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Why Is The Importance Of Biomes
What is needed to identify a biome in an essay
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A biome, also known as life zones, consists of all plants, animals, and other organisms, as well the physical environment in a particular area. A biome is characterized by its’ plant life, climate, and location. The climate and physical features determine the boundaries of a biome. A biome is made up of many different ecosystems. The ecosystems tend to have the same pants and animals as neighboring biomes around the boundaries. The major biomes are the tundra, taiga, tropical rain forest, temperate forests, desert, grassland, savanna, chaparral, and marine. Each biome has it’s own characteristics such as the tundra.
The tundra is a biome that is located in the Northern Hemisphere of the world. It circles the North Pole and reaches down to the taiga. The tundra has a very cold and harsh climate, especially in the winters. The average winter temperatures is about -30°F and average summer temperatures is roughly 37-54°F. The yearly amount of precipitation, which includes melting snow, averages to about 6 to 10 inches. With these conditions it makes for a short growing season of about 50-60 days. In some parts it can be up to 180 days. This is only found in the more southern part of the tundra. Another aspect of the tundra includes the vegetation that is found there and the adaptations that have been made.
The tundra is known for its’ cold temperatures, but also its’ limited plant species. The growth of the vegetation is primarily low to the ground and the biomass of plants is concentrated in the roots. Here the plants reproduce more likely by division and building than by flower pollination. Some of that growthforms that you will find in the tundra include tussock, mats or cushion plants, rosettes, and dwarf shru...
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...enthic, coral reef, and estuaries. Some freshwater habitats include marches, lakes, rivers, ponds, wetlands, and bogs.
All the biomes of the world have climates, plants, and animals all their own. Traveling through each zone you can pick out the similar adaptations of each plant and animal. Biomes are unique to their location, each one of great importance to the world.
Bibliography
1. Biomes, http://ths.sps.lane.edu/biomes
2. Aquatic Biomes, http://redbaron.bishops.ntc.nf.ca/wells/biomes/html/aquatic.htm
3. Biomes, SLW, October 1996, http://runet.edu/~swoodwar/CLASSES/GEOG235/biomes
4. Chaparral, http://www.csun.edu/csc24235/hairach.html
5. Northern Coniferous Forest, http://www.uwsp.edu/acaddept/geog/faculty/ritter/geog101/biomes_northern_forest.html
6. The World of Biology, 4th ed., Davis, Solomon, Berg; Saunders College Publishing, Ó1994.
What is a biome? Biomes are major life zones characterized by vegetation type or by the physical environment. Climate plays a role in determining the nature and location of Earth’s biomes. Texas has 10 different ecosystems with lots of diversity. Minnesota has 4 different ecosystems which are also quite diverse. Regardless of the size of the biomes or the number of biomes in each state, they are all important not just to the locate environment but on a global level because of the life they support. We are going to take a look at the different biomes, comparing climate and rainfall, as well as vegetation fauna.
The Taiga is a biome that originates from Northern Russia that means or describes a cool large land with many conifers. Upper North America, Northern Europe and Northern Asia all are mostly Taiga. It is the largest biome and contains mostly conifers but does not have that many animals. The climate is mostly very cold and snowy in the winter and warm in the summer while fall and spring are just transition seasons.
The word Tundra comes from the Finnish word Tunturia which means treeless plain. There's no vegetation because of the extreme weather conditions. It is located near the north pole and it also covers a fifth of the earth's surface. If it's too cold not vegetation can grow because of the ice caps not melting, if it gets a little warmer than maybe roots can grow. The arctic tundra has two seasons winter and summer, but the sun only heats up the tundra to 3 degrees celsius to 12 degrees celsius. When the sun cannot rise the temperatures drop to very cold conditions around -70 degrees celsius while the average temperature is -28 degrees celsius. The rain levels in the tundra are 6 to 10 inches a year because most of it falls as snow instead. It is basically a very cold desert.
As a result of these factors, the flora has adapted to these conditions in a variety of ways including their shape, leaf type, root system, and color. One of the most prominent adapt...
Another biome in the park is their temperate forest. Temperate forests have high humidity, high levels of precipitation, and variety of trees are also included. Freshwater biomes surround the park as well.
