Lesson video

Hi geographers.

My name's Ms. Hoggett and I'm really excited that you're here to learn some geography with me today.

I'm sure if you try your best, you're going to be absolutely fantastic.

Don't worry too much if you haven't studied this topic before.

I'm here to help you every step of the way.

The title for today's lesson is Climate and Biomes of the Middle East, and this sits within the unit, The Middle East: how have natural resources changed the Middle East? Our learning outcome for today is that "I can explain how climate and biomes differ across the Middle East." To help us through today's lesson, we have a number of really important key terms that are going to be really useful to us.

Biome, climate, arid and geographical information system or GIS.

A biome is a large region of the world with places that have similar climates, vegetation and animals that have adapted to living there.

Climate is an average of weather conditions in a place over a long period of time, usually 30 years or more.

Arid is a place that receives less than 250 millimetres of precipitation a year, and a geographical information system is a computer mapping system that captures and displays geographic data to help understand spatial patterns.

So biome, climate, arid and geographical information system are going to help us through today's lesson.

There are two learning cycles in this lesson.

Biomes of the Middle East and the Middle East climate patterns.

We're going to start with our first one now, biomes of the Middle East.

Before we get started, I'd like you to think about the Middle East.

How would you describe the climate? Pause the video and tell the person next to you.

What did you come up with or discuss? Let's have a look at what some other people thought.

Lucas said, "I'm pretty sure it's really hot." And Andeep said, "Yeah, and it's really dry too.

It's all desert." So let's have a look and see whether or not Lucas and Andeep are correct.

A common misconception is that the Middle East is all desert.

However, the Middle East does contain lots of different landscapes.

There are huge varieties of different physical features such as the snow-topped Zagros mountains in Iran and the Lebanese mountains where people can ski in the winter.

There are also fertile river valleys, especially along the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers in Iraq, where ancient civilizations first developed thanks to rich, farmable land.

Coastal areas along the Mediterranean Sea in countries like Lebanon and Israel feature lush greenery and beaches while large modern cities such as Dubai and Istanbul show how urban development shapes the region.

So the Middle East is more diverse than many people think.

It's not just desert, but it's an area of varied climates, landforms and different cultures.

Within this, there are lots of different biomes within the Middle East.

A biome is a large region of the world with places that share similar climates, vegetation and animals that have adapted to living there.

On our map, we can see that the key biomes are the ones that have a warm desert climate, a warm semi-arid climate, Mediterranean climates, temperate climates, and continental climates, and we can see how they vary from north to south.

Warm deserts are places that are hot and have less than 250 millimetres of precipitation a year.

Whilst we know that the Middle East isn't all desert, we can see that it does dominate a large proportion, particularly in the south of the Middle East.

The Mediterranean climates are places with mild to cold, wet winters and mild to hot, dry summers.

Semi-arid places are places that receive less than 500 millimetres of precipitation a year.

Temperate climates have moderate temperatures and precipitation all year round, and continental climates have big ranges and temperatures throughout the year.

So we can see that the Middle East certainly isn't all desert.

Whilst there are large areas of warm desert climate, there are also Mediterranean, semi-arid, temperate and continental areas as well.

So let's check your understanding.

The Middle East is too hot and dry to support biomes other than deserts.

Pause the video and have a go at answering this question.

Well done if you said false.

We know that the landscape in the Middle East is made up of lots of different biomes, including warm deserts, Mediterranean, steppes, for example.

Now each biome has its own key characteristics.

Before we get into this, I want you to have a look at those two images and think about what differences you notice between those landscapes.

Pause the video and have a think about what differences you can see.

Well done for giving that some thought.

Now we know that the landscapes in the Middle East vary, and an example of a hot desert in the Middle East is the Rub'al Kahli in Saudi Arabia.

It also extends into Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen as well.

Now it's an example of an extremely arid place with summer temperatures often exceeding over 50 degrees Celsius and receiving less than 30 millimetres of precipitation a year, so it's really dry.

It's one of the largest continuous sand deserts in the world, and there's not much vegetation.

As a result, not many people live there because there's lots of challenges to living in such a harsh environment.

On the other hand, we have coastal regions such as that in Lebanon, which are a good example of Mediterranean landscapes in the Middle East.

The summers here are hot and dry and sunny and the winters are mild and rainy.

The landscape supports different shrubs, trees and vegetation, so it's much greener than we just saw in the hot desert.

Let's check your understanding.

I'd like you to suggest the names for the biomes missing from the key on this biome map of the Middle East.

Pause the video and have a go at completing this question.

Well done for giving that a good go.

Let's check your answers.

So the yellow sections across Saudi Arabia, Egypt, parts of Iraq, for example, are warm desert climates.

Our Mediterranean climate is the lighter blue section and the pink section is the continental climate.

Good work, geographers.

So we're going to practise what you've learned so far about the different biomes of the Middle East and I would like you to use the map and explain how the biomes of the Middle East change from south to north.

