Answer to Question 1
Japan is roughly the size of California, and made up of four islands that receive ample supplies of water (around 60 inches of rainfall per year in many parts of the country). Northern Japan faces cold, snowy winters, with milder temperatures toward the south. Japan's heavily wooded mountains cover about 85 of the land area, with about 15 coastal plains. Taiwan is a single island, about the size of Maryland. Its central and eastern regions are mountainous, while the west is dominated by an alluvial plain. Taiwan lies on the Tropic of Cancer, and has a much milder climate than Japan.
Answer to Question 2
The habitat of an organism is the physical, chemical, and biological conditions under which the organism is normally found. The reason it is important to biodiversity and extinction is twofold: 1) changes to an organism's environment can lead to the extinction of an organism; 2) if an organism does go extinct, that changes the environment of other organisms.
