Ride the Wind: Airborne Journeys of Animals and Plants

Ride the Wind: Airborne Journeys of Animals and Plants — page 1
All the animals and plants in the world live on the earth as well as above its surface For our planet is made up not only of rocks soil and water but also of the gases in its atmosphere Animals and plants and people too live at the bottom of the atmosphere an enormous ocean of air that reaches hundreds of miles above the solid surface of Earth Animals and plants that make air journeys travel through a layer of the atmosphere called the troposphere which can be up to six miles 9 6 km high Air is a real substance even though it is invisible A bird’s wing pushes against the air in its path and the air pushes back against the wing Birds flap their wings to push through the air the way swimmers use their arms to push through water The support of the air allows birds bats and insects to fly and carries seeds and ballooning spiders aloft