45 Habitats and the Environment-Mid

Habitats and the Environment Written by Kira Freed

Introduction Can you imagine a wild polar bear living in Hawaii? How about a palm tree growing in Antarctica? You probably know that these things would never happen But do you know why not? A habitat provides a living thing with the food, water, air, and shelter it needs. Habitats have many parts that work together. In this book, you will learn about what makes up a habitat and how habitats are different for different living things. By the time you finish reading, you will know why the pictures on this page could not be real.

The Building Blocks of Habitats Earth has many kinds of habitats. Why are there different habitats? To answer this question, let's learn about the building blocks of habitats. The first building block is latitude. Latitude measures how far a place is from Earth's equator, or middle. As Earth spins, the Sun's energy warms parts of the planet in different ways. The latitudes close to the equator are warmed more. The latitudes close to the North Pole and South Pole are warmed less.

In each band of latitude, some land is higher than other land. Elevation— how high or low a place is— is the second building block of habitats. The Sun warms places with low elevation more than places with high elevation. Why is that? The air around Earth is the atmosphere. The atmosphere is like a blanket of air. Even air has weight and thickness. The blanket is thick close to the ground, so it holds in more heat. The blanket is thin in the mountains, so it doesn't hold in as much heat.

Warm air and cool air make wind when they meet. The wind carries moisture (water) between parts of the system. Differences in temperature, wind, and moisture produce different climates around our planet. Climate is weather patterns over very long periods of time. Climate is half of the third building block of habitats.

Land and water are as important as climate in building blocks of habitats. Almost three-fourths of Earth's surface is water, and most of that is in oceans. Earth's land is different from place to place. It may be flat or sharp with mountains. There may be lakes, streams, or little water. Land and water are the other half of the third building block of habitats.