Life sciences Grade 10

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KNOWLEDGE AREA: Environmental studies

Topic 10: Biosphere to ecosystems

BIOMES
 Specific Skills
 Access information  Apply knowledge in new contexts
 Select key ideas  Use knowledge in a new way
 Recall information  Analyse information/data
 Describe knowledge of NS
 Critically evaluate scientific
 Build a conceptual framework
information
 Organise or reorganise
 Recognise relationships between
knowledge
 Write summaries existing knowledge and new ideas
 Develop flow charts and mind  Identify assumptions
maps  Categorise information
 Recognise patterns and trends
 Terminology:
1. Biosphere: the part of the earth on which living organisms
live.
2. Atmosphere: layer of air around the earth’s surface.
3. Lithosphere: the soil and rocks forming the upper layers of
the earth’s surface.
4. Biome: any region with a distinct climate and all the
organisms that live in that area.
5. Savanna: vegetation type with well developed grassy layer
and an upper layer of woody plants.
6. Endemic: organisms found in only one area in the world and
no where else.
7. Mutualism: relationship between two organisms in which
both benefit.
8. Lichen: a close association between an algae and fungi
 Biomes
Different parts of the earth have different climates
Plants and animals are adapted to live in particular climates.
Therefore different plants and animals will live in different
regions.
These regions with their particular climates and living
organisms that are adapted to live in there is called a biome
A biome can be defined as a region with a distinct climate
and all the organisms that live in that region.
Biomes of Southern Africa
The map shows the biomes of
the Southern African region.
The countries that make up the
Southern African region are:
South Africa
Namibia
Botswana
Lesotho
Swaziland
Zimbabwe
Mozambique
There 8 different biomes in this
region.
Something for you to do
Look at the map and find
the area or province in
which live.
Write down the biome that
is found in your area.
The different biomes of the Southern African region

Nama-karoo
Grassland
Savanna
Fynbos
Succulent Karoo
Forest
Desert
Thicket
Savanna Biome
Savanna refers to a type of
vegetation with a well
developed grassy layers and an
upper layer of woody plants.
It is the largest biome in South
Africa
It is found mainly in
Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
Its also found in the coastal
belt of KZN and Eastern Cape
Province.
 Savanna: Temperature, Rainfall and
Soil
Temperature and Rainfall:
In this area summers are hot and wet and winters are cool
with little or no rainfall.

Soil:
The soil is mostly sandy.
It has a moderate amount of nutrients.
Some parts have very rich soil.
 Savanna: Vegetation and Animal Life
Vegetation:
This biome is dominated by grasses, large
shrubs and trees.
The lack of sufficient rainfall and fires
prevent the trees from being the main
type of vegetation.
This type of vegetation is suitable for
grazing animals example: cattle and buck.
The marula tree grows in this biome.
It grows to about 12m in size and produces
yellow fruit about the size of a plum
Baobab
Tree
Grows up to
about 15m
tall.
The tree trunk
can grow up
to 30m wide.
Savanna: Animal Life
The mammals found in this biome are commonly known as
the big five.
Name the animals that make
up the big five.

This area is also home to many large birds of prey.

The Grassland Biome
This biome is found in
parts of 5 provinces in
South Africa and 2
countries in the South
African region
Something for you to do
Look at map and name
the regions in the
southern African in
which this biome occurs
 SOLUTION
The grassland biome is found in parts of:
Gauteng
Mpumalanga
Kwa Zulu – Natal
Eastern Cape
Free State
Lesotho
Swaziland
Grassland: Temperature, rainfall and soil
type.
Temperature and Rainfall
The summers are hot with high rainfall.
The winters are cold with frost.

Soil
The soil has a high humus content.
Unfortunately in the areas with high rainfall the soil is easily
leeched and becomes acidic.
Grassland: Vegetation
This biomes is dominated by
grasses.
There are 2 types of grasses here.
They are the sweet grasses and
the sour grasses
The sweet grasses grow on fertile
soil and therefore have good food
value and are therefore preferred
by the animals.
The sour grasses grow on infertile
soil and do not have much food
value and are avoided by animals.
Grassland:
Animal Life
Blesbok, black
wildebeest and
springbok are found
here.
Also has a large
variety of birds
including the blue
crane.
The sun gazer lizard is
also found here
Nama Karoo Biome
It is a semi desert area.
It forms a large part of the
____________.
Look at
the map
and try to
fill in the
Blank.
Nama Karoo: Temperature, Rainfall and Soil Type

Temperature and Rainfall

This is a semi desert area.
It receives very little rainfall
Summers are very hot and winters are very
cold.

Soil
The soil is rich in nutrients.
Nama Karoo: Vegetation
Vegetation is dominated by
grasses and dwarf shrubs.

