DIFFERNT TYPES OF ANIMAL HABITATS GRASSLAND Grassland go by many names.In the U.S. Midwest, they're known as prairies.

In South America, they're called pampas. Central Eurasian grasslands are referred to as steppes, while in Africa they're named savannas. What they all have in common is grass as their naturally dominant vegetation. Grasslands are found where there is not enough regular rainfall to support the growth of a forest, but not so little as to form a desert. In fact, most grasslands are located between forests and deserts. About one quarter of the Earth's land is covered with grasslands, but many of these lands have been turned into farms. Grasslands are generally open and fairly flat, and they exist on every continent except Antarctica. Most lie in the drier portions of a continent's interior. There are two different kinds of grasslands: tropical and temperate. Grasslands in the southern hemisphere tend to get more precipitation than those in the northern hemisphere. Some grasses grow more than 7 feet (2 meters), and have roots extending several feet into the soil. Tropical grasslands are warm year round, but usually have a dry and a rainy season. One such tropical grassland, the African savanna, is home to some of the worlds most recognizable species, including elephants, giraffes, rhinos, zebras, lions, hyenas, and warthogs. Temperate grasslands, which average between 10 and 30 inches (25 and 75 centimeters) of rain per year, have shorter grasses, sometimes just a few millimeters. These areas have two seasons: a growing season and a dormant season. During the dormant season, no grass can grow because it is too cold. The animals that live in temperate grasslands have adapted to the dry, windy conditions. There are grazing animals like gazelle and deer; burrowing animals such as mice and jack rabbits; and predators such as snakes and coyotes. The North American grasslands were once home to millions of bison, before most of them were slaughtered by humans. When rainy season arrives, many grasslands become coated with flowers, some of which can survive well into winter with the help of underground storage organs and thick stem bases. No other habitat is as agriculturally useful to humans as grasslands. Soils tend to be deep and fertile, perfect for cropland or pastures. Much of the North American prairielands have been converted into one of the richest agricultural regions on Earth. Fires, both natural and human-caused, are important in maintaining grasslands. Ancient hunting peoples set regular fires to maintain and extend grasslands, and prevent fire-intolerant trees and shrubs from taking over. Grasses are able to survive fires because they grow from the bottom instead of the top. DESERT

Far from being barren wastelands, deserts are biologically rich habitats with a vast array of animals and plants that have adapted to the harsh conditions there. Some deserts are among the planet's last remaining areas of total wilderness. Yet more than one billion people, one-sixth of the Earth's population, actually live in desert regions. Deserts cover more than one fifth of the Earth's land, and they are found on every continent. A place that receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain per year is considered a desert. Deserts are part of a wider classification of regions called "drylands." These areas exist under a moisture deficit, which means they can frequently lose more moisture through evaporation than they receive from annual precipitation. And despite the common conceptions of deserts as dry and hot, there are cold deserts as well. The largest hot desert in the world, northern Africa's Sahara, reaches temperatures of up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) during the day. But some deserts are always cold, like the Gobi desert in Asia and the desert on the continent of Antarctica. Others are mountainous. Only about 10 percent of deserts are covered by sand dunes. The driest deserts get less than half an inch (one centimeter) of precipitation each year, and that is from condensed fog not rain. Desert animals have adapted ways to help them keep cool and use less water. Camels, for example, can go for days without food and water. Many desert animals are nocturnal, coming out only when the brutal sun has descended to hunt. Some animals, like the desert tortoise in the southwestern United States, spend much of their time underground. Most desert birds are nomadic, crisscrossing the skies in search of food. Because of their very special adaptations, desert animals are extremely vulnerable to introduced predators and changes to their habitat. Desert plants may have to go without fresh water for years at a time. Some plants have adapted to the arid climate by growing long roots that tap water from deep underground. Other plants, such as cacti, have special means of storing and conserving water. Many desert plants can live to be hundreds of years old. Some of the world's semi-arid regions are turning into desert at an alarming rate. This process, known as "desertification," is not caused by drought, but usually arises from the demands of human populations that settle on the semi-arid lands to grow crops and graze animals. The pounding of the soil by the hooves of livestock may degrade the soil and encourage erosion by wind and water. Global warming also threatens to change the ecology of desert higher temperatures may produce an increasing number of wildfires that alter desert landscapes by eliminating slow-growing trees and shrubs and replacing them with fast-growing grasses. TUNDRA Tundras are among Earth's coldest, harshest biomes. Tundra ecosystems are treeless regions found in the Arctic and on the tops of mountains, where the climate is cold and windy and rainfall is scant. Tundra lands are snow-covered for much of the year, until summer brings a burst of wildflowers. Mountain goats, sheep, marmots, and birds live in mountain, or alpine, tundra and feed on the low-lying plants and insects. Hardy flora like cushion plants survive on these mountain plains by

