The Sub Camps

Just as at previous camps, the sub camps names come from a general theme; this time... Biomes.

What is a biome?

Biome, –noun Ecology: a complex biotic community characterized by distinctive plant and animal species and maintained under the climatic conditions of the region, esp. such a community that has developed to climax.

Amazon (Staff Sub Camp)

Sub Camp Leader: Chris Dolby & Lyn Wheelhouse
Colours: Light Grey & Navy Blue

Arctic

Sub Camp Leader: Kathy Wildgoose
Sub Camp Colour: White

Not a cold and inhospitable land full of ice and snow!

The Arctic is an exciting place full of animals and people. A wide and fascinating landscape, hone to the polar bear, caribu, musk ox, wolf, wolverine, arctic fox, ermine, lemming, arctic hare, arctic ground squirrel, birds, whales, harp seal and walrus.

Consisting of 8 different nations (Canada, Denmark, Greenland, Finsland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the USA), Approximately 2 million people live in this biome, speaking over 50 languages.

One reason that it is a very important area is because of how it affects the weather patterns in the northern hemisphere.

A land of lakes, islands, forests, tundra and plains. Home for the Inuit, Saami (also known as Lapps), Evenks, Koryaks, Nenets, Chukchi and the Yukaghir.

The Great Barrier Reef

Sub Camp Leader: Stephanie Argyle & Roger Whiteman
Sub Camp Colour: Lime Green

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the natural world. It is larger than the Great Wall of China and the only living thing on earth visible from space.

The Great Barrier Reef's coral gardens include the world's largest collection of corals, more than 400 different kinds of coral), coral sponges, molluscs, rays, dolphins, over 1500 species of tropical fish, more than 200 types of birds, around 20 types of reptiles including sea turtles and giant clams over 120 years old. It is a breeding area for humpback whales, migrating from the Antarctic and is also the habitat of a few endangered species including the Dugong (Sea Cow) and large Green Sea Turtle. In recognition of its significance, UNESCO listed the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage Site in 1981.

Everglades

Sub Camp Leader: Colin Slater
Sub Camp Colour: Bottle Green

Located in southern Florida (USA), The Everglades National Park is an example of a Sub Tropical Wetland.

It is home to many species of plants and animals, the most famous of course being the American Alligator. More than £2million are spent every year on maintaining The Everglades, to protect it from invasive, non-native species.

The Himalayas

Sub Camp Leader: Jo Morris
Sub Camp Colour: Purple

The Himalayas passes through five countries and has the world’s highest mountain chain, including Mount Everest. Although most people think of the Himalayas as being all rugged mountains and snow, there are green flowery meadows and tropical jungles too. Tribes of people still maintain their own culture and heritage, and there are some areas which are still unexplored. The Himalayas is considered to be paradise on earth.

Kazakh Steppe

Sub Camp Leader: Jaimie Bingham & Alison Rodway-Edson
Sub Camp Colour: Maroon

The Kazakh Steppe is an ecoregion that encompasses the world’s largest dry steppe region. this steppe used to be a continuous grassland belt stretching across Central Asia from the Ural River to the west to the Altai foothills in the east, however large areas of it where ploughed for agriculture in the 1950’s

Despite a relatively small number of endemic species, this region is globally important due to it supporting the largest populations of several rare and imperilled species. More information can be found at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa0810.html  (The organisers of Peak 2010 and Peak Camps accept no responsibility for the content of external websites).

Pacific

Sub Camp Leader: Brian Counter
Sub Camp Colour: Navy Blue

The 'Pacific ocean' covers a third of the Earth's surface, having an area of 69.4 million square miles and 161 million cubic miles of water, significantly larger than Earth's entire landmass, with room for another Africa to spare. It is 9,600 miles long from the Bering Sea in the Arctic to the icy margins of Antarctica's Ross Sea in the south. The Pacific reaches its greatest east-west width at about 5°N latitude, where it stretches approximately 12,300 miles from Indonesia to the coast of Colombia and Peru – halfway across the world, and more than five times the diameter of the Moon. The lowest point on earth—the Mariana Trench—lies 10,911 metres below sea level. Its average depth is 4,280 metres.

The Pacific is ringed by many volcanoes and oceanic trenches. A Volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma, ash and gases to escape from below the surface. The word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano island off Sicily which in turn, was named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. A mid-oceanic ridge, for example the Pacific Ring of Fire has examples of volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates coming together. By contrast, volcanoes are usually not created where two tectonic plates slide past one another. Volcanoes can be caused by mantle plumes. These so-called hotspots, for example at Hawaii, can occur far from plate boundaries.

Sahara

Sub Camp Leader: Sophie Bradey
Sub Camp Colour: Sky Blue

The largest hot desert in the world, it is spread over an area of more than 9 million sq. km.

The desert is rocky with little vegetation, it contains underground rivers, which can result in oases.

The sand dunes in the desert reach a height of about 180 meters. The desert has a combination climate of subtropical in the north and tropical in the south.

Very hot in the day and very cold at night.

Serengeti

Sub Camp Leader: Mark Stafford
Sub Camp Colour: Brown

Welcome to the Serengeti

Location: Tanzania, Africa

The Serengeti National Park is one of the oldest ecosystems in the world. It covers nearly 15,000 square kilometers and attracts over 90,000 tourists to the Park each year. Its landscape, originally formed by volcanic activity, has been sculptured by the combined action of wind, rain and sun. Each area has its own particular atmosphere and wildlife of lots of different animals.

The name Serengeti comes from the Maasai (African people) name meaning ‘endless plains’. These rolling distances of short grass plains provide an exceptional landscape for viewing wildlife on safari. The area has around 30 species of large herbivores and nearly 500 species of birds and it is most famous for its annual migration of over 1.5 million white bearded wildebeest and 200,000 zebra.

It is the ultimate safari country - But WATCH OUT… the Safari at Peak 2010 may be just as wild!

Taiga

Sub Camp Leader: Sue Featherstone
Sub Camp Colour: Cyan

Taiga is the Russian word for forest and is the largest biome in the world. It stretches over Europe, Asia and North America. The taiga is located near the top of the world, just below the tundra biome. The winters in the taiga are very cold with only snowfall. The summers are warm, rainy, and humid. A lot of coniferous trees grow in the taiga. The taiga is also known as the boreal forest. Did you know that Boreal was the Greek goddess of the North Wind? The taiga doesn't have as many plant and animal species as the tropical or the deciduous forest biomes. It does have millions of insects in the summertime. Birds migrate there every year to nest and feed.