The stone plants are a group of

plants that occur here that use
camouflage, since it looks like
pebbles around it.
Nama Karoo: Animal Life
The animals that are found here are those that can survive
extremes of temperature and very little water.
Some examples of the animals found here are:
Foxes, jackals, dassies and hares.
 Succulent Karoo Biome
Found on the west coast of
the Northern Cape Province
and the northern parts of
the Western Cape Province.
Succulent Karoo: Temperature, Rainfall and Soil type.
Temperature and Rainfall.
Hot in summer and cold in winter.
Rainfall is very low.

Soil
The soil is very fertile.
It is red clay with rocks in between.
There are large parts of shale in other parts.
White quartz pebbles can be seen
 Succulent Karoo: Vegetation
This area is dominated by dwarf
shrubs.
40% of the species are endemic
to this area
The Namaqualand region of this
biome is world famous for the
colourful wild flowers.
Annual plants germinate, grow,
flower and seed in the moist
winter and spring.
They die off in the dry months
with the seeds surviving and
grow again the next winter.
The perennial plants survive the dry season by
using water stored in the leaves or stems.
These plants are called succulents.
These plants are adapted to reduce
transpiration by
having a:
thick waxy cuticle
reducing the number of stomata.
The non-succulent perennials have very small
leaves to reduce water loss by transpiration.
Those with large leaves lose their leaves during
the dry months.
 Succulent Karoo: Animal Life
Animal life is not as
abundant as the plant
life.
The bat eared fox, the
meercat
and the barking gecko
are
examples of the animals
found here.
Fynbos
Biome
Found in the
major parts of
Western Cape.
Fynbos Biome: Temperature, Rainfall and Soil

Temperature and Rainfall

Hot and dry summers
Winters are cold and wet.
Soil
The soil is very varied of different pH and quality
The soil is sandy and alkaline along the coast
The soil is sandy but acidic inland
In the lowlands the soil is fertile and more or less neutral.
The soil on the mountain tops are acidic and of a very poor
quality
Something for you to think about
How does the varied quality and pH of the soil in this
biome affect the plant life?

A. Has no effect of the plant life

B. Ensure there is a wide variety of plant life.
C. Reduces the number of plant species in this biome.
D. Prevents the plants from reaching their full growth.
 Solution:
How does the varied quality and pH of the soil in this
biome affect the plant life?

A. Has no effect of the plant life

B. Ensure there is a wide variety of plant life.
C. Reduces the number of plant species in this biome.
D. Prevents the plants from reaching their full growth
 Fynbos Biome: Vegetation
 Fynbos refers to
dwarf shrubs with
fine leaves.
 However when it is
used to describe a
biome it refers to all
the vegetation found
in this biome.
 This includes:
dwarf shrubs
large shrubs
trees
 There is very little
grass here but
 Leafless tufted grass
plants occur here.
 Fynbos: Animal Life
There is a limited variety of species found in this biome.
Examples of animals found in this biome are:
Grysbok, klipspringer, bontebok
There are a large number of bird species.
Bontebok
Forest Biome
It occurs in patches in spread
over four provinces.

Something for you to do:

Carefully study the map
and answer the following
question:
Name the provinces in
which this biome occurs.
Solution:
The four provinces are:
a. Western Cape: in the George-Knysna-Mossel
Bay area
b. KwaZulu Natal
c. Limpopo
d. Eastern Cape
e. Mpumalanga and also occurs as
f. Patches of forest in the deep river valleys
Forest Biome: Temperature, rainfall and soil:
Temperature and Rainfall
Temperature varies form about 20⁰C to 30⁰C.
Temperature can get higher.
Rainfall seasons vary, in some forests it rains only in winter,
while in other forests it rains in summer only and others it rains
all year round.
Soil
This biome has a thick layer of soil and it may be shallow in other
parts.
The soil here is very rich, because it is mixed with the falling
leaves, fruit and bird and mammal dropping.
 Forest Biome: Vegetation
 Dominated by large shrubs
and trees.
 The largest South African
Forest tree is the Outeniqua
yellowwood.
 These large trees form a
canopy, under this canopy
large ferns and tall woody
shrubs form the next layer.
 Herbaceous and bulbous
plants, together with
grasses form the ground
level.
 The climbing plants and
epiphytes are also found
here.
 Something for you to do:
1. Herbaceous plants have…
A. green, fleshy stems.
B. woody brown stems.
C. dicot stems
D. broad, flat leaves.

