Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Geography
GeographyWhere animals live30 min★★★ difficulty

Biomes and vegetation belts: why animals live where they do

Climate decides vegetation, and vegetation decides which animals can make a living. Biomes are the world's answer sheet.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand the key processes in biology relating to biomes, vegetation belts and ecosystems

Key learning points

  • • Two numbers, most of the pattern
  • • Belts run with latitude and altitude
  • • Animals track vegetation, not lines on a map
  • • Belts are moving

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

processesbiologyrelatingbiomesvegetation

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Biomes and vegetation belts: why animals live where they do

An English teaching video on this topic from Learn Bright. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Understand the key processes in biology relating to biomes, vegetation belts and ecosystems

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should already know that climate describes long-term patterns of temperature and rainfall.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Biome
A large-scale ecosystem defined by its climate and vegetation.
Vegetation belt
A band of similar plant life following latitude or altitude.
Tundra
Cold biome with low shrubs and permanently frozen ground below.
Savanna
Tropical grassland with scattered trees and a marked dry season.
Altitudinal zonation
Vegetation changing in bands as you climb a mountain.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Climate builds the biome

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Two numbers, most of the pattern

Temperature and rainfall together explain most of the world's biome map. Hot and wet gives tropical rainforest; hot with a long dry season gives savanna; cold with low rainfall gives tundra. Deserts occur where air descends and rainfall is very low, often near 30 degrees north and south.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Belts run with latitude and altitude

Moving away from the equator you cross rainforest, savanna, desert, temperate grassland and forest, then boreal forest and tundra. Climbing a mountain compresses the same sequence into a few thousand metres, which is why alpine vegetation looks tundra-like.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

Which two factors best define a biome?

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Hot with a long dry season and scattered trees describes

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Animals within the belts

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Animals track vegetation, not lines on a map

Wildebeest follow the rains across savanna grassland. Snow leopards live above the treeline where cliffs and open ground make ambush possible. Rainforest animals stratify by canopy layer. The animal community is a consequence of the plant structure.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Belts are moving

As climate warms, treelines and species ranges shift upwards and polewards. Animals with somewhere to go move; animals already at the top of a mountain or the edge of a coast have nowhere left. Biome maps are a snapshot, not a fixture.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

Vegetation banding up a mountainside is called

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

Snow leopards live above the treeline because

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Biomes are defined by climate and vegetation, not by which animals happen to live there.
  • Tundra is not simply "cold desert" — it has distinctive vegetation and frozen ground.
  • Savanna's defining feature is a marked dry season, not just heat.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Climbing a mountain compresses the same sequence into a few thousand metres, which is why alpine ____ looks tundra-like.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Biomes and vegetation belts: why animals live where they do

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Deserts commonly form near

  2. 2. Boreal forest lies between

  3. 3. Rainforest animals stratify by

  4. 4. Wildebeest migration follows

  5. 5. Species already at a mountain top are vulnerable because

  6. 6. Tundra ground is characterised by

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Flooding on the River Calder

The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.

Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.

Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
  2. Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
  3. Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.

  • Case study notes

    Writing

    Write the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.

    Half a page

  • Explain answer

    Writing

    Answer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.

    8–10 sentences

  • Map or sketch

    Diagram

    Draw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.

    1 map with a key

  • Data work

    Working out

    Plot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.

    1 graph + 1 sentence

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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