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Biomes: Terrestrial Biomes
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Biomes are large geographic ecoregions with specific environmental conditions that determine typical plant and animal communities in that area. A fundamental classification of biomes is into aquatic and terrestrial biomes. Terrestrial Biomes can be distinguished according to the following criteria:
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Biomes are organized here in such a way as to take into account their relative latitudes and corresponding climate. (Distinctions of latitude and climate are mostly relevant where terrestrial biomes are concerned.) As with biomes, there are many possible climate zones, particularly when rainfall patterns and other variables are considered. All climate zones... fall into one of three basic categories: tropical and subtropical, temperate, and polar and subpolar.
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Terrestrial biomes are described the by their average rainfall, temperature, and major plants and animals. Because environmental factors change gradually over a landscape, biomes seldom have distinct boundaries. As climate varies, one biome gradually changes into another. Scientists do not even agree on the number of terrestrial boimes represented on Earth. Your textbook lists seven "major" biomes and their characteristics. Here are links to another system of biomes:
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One of the more useful methods for classifying biomes is that of the American ecologist Eugene Pleasants Odum (1913-), introduced in his Fundamentals of Ecology (1953). The classification scheme that follows is based on that of Odum, who divided biomes into terrestrial and aquatic. In the present context, biomes have been grouped into five categories: forest, nonforest, freshwater, marine, and anthropogenic. The last of these categories refers to biomes strongly influenced by humans and their activities, though it should be noted that to some degree at least, human activities have influenced all of Earth's biomes. For example, many organisms carry in their fat cells trace amounts of human-manufactured contaminants, such as DDT.
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Some people prefer to subdivide these four broad biomes. For example, the forest biome can be subdivided into a temperate forest biome and tropical forest biome. The temperate forest biome and tropical forest biome can then be further divided based on the characteristics of the trees found in the biome. The World Wildlife Fund recommends the following classification scheme of terrestrial biomes.
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Ecologists have proposed a series of biomes for the oceans of the world as well, although most of their attention has focused on terrestrial biomes. The ocean biomes are sometimes divided into a littoral zone (rocky shores, salt marshes, and beaches), a pelagic zone (the upper layers of the ocean), and an abyssal zone (the deeper levels of the ocean). Other more complicated classifications of ocean habitats have been proposed.
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Terrestrial Biomes