BIOMES

A biome is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they
exist in. They can be found over a range of continents. Biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed
in response to a shared physical climate.[1][2] Biome is a broader term than habitat; any biome can comprise a variety
of habitats.
While a biome can cover large areas, a microbiome is a mix of organisms that coexist in a defined space on a much
smaller scale. For example, the human microbiome is the collection of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms
that are present on or in a human

Allee (1949) biome-types

The principal biome-types by Allee (1949)
 DESERT
 GRASSLAND
 SAVANNAS
 DRY SHRUBLANDS
 DRY WOODLANDS
 TROFICAL RAINFOREST
 TUNDRA
 LAKES
 ESTAURIES
 CORAL REEFS

EXAMPLE OF BIOMES
1. Desert
Deserts receive less than 50 cm of rainfall per year. Several types of desert exist:
the hot and dry, semiarid, coastal and cold. According to the University of
California’s Museum of Paleontology, the Atacama Desert of Chile, the world’s
driest desert, averages under 1.5 cm of rain a year. In deserts, the rate of water
evaporation surpasses the rate of rainfall. The soil is usually coarse and drains well.
Plant life, or flora, leans toward short and stocky stems with compact leaves,
indicative of cactus-like vegetation. Animals, or fauna, thriving in desert regions
reduce daylight activities in favor of foraging at night when temperatures cool.
Surprisingly, deserts also exist in the intense frigidity of the Arctic, Antarctica and
Greenland.

2. Grassland

Various grasses and small shrubs dominate the grasslands.

Animals that inhabit grasslands include grazers such as
antelope and bison, and their predators. Insects and small
reptiles also share this biome. Grassland biomes include the
prairies, steppes and savannas. The prairies, typically found
within the United States, consist of populations of high
grasses. The steppes do not get as much rainfall as the
prairies. Savannas are hot and dry, and are found mainly in
the interior of the African continent
 3. Savannas

A savanna is a rolling grassland scattered with

shrubs and isolated trees, which can be found between a
tropical rainforest and desert biome. Not enough rain falls
on a savanna to support forests. Savannas are also known
as tropical grasslands. They are found in a wide band on
either side of the equator on the edges of tropical
rainforests.

Savannas have warm temperature year round. There are

actually two very different seasons in a savanna; a very long
dry season (winter), and a very wet season (summer). In the dry season only an average of about 4 inches of
rain falls. Between December and February no rain will fall at all. Oddly enough, it is actually a little cooler
during this dry season. But don't expect sweater weather; it is still around 70° F.

4.Shrublands

Shrublands are a unique biome named for the many

aromatic, semi-woody shrubs that thrive there. Shrublands
are usually located between 30 and 40 degrees North and
South latitude, in places such as southern California, Chile,
Mexico, and southwest Africa and Australia. They have hot
dry summers, and cool moist winters, so they are one of the
biomes that have a wet and dry season. Rain is
unpredictable, with periods of months between rain at some
points, so there is not enough water for large trees. That is why grasses, shrubs and small trees dominate the
environment.

5.Woodland

A woodland or wood (or in the U.S.,

the plurale tantum woods) is a low-
density forest forming open habitats with plenty of
sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support
an understory of shrubs and herbaceous
plants including grasses. Woodland may form a
transition to shrubland under drier conditions or
during early stages of primary or secondary
succession. Higher density areas of trees with a
largely closed canopy that provides extensive and
nearly continuous shade are referred to as forests.
 6. Tropical Rainforest

The tropical rainforest biome is an ecosystem

that covers about 7% of the Earth’s surface. They
are found all over the world but the majority of
the tropical rainforest lies in South America in
Brazil. The weather in the tropical rainforest is
rainy yet pleasant all year round, day or night.

7. Tundras

The coldest weather on Earth belongs to the

arctic and alpine tundras. Depicted by its scanty
rainfall and low temperatures, the arctic tundra
possesses a stratum of permanently frozen subsoil
called permafrost. Because of the short growing
season, plants reproduce asexually by budding.
Winter temperatures average about -30 degrees
Fahrenheit. During the warmer months, the
temperature may hover in the low 50s.

Altitude is the key to alpine tundra locations; they

exist near the summits of mountains worldwide.
Alpine tundras represent less hostile environments
with growing seasons encompassing half the year
as compared to the 60-day growing season of the arctic tundra.

8. Lakes

A lake can be defined as any water-filled

depression not connected to an ocean. Smaller,
shallower bodies of water are often called ponds, but
there is no size rule that distinguishes lake from pond.
Usually it is a matter of local names.

About 0.009% of Earth’s water is held in lakes. These

water bodies vary greatly in surface area, depth, and
how they were formed. Many, such as Minnesota’s
10,000 lakes, are products of gouging or disruption of
surface drainage due to Pleistocene glaciation. Others
form as abandoned meanders (oxbows) of rivers or from
surface drainage into closed basins. Lakes tend to be
temporary features, geologically speaking, of the
landscape; most are only 10-20,000 years old. The relatively few ancient lakes are of tectonic origin and
occupy rift valleys. Lake Baikal, in Asia, is the oldest at 50-75 million years old. Lake Tanganyika on the African
continent is 1.5-6.0 million years old.
 9. Estuary

An estuary is an area where freshwater from the rivers

mixes with saltwater in the ocean/sea. This
mixtureof freshwater and saltwater is referred to as
brackish water.Being a transitional zone from fresh to
saltwater, estuaries are a dynamic ecosystem that
experiences constant environmental changes. Only
organisms that are adapted to withstand high salinity
and fluctuating temperatures can live in estuary biomes.
This explains why the marine plants and animals that
live in estuaries are specially adapted to the normally
quick and drastic changes in estuarine condition

10.Coral reef

Let us start our definition of this biome by defining

what corals are. Corals are small animals that belong

to the phylum Cnidaria together with anemones,

jellyfish and hydroids. All Cnidarians have stinging

organs called cnidocysts. If you’ve ever been stung by

a jellyfish you know the effects of these stinging

organs.

Corals are generally divided up into hard (scleratinian)

corals and soft corals. It’s the hard corals that build the
framework of the coral reefs. In the Indo-Pacific waters, approximately 500 species of hard corals are known.
Soft corals, also called octocorralina, lack the hard calcium carbonate structure that hard corals build. Most
have a fleshy structure with small silica spicules, like internal spines, that give them extra support. The majority
of the corals are colonial with several thousand small individuals.
EARTH
AND

LIFE
SCIENCE
(BIOMES)
SUBMITTED BY: AZENETH AZOTILLO B.
(11 SPARTANS)
SUBMITTED TO: FLORO T. PRLONIO
(SUBJECT TEACHER)