Types of Biomes

A biome is a large, distinctive complex of plant communities created and maintained by climate. A study published in 1999 concluded that there are 150 different ecoregions in North America alone.

Biomes are defined by Campbell in 1996, as the world's major communities, classified according to the predominant vegetation and characterized by adaptations of organisms to that particular environment. The importance of biomes cannot be overestimated. Biomes have changed and moved many times during the history of life on Earth. More recently, human activities have drastically altered these communities. Thus, conservation and preservation of biomes should be a major concern to all. They are six major types of biomes groups.

Biomes are around the hold world. They are very important to care of them, so we can admired and share with others...


Tropical Rain Forest

In the Western Hemisphere, the tropical rain forest reaches its fullest development in the jungles of Central and South America.

• The trees are very tall and of a great variety of species. One rarely finds two trees of the same species growing close to one another.
• The vegetation is so dense that little light reaches the forest floor.
• Most of the plants are evergreen.
• The branches of the trees are festooned with vines and epiphytes.

The greenness of the tropical rain forest suggests a high net productivity, but this is deceptive. They are two problems:

• The high rainfall leaches soil minerals below the reach of plant roots.
• The warmth and moisture cause rapid decay so little humus is added to the soil.

Exceeds all the other biomes in the diversity of its animals as well as plants. Most of the animals – mammals, reptiles, birds, insects — live in the trees. The closest thing to a tropical rain forest in the continental United States are the little wooded "islands" found scattered through the Everglades in the southern tip of Florida. Their existence depends on the fact that it never freezes, and they often escape the fires that periodically sweep the Everglades.

Taiga

Taiga is named after the biome in Russia.

• It is a land dominated by conifers.
• It is populated by an even more limited variety of plants and animals than is the temperate deciduous forest.
• In North America, the moose is such a typical member that it has led to the name: "spruce-moose" biome.
• Before the long, snowy winter sets in, many of the mammals hibernate, and many of the birds migrate south.
• Although the long days of summer permit plants to grow luxuriantly, net productivity is low.
  

Tundra

It is located at extreme latitudes, the trees of the taiga become stunted by the austerity of the subarctic climate. They disappear leaving a land of bogs and lakes.

• The climate is so cold in winter that even the long days of summer are unable to thaw the permafrost beneath the surface layers of soil.
• Sphagnum moss, a wide variety of lichens, and some grasses and fast-growing annuals dominate the landscape during the short growing season.
• Caribou feed on this growth as do vast numbers of insects.
• Swarms of migrating birds, especially waterfowl, invade the tundra in the summer to raise their young, feeding them on a large variety of aquatic invertebrates and vertebrates.
• As the brief arctic summer draws to a close, the birds fly south, and all but a few of the permanent residents, in one way or another, prepare themselves to spend the winter in a dormant state.

This is a type of biomes pyramid:

Conservation and preservation of biomes

As a coral reef surrounds an island in French Polynesia. Are very important to care of all these biomes because we share the world with many other species of plants and animals, we must consider the consequences of our actions. Over the past several decades, increasing human activity has rapidly destroyed or polluted many ecological habitats throughout the world. It is important to preserve all types of biomes as each houses many unique forms of life. However, the continued heavy exploitation of certain biomes, such as the forest, freshwater, and marine, may have more severe implications.

Forests are important as they are home to the most diverse biotic communities in the world. Hidden within these biomes are potential medicines and many thousands of unseen and undiscovered species. Also, forests have a global climate-buffering capacity, so their destruction may cause large-scale changes in global climate.