Aquatic Biomes of the World

Dive into Earth's water biomes with this one-page map worksheet! Students read about four aquatic biomes, find six lettered places on a world map, and name the biome at each one.

The passage explains that aquatic biomes are sorted mostly by salinity, how much salt is in the water, and also by depth and sunlight. Freshwater biomes, like rivers and lakes, have very little salt. An estuary is where a river flows into the ocean, so fresh water and salt water mix into brackish water. A coral reef grows in warm, shallow, clear salt water, mostly near the equator, and the open ocean is deep salt water far from shore. A simple salinity scale beside the passage shows fresh, brackish, and salt water with examples of each. The world map is labeled with the continents, the oceans, and the equator. In the first activity, students find six real places, including the Amazon River, Lake Victoria, Chesapeake Bay, the Rio de la Plata, the Great Barrier Reef, and the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and write the biome from a word bank. In the second activity, students decide if four sentences are true or false. The sheet is written to Texas TEKS 7.12B and also fits NGSS MS-LS2-1.

What's inside:

• A short passage with a salinity scale
• A labeled world map with 6 real places
• 4 true or false sentences
• A visual answer key with the completed map

How teachers use it:

• After the land biome map worksheets, to cover water biomes
• For bell work, stations, or an exit ticket
• As homework or sub plans, with no prep needed

It takes about 10 minutes and prints clearly in black and white. This worksheet is part of our Reading in Science series of biome map worksheets.