growing in rock depressions where it is warmer and they are sheltered from the wind. The Arctic tundra, where the average temperature is 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 to -6 degrees Celsius), supports a variety of animal species, including Arctic foxes, polar bears, gray wolves, caribou, snow geese and musk-oxen. The summer growing season is just 50 to 60 days, when the sun shines 24 hours a day. The few plants and animals that live in the harsh conditions of the tundra are essentially clinging to life. They are highly vulnerable to environmental stresses like reduced snow cover and warmer temperatures brought on by global warming. The Arctic tundra is changing dramatically due to global warming. Already, more southern animals like the red fox have moved onto the tundra. The red fox is now competing with the Arctic fox for food and territory, and the long-term impact on the sensitive Arctic fox is unknown. It is the Arctic's permafrost that is the foundation for much of the region's unique ecosystem, and it is the permafrost that is deteriorating with the warmer global climate. Permafrost is a layer of frozen soil and dead plants that extends some 1,476 feet (450 meters) under the surface. In much of the Arctic it is frozen year round. In the southern regions of the Arctic, the surface layer above the permafrost melts during the summer and this forms bogs and shallow lakes that invite an explosion of animal life. Insects swarm around the bogs, and millions of migrating birds come to feed on them. With global warming, the fall freeze comes later and more of the permafrost is melting in the southern Arctic. Shrubs and spruce that previously couldn't take root on the permafrost now dot the landscape, potentially altering the habitat of the native animals. Another major concern is that the melting of the permafrost is contributing to global warming. Estimates suggest that about 14 percent of the Earths carbon is tied up in the permafrost. Until recently, the tundra acted as a carbon sink and captured huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as part of photosynthesis. This process helped keep the amount of this greenhouse gas from accumulating in the atmosphere. Today, however, as the permafrost melts and dead plant material decomposes and releases CO2, the tundra has flipped from a carbon sink to a carbon contributor.

An aquatic animal is an animal, either vertebrate or invertebrate, which lives in water for most or all of its life.[1] Some examples of invertebrates are cnidarians. This phylum consists of jellyfish, anemones, corals, and hydras. Another type of invertebrate aquatic animal is the annelids which are segmented worms. There are three different classes they are polychaetes, oligochaetes, and hirudinea.[2] It may breathe air or extract its oxygen from that dissolved in water through specialised organs called gills, or directly through its skin. Natural environments and the animals that live in them can be categorized as aquatic (water) or terrestrial (land). Animals that move readily from water to land and vice versa are referred to as amphibians. When animals live in water, they have special adaptations to help them survive in an aquatic

habitat. The more time the animal spends in the water the quicker they adapt to their new habitat. There are numerous ways that an aquatic animal can adapt to their habitat. The term aquatic can in theory be applied to animals that live in either freshwater (freshwater animals) or saltwater (seawater animals). However, the adjective marine is most commonly used for animals that live in saltwater, i.e. in oceans, seas, etc. Invasive aquatic animals require a water habitat, but do not necessarily have to live entirely in water.[3] Aquatic animals (especially freshwater animals) are often of special concern to conservationists because of the fragility of their environments. Aquatic animals are subject to pressure from overfishing, destructive fishing, marine pollution and climate change.

Air breathing aquatic animals[edit]

In addition to water breathing animals, e.g., fishes, mollusks etc., the term "aquatic animal" can be applied to air-breathing aquatic or sea mammals such as those in the order Cetacea (whales), which cannot survive on land, as well as four-footed mammals like the river otter (Lontra canadensis) and beavers (family Castoridae). Aquatic animals include for example the seabirds, such as gulls (family Laridae), pelicans (family Pelecanidae), and albatrosses (family Diomedeidae), and most of the Anseriformes (ducks, swans and geese). Amphibious and amphibiotic animals, like frogs (the order Anura), while they do require water, are separated into their own environmental classification. The majority of amphibians (class Amphibia) have an aquatic larval stage, like a tadpole, but then live as terrestrial adults, and may return to the water to mate. Certain fish also evolved to breathe air to survive oxygen-deprived water, such as arapaima (family Osteoglossidae) and walking catfish.