Pause the video and have a go at completing this practise task.

<v ->Well done for giving that a good go, geographers.

</v> Let's check your answers.

So your answer might have included that the biomes of the Middle East vary greatly due to differences in climate across the region.

In the south and southwest across countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, there is a warm desert climate with very little rainfall and high temperatures.

This means the land is mostly dry with little vegetation.

Moving slightly north and east into parts of Iraq and Iran, the climate becomes warm semi-arid, which still has hot summers but gets a bit more rain, allowing for some grassland and shrubs to grow.

Along the western and northern coasts, especially in countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Israel, there is a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters.

In the far north of Turkey, there is a temperate climate which has a moderate temperature and rain throughout the year, supporting forests.

Finally, in the northeast of Turkey and the northwest of Iran, the continental climate means hot summers and cold winters.

This range of climates from north to south and east to west creates a variety of biomes across the Middle East.

So we've challenged our misconception that the Middle East is all desert and recognised that there are really diverse biomes of the Middle East.

Well done, geographers.

We're now ready to move on to learning cycle number two, the Middle East climate patterns.

Sofia and Izzy are having a discussion.

Who is correct? Sofia says, "Climate is the average weather conditions for a given place over a long period of time." Izzy says, "Climate is what the weather conditions are like when I look outside my window." Pause the video and have a think about who's made the correct statement.

Well done if you said Sofia.

Now climate is an average of weather conditions in a place over a long period of time, usually 30 years or more.

The weather of a place describes the day-to-day conditions of the atmosphere.

We can use different sources of information to better understand the climate in the Middle East.

True or false? The climate of a place describes the day-to-day conditions of the atmosphere.

Pause the video and have a go at answering this question.

Well done for giving that a go.

The correct answer is false.

We know that climate is an average of weather conditions in a place over a long period of time, usually 30 years or more, and the weather of a place describes the day-to-day conditions of the atmosphere.

Good work, geographers.

Now we can use geographical information systems to understand the climate patterns in the Middle East.

This map here shows annual average temperature.

The darker the shading, the lower the average temperature.

The average annual temperature in the Middle East is around 26 degrees Celsius.

This map here shows slightly different information because this shows annual precipitation in the Middle East.

Areas shaded blue have high rainfall.

Areas shaded yellow have very low rainfall.

What patterns do you notice when looking at this map of precipitation across the Middle East? Pause the video and have a go about thinking about those patterns.

What did you come up with? In central and southern parts of the Middle East, rainfall can be as low as 40 millimetres per year.

In northern parts it can be over 800 millimetres per year.

So there is a real difference in the amount of precipitation that different parts of the Middle East receive.

Areas that receive less than 250 millimetres of rainfall a year are referred to as arid.

Large parts of the Middle East are arid.

Sofia says, "Not all of the Middle East is arid.

Some parts receive more than 250 millimetres of rainfall a year." Definitely spot on, Sofia.

And it's really important to remember that the precipitation can vary across the Middle East.

So the southern parts of the Middle East are usually warmer and drier than the northern parts.

What we've done here is we've placed those two maps next to each other in order to see the similarities and the differences.

The Middle East sits across three climate zones, tropical, dry, and continental.

This is because it stretches from approximately 20 degrees north of the equator to approximately 40 degrees north of the equator, and you can see it circled on the map and it stretches between those three climate zones.

Now this is because latitude affects what the climate of a place is like.

At the equator, the sun's rays are more concentrated, so the temperatures are higher.

At the poles, the sun's rays are more spread out over a larger area, so the temperatures are lower.

As the Middle East stretches over such a vast area, we do experience a difference in the amount of energy received from the sun at the surface.

Likewise, global atmospheric circulation affects how wet or how dry a place is.

Where air rises away from the earth, it will cool and condense to form clouds.

These places are wet, as it rains there.

Where the air sinks back towards the earth, it's dry.

The Middle East, sitting at 20 degrees north of the equator to approximately 40 degrees north of the equator is generally quite dry, because at the tropics, air is sinking.

However, areas further north and south experience more precipitation because the air is rising.

So this explains some of the patterns we saw on the two maps we've just looked at.

So I'd like you to have a think about what you've learned so far and which option below best describes the climate patterns in the Middle East.

Is it A, it's wetter and colder in the south of the Middle East and drier and warmer in the north, or B, it is wetter and warmer in the south of the middle East and drier and colder in the north or C, it is drier and warmer in the south of the Middle East and wetter and colder in the north? Pause the video and have a go at answering that question.

Well done for giving that a good go, geographers.

Let's check your answers.

So the correct answer is C.

It's drier and warmer in the south of the Middle East, and wetter and colder in the north.

Good work.

Now a climate graph shows how precipitation and temperature change throughout the year in a particular location.

We can see that the red line on our climate graph is representing temperature in degrees Celsius and the blue bars are representing precipitation in millimetres.

