on your
assignment.

Month

Biome 2: Average annual temperature 12 ºC
Total annual precipitation 691 mm
Temperature

Temperature (ºC)

35

80

Precipitation

70

30

60

25

50

20

40

15

30

10

20

5

10

0

Precipitation (mm)

40

The climate diagram for Biome 2
is more challenging and asks you
to analyze and synthesize your
knowledge. Don’t worry if you
don’t find an identical match on
Earth—use your knowledge to
predict what you might find there.

0
J

F

M

A

M

J

J

A

S

O

N

D

For anyone with excellent attention to detail: the precipitation axis should be exactly double of the
temperature axis but I couldn’t make Excel do this right. Similarly, there are no yellow or blue areas in
these two diagrams but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t sub-freezing temperatures or dry periods.