EnvSc: Chapter 6 (3 of 3) - Major Types of Terrestrial Biomes

Tropical Rainforest

A biome that receives large amounts of rain. The most biologically diverse of all biomes. Half of our Earth's species live here, Broadleaf ever evergreen forest found in wet and hot regions near the equator.

Tropical Dry Forest

A biome that occurs at tropical and subtropical latitudes where wet and dry seasons each span about half the year, characterized by relatively high temperatures and precipitation overall but with a pronounced dry season lasting around 7 months.

Savanna

A biome with tall grass, scattered individual trees and shrubs, large herbivores, and three distinct seasons based primarily on rainfall. There is a heavy rainy season followed by a long dry season in which many animals have to migrate.

Desert

A type of biome characterized by low moisture levels and infrequent and unpredictable precipitation. Daily and seasonal temperatures fluctuate widely. Receives ten inches or less of precipitation each year.

Temperate Rainforest

Has heavy rainfall and features coniferous trees such as cedars, spruces, hemlocks, and douglas fir. Forest interior is shaded and damp, moisture loving animals such as the banana slug are most common. The temperatures are cool and does not get too extreme one way or the other.

Temperate Deciduous Forest

A forest made up of trees that lose their leaves in the fall/winter due to the cold. Summers are warm and plants thrive. Precipitation is relatively stable throughout the year.

Temperate Grasslands

Dominated by grasses; trees and large shrubs are absent. Temperatures vary more from summer to winter, and the amount of rainfall is leterm-17ss than in savannas. This biome has hot summers and cold winters.

Chapparal

A scrubland biome of dense, spiny evergreen shrubs found at midlatitudes along coasts where cold ocean currents circulate offshore; characterized by mild, rainy winters and long, hot, dry summers. Fires are frequent.

Boreal Forests (Taiga)

A forest made up primarily of coniferous evergreen trees that can tolerate cold winters and short growing seasons, Stretches across the north of the northern hemisphere. Very cold winters, short, cool summers, and extraordinarily high annual variation in temperature confers are the dominant plants.

Tundra

A biome at the northernmost limits of plant growth and at high altitudes, characterized by dwarf woody shrubs, grasses, mosses, and lichens., A vast, level, treeless plain in the arctic regions. It has permafrost.