2. A canopy is a…
A. roof like layer of leaves over the forest
B. tent shading one from the sun
C. part of a dicot plant
D. lowest layer of trees in a forest
Something for you to do:
3. Epiphytes are
A. Ground cover in the forest
B. Plants with no stomata
C. Climbing plants found in a forest.
D. Plants with no leaves.
 Solution:
1. A
2. A
3. C
 Forest Biome: Animal life
 Bush buck, bush pig,
blue duiker, baboon,
vervet monkey, and
leopard are some of
the larger mammals
found here.
 Many birds are found
in this biome.
 Some examples are:
the fruit eating
rameron pigeon, the
insect eating
paradise fly-catcher
and seed eaters.
 The Knysna lourie
and the Knysna
woodpecker are
some examples of
endemic birds found
here.
 The Thicket biome
It occurs in finger-like
projections along the
coasts of KwaZulu-
Natal, Eastern Cape
and some other
areas.
Most of the thicket
biome occurs in the
river valleys.
Thicket Biome: Temperature, Rainfall and Soil.

Temperature and Rainfall

These areas experience fairly high rainfall.
Since periods of little rain does occur , it means rainfall
is not high enough the vegetation does not develop into
forests.
During the dry periods the life forms living here get
their
moisture from the mists and fog that often occurs in
this
biome.
Thicket biome: Temperature, Rainfall and Soil
Soil
There is a thick layer of soil.
The falling leaves, fruit and droppings of birds
and
mammals mixes with the soil and
increasing its humus content.
This makes the soil very rich.
This rich soil can support
woody vegetation.
 Thicket Biome: Vegetation
This biomes has many short
trees, low intertwining
shrubs and vines.
The vines often have spines Spekboom-left
for protection.
The vegetation does not
have distinct layers like the
forest.
Common trees found in this
area are the Spekboom and
many species of Euphorbia.
Cape honeysuckle and
Plumbago are some
Cape honeysuckle
examples of shrubs found in
this biome.
Plumbago
 Thicket biome: Animal life
Some examples of animals
found here are monkeys, birds
and squirrels.
These animals feed on the fruit
of the trees.
The black rhino, elephants and
kudu were once found here in
large numbers.
Now they are only found in
protected areas e.g.. Shamwari
Private Game Reserve.
 Desert Biome
This biome occurs mainly
as the Namib Desert.
The Namib desert is
found along the west
coast of Namibia
Some scientist believe
that the Succulent Karoo
Biome and the very parts
of the Savanna Biome
form parts of the Desert
Biome.
Desert Biome: Temperature, Rainfall and Soil

Temperature and Rainfall

Average temperature in the Namib Desert ranges
from
20⁰C to about 34⁰C.
The rainfall is low and unpredictable.
The air is very dry because of the high temperature
and
low rainfall.
Therefore it has a very high evaporating power.
Soil
The soil is sandy and has a very low water holding
capacity.
Desert Biome:
vegetation

A large part of this

biome has no visible The desert
plant life. biome after
Seeds of grasses are high volume of
minimum. rain
When there is sufficient
rainfall, these seeds will
germinate and grow
into grasses very
quickly.
The land will now be
covered by large
amounts of golden
coloured grasses and Flowers in the desert
will not resemble a
after rainfall
desert at all. The desert in
times of no rain
 Desert Biome: Vegetation
Shrubs grow in
areas into which Welwitschia
water drains.
Welwitschia is an
example of such a
shrub.
A few trees may
also grow here.
The African
moringo,
camelthorn,
mustard trees and
Euphorbias are
examples of some of camelthorn
the trees that grow
here. African moringo
The large variety of lichens
are also found in this biome.
A lichen is a very close
association between a fungi
and an algae.
The fungi provides the algae
with water and the algae
uses the water to make food
by photosynthesis.
The algae then provides the
fungi with food.
The fungi gets the moisture
from the dew and fog.
This is an example of
mutualism.
 Something for you to do:
A quick question for you to answer:

Explain what is mutualism and why the lichen is an

example of mutualism.
 Solution:
Mutualism is a symbiotic relationship between two
organisms in which both organisms benefit.
The lichen is considered to be an example of mutualism
because the fungi is heterotrophic and unable to make its
own food, but it is able to absorb water.
The fungi provides the algae with water. The algae uses
the water to make food and provides the fungi with food
because both organisms benefit this is an example of
mutualism.
 Desert Biome: Animal life
There are many endemic species of animals are found here.
Some examples of organisms found in this biome are lizard,
geckos and snakes.

Golden mole

Peringuey’s adder
Web foot
gecko
 Something for you to do
Write down the correct biological term for each of
the following:
1. The part of the earth in which living organisms are
found.
2. The soil and rocks of the upper layers of the earth’s
surface.
3. A region with a distinct climate and all the
organisms living their
4. Southern Africa's largest biome.
5. Species occurring in one area only and no where
else in the world
6. The name given to the vegetation found in the
Western cape only and nowhere else in the world
 Solution:
1. Biosphere
2. Lithosphere
3. Biomes
4. Savanna
5. Endemic
6. Fynbos