Examples of habitats -wet, sunny, dry, shady?

Question

I have to give examples of these habitats:

Wet & sunny, wet & shady, dry & sunny, dry & shady.

I was thinking, wet and shady would be a tropical rainforest, dry and sunny would be a desert. But I don't know the other two.

At first, I considered a temperate rainforest, then again, it's wet for half a year and dry for the other. Also, can a coniferous forest up on the mountains count as dry and shady? But then again, coniferous forests also tend to be very wet.

Any help is appreciated! Thank you very much.

Answer 1

Wet & sunny is typical of the rainforest also. Remember the tree canopy of leaves is essentially a distinct habitat with very different living conditions from the shaded forest floor. An alternate choice would be a riparian (fresh water) or littoral (seawater) shoreline habitat. These regions are often constantly wet and often are marshy wetlands. Another sunny wet habitat is a large lake like the Rift Valley lakes of Malawi, Tanganyika or Lake Victoria. The coral reefs are also sunny marine habitats.

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_...

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_...

Wet & shady can be the forest floor as you suggest or a mangrove grown island and shoreline of a river delta. In a marine setting the kelp or eelgrass beds offer dense shade and a very sheltered setting.

http://www.habitat.adfg.state.ak.us/geni...

http://www.mangrove.at/mangrove/english/...

Dry & sunny can be any region with limited rainfall such as a savannah type grassland or a true hot desert but also the arctic regions.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildwo...

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/types/

Dry & shady is usually a portion of a heterogeneous habitat and the coniferous forests found at greater elevations in regions like the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains are typically like this just as you thought. Lower elevations grow only mixed grass & shrubs but higher elevations get just enough rainfall to support pines.

A Mediterranean region, characterized by shrubs would also fall in this category. Sierra Nevada montane chaparral offers low dense growths of pinemat manzanita and huckleberry oak in its climax communities.

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:8v9...

Dry broadleaf forest habitat

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_...

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_...

Answer 2

You can also have predominantly wet

http://www.tropical-rainforest-animals.c...

...with a dry season, too.