Natural Vegetation & Wildlife Summary Class 7 Geography Chapter 1

Natural Vegetation

• Natural Vegetation refers to the plant life of a region which grown naturally.
• The type and thickness of natural vegetation varies from place to place because of the variation in these factors.
• Natural Vegetation is classified into three broad categories:
  • Forests: Which grow where temperature and rainfall are plentiful to support a tree cover.
  • Grasslands: Which grow in the region of moderate rain.
  • Shrubs: Thorny shrurbs and scrubs grow in the dry region.
• The changes in the type of natural vegetation occur mainly because of the changes of climatic condition.

Forests

Tropical Evergreen Forests

• Also called tropical rainforests.
• These thick forests occur in the regions near the equator and close to the tropics.
• These regions are hot and receive heavy rainfall throughout the year.
• As there is no particular dry season, the trees do not shed their leaves altogether. Thus, they are called evergreen.
• Common trees: Hardwood trees like rosewood, ebony, mahogany.

Tropical Deciduous Forests

• These are monsoon forests found in the large part of India, northern Australia and in central America.
• Trees shed their leaves in the dry season to conserve water.
• Common trees: Hardwood trees like sal, teak, neem and shisham.
• Common Animals: Tigers, lions, elephants, langoors and monkeys.
• Importance of Hardwood trees:
  • useful for making furniture, transport and constructional materials.

Temperate Evergreen Forests

• These forests are located in the mid-latitudinal coastal region.
• Commonly found along the eastern margin of the continents, e.g., In south east, USA, South China and in South East Brazil.
• Common trees: both hard and soft wood trees like oak, pine, eucalyptus, etc.

Temperate Deciduous Forests

• These are present at higher latitudes.
• These are found in the north eastern part of USA, China, New Zealand, Chile and also found in the coastal regions of Western Europe.
• They shed their leaves in the dry season. 
• Common trees: Oak, ash, beech, etc. 
• Common animals: Deer, foxes, wolves
• Birds like pheasants, monals are also found here.

Mediterranean Vegetation

• These are present at west and south west margins of the continents.
• It is mostly found in the areas around the Mediterranean sea in Europe, Africa and Asia which given its name.
• It is also found outside the actual Mediterranean region in California in the USA, south west Africa, south western South America and South west Australia.
• These are found in the areas of hot dry summers and mild rainy winters.
• Common vegetation: Citrus fruits such as oranges, figs, olives and grapes.
• There isn’t much wildlife here.

Coniferous Forests

• These trees are found in higher latitudes (50° – 70°) of Northern hemisphere.
• These are also called as Taiga.
• These forests are also seen in the higher altitudes.
• Common trees: Chir, pine, cedar
• Common animals: Silver fox, mink, polar bear.
• Trees are tall, softwood evergreen trees.
  • The woods of these trees are very useful for making pulp, which is used for manufacturing paper and newsprint.
  • Match boxes and packing boxes are also made from softwood.

Grasslands

Tropical grasslands 

• These occur on either side of the equator and extend till the tropics.
• This vegetation grows in the areas of moderate to low amount of rainfall. 
• The grass can grow very tall, about 3 to 4 metres in height.
• Example: Savannah grasslands of Africa.
• Common animals: Elephants, zebras, giraffes, deer, leopards.

Temperate grasslands

• These are found in the mid- latitudinal zones and in the interior part of the continents.
• Grass here is short and nutritious.
• Common animals:Wild buffaloes, bisons, antilopes.

Thorny bushes

• These are found in the dry desert like regions which are located on the western margins of the continents.
• The vegetation cover is scarce because of scanty rain and scorching heat.

Polar region

• This place is extremely cold.
• The growth of natural vegetation is very limited here.
• Only mosses, lichens and very small shrubs are found here which grows during the very short summer.
  • This is called Tundra type of vegetation.
• This vegetation is found in the polar areas of Europe, Asia and North America.
• The animals have thick fur and thick skin to protect themselves from the cold climatic conditions.
• Common animals: Seal, walruses, musk-oxen, Arctic owl, Polar bear and snow foxes.