Tundra
Sporting a snowy white coat, this land-based predator is both the largest carnivore on Earth and an unwitting mascot for climate change
What is a polar bear?
This endangered carnivore relies heavily on prairie dogs for both food and shelter, making it a specialized predator within its ecosystem.
What is a black-footed ferret?
This layer of trees in the rainforest exists because of incredibly high competition for sunlight in the nutrient and water abundant biome of the tropical rainforest.
What is the emergent layer?
Plants in mangrove forests are many times more salt-tolerant than most plants due to their habitation in this type of water.
What is brackish water?
This phenomenon occurs when a desert receives unusually high rainfall, resulting in increased plantlife.
What is a desert bloom?
Often confused with hibernation, this process helps mammals like bears survive cold winters with limited resources
What is torpor?
This large carnivore, typically associated with forests and jungles, feeds on large herbivores and relies on tall grasses for stalking its prey.
What is a tiger?
Unusually for plants, this type of plant is able to grow on top of other plants due to the sheer levels of moisture and large plant growth present in the tropical rainforest.
What is an epiphyte?
This southeast Asian carnivore is adapted to climbing the abundant, thin branches of mangroves with specialized claws
What is the Fishing Cat?
This desert-dwelling dude uses its oversized ears to hear better, but also for heat regulation.
What is the fennec fox?
This adaptation helps mammals blend in amongst the white backdrop of the snow covered tundra
What is translucent/transparent fur?
This grassland plant produces toxic chemicals as a defense against herbivores and has a thick, milky sap that deters most animals from eating it.
What is milkweed?
These animals take advantage of abundant leaf matter from large trees to farm fungus
What are leaf-cutter ants?
These jumping fish have adapted to camouflage with the mudflats of the mangrove forest and can live on land for up to two days at a time.
What is the Mudskipper?
These types of thick, fleshy plants looooove the desert… and being on your window sill.
What are succulents?
An essential adaptation for “big boned” marine mammals like walruses who live in cold climate
What is blubber?
This dominant grassland species has deep roots to survive harsh weather and benefits from seed dispersion via fires, and can grow up to 10 feet tall!
What is big bluestem?
According to Grime’s CSR model, the tropical rainforest is this type of ecosystem, since it is a low-stress, low-disturbance environment
Competitive
This organism is washed into the mangrove forest by the tide. They live in the wide aerated root system, supporting the large fish population that Galapagos penguins depend on for food.
What is Phytoplankton?
This trend explains the current expansive trajectory of the desert.
What is desertification?
This short plant has shallow root systems to offset low amounts of rainfall and is the dominant type of vegetation throughout the tundra
What are shrubs
This classification specifies animals that are adapted to live underground, often creating burrows to escape predators in an open area.
What is fossorial?
This type of anuran has adapted to the tree-dense environment of the tropical rainforest by evolving webbing between its fingers, allowing it to glide between trees
What is the flying frog?
Males of this species can either dig their own burrow in the Mangrove forest mudflats themself, or they can try to steal another’s burrow by fighting with their giant claw, which can make up 65% of their body mass
What is the Fiddler Crab
This desert in northern Mexico and southern Texas spans over 140,000 square miles… it's also named after your favorite dog from Beverly Hills.
What is the Chihuahuan Desert?