Biomes

Most Important Climate Factors

  1. Temperatures:
  • warmest at the equator and coldest at the poles
  • Angle of Sun hitting the earth relates to the heat in each region
  1. Precipitation:
  • Global rainfall depends on the circulation of the wind, which in turn is driven by the sun
  • Solar energy on the equator heats air causing it to rise
  • the rising air cools and it's moisture falls back as rain

Biomes

  1. Tropical Rainforest:

   

  1. Highest precipitation
  2. Warmest and most stable temperatures

       1. High humidity keeps temperatures stable year round and throughout the day

  1. Large tropical trees

       1. competition for sunlight, epiphytes are common

  1. High biodiversity of terrestrial biomes
  2. Nutrient poor soil

       1. decaying matter is quickly sucked up by large veg

  1. Hot Desert:

   

  1. Hot with extremely log rainfall
  2. 30 degrees North and South of the equator
  3. Animals and plants have adaptions for low precip
    1. Savannah/ Tropical grassland:

   

  1. Open grassland with scarce shrubs and trees
  2. Warm temps year round

       1. Periodic fires

  1. Wet and dry season

       1. Not enough rain for a Forest and not enough for desert

  1. Large herbivores and predators dominate
    1. Temperate Grasslands:

   

  1. Cooler temperatures than tropical grasslands

       1. Wet and dry season less dramatic

  1. Not enough rain for a Forest and not enough for desert
  2. Lower biodiversity than tropical grass.
  3. Richest soil in all biomes
    1. Temperate Rainforest:

   

  1. Recieved year round rainfall
  2. Large old-growth trees
  3. higher latitudes than tropical

       1. temps are much cooler

  1. Temperate Deciduous Forest:

   

  1. Mid latitude Forest
  2. Dominated by Deciduous trees (leaves fall), oak and Elm and maple
  3. Alaska
    1. Coniferous Forest/ Taiga:

   

  1. Largest terrestrial Biome
  2. Higher latitude than Deciduous Forest

       1. temps cooler

  1. coniferous trees (don’t loose leaves in winter)
  2. Shorter growing season than Deciduous forest
    1. Chaparral:

   

  1. Coastal biome with hot, dry summers and mild rainy winters
  2. Spiny Evergreen shrubs
  3. Maintained by fire

       1. Needed for seeds to germinate

  1. Tundra:

   

  1. bitter cold desert
  2. high winds
  3. Short growing season
  4. Permeant ice (permafrost) underlying surface

       1. restricts plants from growing and having roots

  1. Artic