Why climate decides vegetation
Temperature and rainfall together explain most of the world's vegetation map before any other factor is considered.
Part of your national curriculum
- Human and physical geography: Understand weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present
- Human and physical geography: Understand the key processes in biology relating to biomes, vegetation belts and ecosystems
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Explain how climate shapes vegetation
Key learning points
- • Pressure belts and rainfall
- • Adaptations follow climate
This lesson at a glance
- 25 minutes
- 9 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 9
Watch first
Why climate decides vegetation
An English teaching video on this topic from Learn Bright. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Explain how climate shapes vegetation
Explore the idea
Part 2 of 9
Learn
Pressure belts and rainfall
Rising air at the equator brings heavy rain and rainforest. Sinking air near 30° north and south brings dry conditions and desert.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 9
Learn
Adaptations follow climate
Waxy leaves reduce water loss; buttress roots spread in thin tropical soils; deciduous trees drop leaves to survive winter.
Quick check
Part 4 of 9
Quick check
Rainforests sit mainly at…
Quick check
Part 5 of 9
Quick check
Hot deserts cluster around…
Quick check
Part 6 of 9
Quick check
Dropping leaves in winter is an adaptation to…
Challenge round
Part 7 of 9
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
Mastery quiz
Part 8 of 9
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Why climate decides vegetation
3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. Rainforests sit mainly at…
2. Hot deserts cluster around…
3. Dropping leaves in winter is an adaptation to…
Lesson round-up
Part 9 of 9
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
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Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo 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.
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
- List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
- Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
- Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.
Case study notes
WritingWrite the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.
Half a page
Explain answer
WritingAnswer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.
8–10 sentences
Map or sketch
DiagramDraw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.
1 map with a key
Data work
Working outPlot 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 9 · Watch & discover
How this is going
- Not looked at yet
Understand weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present
- Not looked at yet
Understand the key processes in biology relating to biomes, vegetation belts and ecosystems