NDA (II) 2016 General Ability Test · Question 59 of 150

Correct — A, Chile. The Mediterranean biome is not confined to the Mediterranean Sea; it appears in five widely separated pockets of the world, and all five obey the same rule. Each lies on the western side of a continent, roughly between 30 and 45 degrees of latitude, north or south. They are the Mediterranean Basin itself, California, central Chile, the Cape region of South Africa, and southern and south-western Australia. Central Chile, the strip around Santiago between about 30 and 38 degrees south, is South America's share of that list, and its drought-hardy evergreen scrub is known locally as matorral. The climate there behaves exactly as the type requires — hot, rainless summers when the subtropical high sits overhead, and mild, wet winters when the westerly belt swings equatorward and brings rain. None of the other three countries offered is on a west coast in that latitude band.

• (b)Kenya — Kenya straddles the equator, so it has no winter-rain regime at all. Its lowlands carry tropical savanna and its highlands a cool tropical climate, and its rainfall comes in two peaks as the overhead sun crosses, not in a single winter maximum.
• (c)Argentina — The most tempting wrong answer, because Argentina is at the right latitude. But it lies on the eastern side of South America, and the Andes stand between it and the westerlies. Its temperate lands carry the pampas grassland and, further south, the Patagonian cold desert — the rain shadow of the very winds that water Chile.
• (d)Bolivia — Bolivia is landlocked and tropical, split between Amazonian lowlands and the high Altiplano. It has neither a west coast nor a mid-latitude position, so a Mediterranean regime is impossible there.

A Mediterranean climate is defined by the reversal of the usual pattern — its rain falls in winter and its summers are dry. This happens where the subtropical high-pressure belt sits over a west coast in summer, suppressing rain, and then shifts equatorward in winter, letting the rain-bearing westerlies take its place. The plants that survive this are evergreen, small-leaved and thick-cuticled shrubs adapted to summer drought and periodic fire.

Do not memorise five country names; memorise the rule that generates them, because the examiner can ask this with any set of countries. West coast, mid-latitudes, roughly 30 to 45 degrees. Run each option against it. Kenya fails on latitude, Bolivia fails on both coast and latitude, and Argentina passes on latitude but fails on which coast it occupies — which is why it is the strong distractor. Chile alone satisfies both conditions, and central Chile is the standard South American example in every biome map.

• The Mediterranean biome occurs in five regions: the Mediterranean Basin, California, central Chile, the Cape region of South Africa, and southern and south-western Australia.
• All five lie on the western margins of continents, roughly between 30 and 45 degrees latitude in either hemisphere.
• Summers are hot and dry and winters mild and wet, the winter rain arriving with the westerlies.
• The characteristic vegetation is drought-hardy evergreen scrub, called maquis around the Mediterranean, chaparral in California and matorral in Chile.

• Choosing Argentina because the latitude looks right, and forgetting that the biome needs a western margin.
• Assuming the Mediterranean biome exists only around the Mediterranean Sea.

NDA GAT asks world climate both by name and by data table, so be able to recognise a Mediterranean station from its rainfall graph as well as from its latitude.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Mediterranean type of climate is typically found

  • (a)on the eastern margins of continents between 30 and 45 degrees latitude
  • (b)on the western margins of continents between 30 and 45 degrees latitude
  • (c)along the equator on both coasts
  • (d)in continental interiors between 45 and 60 degrees latitude

  Answer(b) on the western margins of continents between 30 and 45 degrees latitude — the belt reached by the westerlies in winter and by the subtropical high in summer.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The drought-resistant evergreen scrub of the Mediterranean biome is known in California as

  • (a)matorral
  • (b)maquis
  • (c)chaparral
  • (d)fynbos

  Answer(c) chaparral — the same vegetation is matorral in Chile, maquis around the Mediterranean and fynbos at the Cape.