The New Childrens Encyclopedia

62 Deserts We think of deserts as being hot, but some of them are very cold. What deserts ARE is dry. Any place that gets less t ...

63 LOOK CLOSER: DESERT FEATURES  DUNES form large “sand seas” called ergs. The wind sculpts their graceful shapes. O

Deserts h ...

64 Grasslands Grasslands spring up in places that are too dry for forests to grow but get enough water to stop them from becomin ...

GRASSLANDS 65 TURKEY VULTURES soar over the American prairies, sniffing the wind for dead animals to eat. LOOK CLOSER: AMAZING G ...

66 Forests Trees are the biggest plants on the planet. Forests of them cover large areas of land and provide shelter for other p ...

SLEEP AND DREAMS 67 FORESTS CANOPYthis layer is full of animals, birds, climbing plants, and orchids. UNDERSTORYprovides homes ...

68 Mountains No other place on Earth shows such a dramatic variation in habitats as you can find on the slopes of a mountain. Th ...

MOUNTAINS 69  SNOW LEOPARD The predatory snow leopard has thick fur and small, rounded ears to conserve body heat. MOUNTAIN MAM ...

Polar regions Imagine living in a place where for six months of the year, there is no day, and the other six months, there is no ...

POLAR REGIONS 7171 Winter coats Some animals that live on the tundra change their coat from brown to white to hide them when it ...

72 Fresh water Fresh water covers less than one percent of the Earth’s surface. Falling rain flows back to the ocean in streams ...

Wetlands Wetlands are among the richest habitats on Earth. They include permanently wet swamps and marshes, and bogs and fens th ...

74 Oceans and sea life TAKE A LOOK: INGENIOUS FEEDERS u SQUID grab prey using the suckers at the ends of their two long tentacle ...

75  SEA ANEMONES cling to rocks, and shoot at their prey with poison barbs.  SEA SLUGS scrape algae off hard surfaces using sm ...

Coral reefs Sometimes called “rain forests of the sea,” coral reefs are spectacular marine ecosystems that thrive in warm, clear ...

 BRAIN CORAL is arranged in wiggly lines that look like the surface of a brain.  FAN CORAL feathers into delicate shapes and p ...

Climate change One of the biggest concerns facing our planet is the possibility of climate change. Although Earth has swung betw ...

Beware of the burps! One of the most worrying greenhouse gases is methane. Huge quantities of it are produced in rice paddies an ...

80 Looking to the future Humans are the dominant species on the planet. We make use of all of the Earth’s resources, but there i ...

SLEEP AND DREAMS 81 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE UNDER THREAT: PROTECTING SEEDS O

More than one-third of all flowering plants are vuln ...