As you already know the amount of different plant species in the tundra is very few. Also their growth level is low, “with most of the biomass concentrated in the roots. To add to the many difficulties the growing season isn’t very long its self. The plants are better off “to reproduce vegetative by division and budding than sexually by flower pollination”. The main plant life in that area is cotton grass, sedge, and dwarf heath also including mosses and lichens.
Temperate grassland biomes can be found in North America, Africa, the pampas of South America and many parts of Eurasia. Grass is the main plant in Temperate Grassland biomes, trees and shrubs are rare to see in this type of biome. Temperate grasslands also have an extremely high abundance of wildlife. The wildlife living in this biome includes bison and pronghorn sheep, but mainly the animals most affected were the cattle and horses that lived on the surrounding farms.
The Tundra suffers a very harsh climate. Because of this fact most of the area
The earth is divided climatically and geographically into specific areas where there are similarities in communities of vegetation, organisms and animals. These ecosystems are often referred to as biomes. Differences in biomes usually consists of identifiable plant structures where there is a specific pattern of ecological activity. Biomes are also major types of habitats for different types of organisms and animals.
A tundra is a biome where trees and plants don't grow as much because of the cold freezing temperatures. The tundra has lots of warm animals that contain a lot of fur because of how cold the temperatures are there. There are mountain goats,sheep,marmots, and birds that live up there. The only way those animals survive is by eating the lying insects and eating the plants that rarely grow there. The shelter for these animals is going under a rock because the rocks protect them from the wind and it's warmer for them. Also other animals that live up in the tundra is Arctic foxes, polar bears, gray wolves, caribou, snow geese, and musk-oxen. The Tundra has harsh winters and hard summers. During the summer it last 50-60 days and it is sunny 24/7.
The Alaskan moose are located between 60 and 70 degrees latitude in Alaska and Western Yukon. They reside in boreal forests which is an area “dominated by coniferous forests, particularly spruce, interspersed with vast wetlands, mostly bogs and fens”. and mixed woodlands which consist of both coniferous and deciduous trees where there are many fallen trees and much debris. This region receives very harsh winters, the ground is covered with snow and temperatures fall as low as −60 °F or -51.1 °C and so by early spring food is very scarce. As the warmer temperatures of late spring and summer arrive food becomes plentiful as shoots, grass and leaves begin to grow. Summer temperatures can reach as high as 90 °F or 34 °C, while precipitation in this region can range from 10 inches to 100 inches of rain per year. This mostly comes in the form of snow.
The Taiga Biome is also known as the boreal forest. The taiga biome is the largest terrestrial biome and extends across Europe, North America, and Asia. The taiga is located near the tundra biome. It has short wet summers and l0ng cold winters. The taiga get a large amount of snow during the winter and plenty rain during the summer. The taiga is found throughout the high northern areas. The taiga makes up 29% of the world’s forest’s the largest areas are located in Canada and Russia. It has the lowest temperatures in winter. Temperatures vary from −54 °C to 30 °C throughout the whole year. Taiga soils tend to be poor in nutrients. It doesn’t have the deep, enriched nutrients present in temperate deciduous forests. Due to the cold the soil is also very thin which messes up the development of soil and the ease with which plants can use its nutrients.
Tundra is the coldest of all the biomes. Tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturia, meaning treeless plain. It is noted for its frost-molded landscapes, extremely low temperatures, little precipitation, poor nutrients, and short growing seasons. Dead organic material functions as a nutrient pool. The two major nutrients are nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen is created by biological fixation, and phosphorus is created by precipitation. Tundra is separated into two types: arctic tundra and alpine tundra.
The biosphere is a closed self-regulating system that integrates living organisms with nonliving components of a planet (Lenkeit). The biosphere is part of the outer shell of a planet and includes the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere (answers.com).
Biodiversity refers to wide diversity found in the living components of the earth which refers to the numerous varieties of flora and fauna including those of microorganisms too. The interaction of biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem is very important aspect of life on earth. Biodiversity helps us to understand the variations among species and also how life originated on earth. Its study helps us to understand the inter-relationship between various forms of life and their adaptation to different conditions.