Along the bottom, so along our X axis, we can see the months of the year.

So each of those different pieces of information represent the average for a particular month.

So let's check you've understood that.

On a climate graph, the red line shows us what? Is it A, precipitation, B, temperature, or C, months? Pause the video and have a go at that question.

Well done if you said B, temperature.

I remember it because red is a warm colour and that reminds me of temperature, whereas the blue we associate with water, So that reminds me of precipitation.

Now this climate graph is from Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia.

You can see that located on our map.

Now what I would like you to do is have a think about what you can see in that climate graph.

So firstly, what patterns are shown in this data and secondly, how would you describe this climate? Pause the video and discuss it with the person next to you.

Let's have a think about what you might have noticed.

So despite the blue bars being higher between October and May, only very small amounts of precipitation actually fall within these months.

If we look at that scale, we can see it never gets above 15 millimetres of precipitation.

So the amount is still quite low, but temperatures do range between 15 degrees Celsius in winter up to 36 degrees Celsius in the summer months.

So it gets really, really warm in the summer and it gets a little bit colder in winter.

Now we can compare this to this climate graph from Ankara, the capital city of Turkey.

Again, we can see that located on our map.

Again, I would like you to have a look at that climate graph and think about what patterns are shown in that data and how you would describe this climate.

Pause the video and have a go at looking for those patterns.

Well done for giving that a good go.

Now here we can see that up to 60 millimetres of precipitation fall in those winter months.

The summer months will receive up to 10 millimetres of precipitation, so there is that seasonal difference.

Temperatures range between zero degrees in winter up to 25 degrees Celsius in the summer months.

So whilst it doesn't quite get as hot here and it does get much colder in winter, actually we still see that seasonal pattern.

Now from this, we can take that Turkey is generally wetter and colder than Saudi Arabia.

So we can analyse this further to think about how climate actually affects where people live.

And on the screen we can see a choropleth map, which shows us population density.

The darker the colour on this map, the more people who live per square kilometre.

What we can see is that there is a higher population density where the climate is cooler and wetter, such as in Turkey.

There are also higher population densities around key water sources, such as the River Nile in Egypt.

So we're going to think about how we can put this into practise and we are going to firstly use the climate graphs to compare the climates in Ankara, Turkey and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and then we are going to explain how and why the climate varies in the Middle East.

And Aisha says, "Don't forget to talk about climate zones, latitude and where air rises and sinks." So pause the video and have a go at both parts to this practise task.

Here's an example of what you might have written in your answer.

So the climate graphs show that Riyadh in Saudi Arabia is drier and hotter than Ankara in Turkey.

The maximum temperature in Riyadh is 36 degrees Celsius in July.

This contrasts with Ankara, where the highest temperature is 23 degrees Celsius in July.

The lowest temperature in Riyadh is 14 degrees Celsius in January, whereas in Ankara, it's minus one in January.

Both places have the same seasonal patterns.

Riyadh has much less precipitation annually than Ankara does.

14 millimetres of precipitation falls in April in Riyadh, whereas the maximum precipitation that Ankara receives is in December at 58 millimetres.

This evidence says that the climate across the Middle East varies.

Now that's a really good answer because it uses really specific information from the graph, so it uses those figures as well as comparing the similarities and the differences.

So well done if you managed to do those key parts.

For part two, we had to explain why the climate varies in the Middle East.

So we could've said the climate in the Middle East varies a lot because of its location in the world and the type of climate zones it has.

Most of the Middle East is in the dry climate zone, which means it gets very little rain.

Countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other parts of Iran are mostly desert.

This happens because the Middle East is found between 20 and 40 degrees north and south of the equator, which is a place where air sinks.

When air sinks, it doesn't form clouds, so there isn't much rain.

This is why deserts form.

Some parts of the Middle East have a temperate climate, especially in the north like parts of Turkey.

These places are cooler and can get more rain, especially in the winter.

This is because they are further from the equator.

A few small areas can have a tropical climate.

This means they are humid, especially in summer, but they still don't get a lot of rain because most of the air is still sinking.

So the climate changes throughout the Middle East.

Where air rises, like near the equator, it rains more.

But in the Middle East, most air is sinking, so it stays dry.

Well done for giving that a really good go and well done if you managed to talk about all of those different elements within your answer.

So we've come to the end of today's lesson on climate and biomes of the Middle East.

And to summarise, we've learned that the Middle East has a vast area of desert, but also includes Mediterranean, temperate, continental and semi-arid biomes.

We can use GIS to recognise climate patterns, climate graphs show average temperature and precipitation patterns in a specific location, the climate is wetter and cooler in northern parts of the Middle East, such as Turkey than in southern parts of the Middle East, such as Yemen, and climate affects where people live.

Well done for giving that a really good go, geographers.

You have done brilliantly today and I look forward to seeing you in our next lesson.