BIOMES

Mary Victory E. Gutierrez

Name different types of biomes according to what kinds of animals inhabit them, what kinds of plants can be found there, and what the climate is like.

BIOMES
is a region characterized by certain kinds of plant life, animal life, and climate a broad, regional type of ecosystem characterized by distinctive climate and soil conditions and a distinctive type of ecological community adapted to those conditions.

The major six biomes

Ocean Grassland Rainforest Desert Forest

Tundra
Location: North of the coniferous forest in the Northern Hemisphere and extending southward at elevations above the coniferous forest. Climate and Soils: Bitter cold except for an 8-to-10 week growing season having long days and moderate temperatures. Precipitation low, less than 10 inches annually. Soils thin and underlain by permanent frost.

Tundra
Plants: Low-growing lichens, mosses, grasses, etc. Animals: arctic hares, arctic fox, lynx, grizzly bears, snowy owls; large herbivores such as reindeer, musk ox and mountain sheep migrate in and out of tundra. During summer geese, ducks, and other waterfowl migrate in to raise their young. Insects and other invertebrates are abundant summers.

CONIFEROUS FOREST
Location: Northern portions of North America, Europe and Asia, extending southward at high elevations. Climate and Soils: Seasonal, winters usually long and cold. Precipitation often light in winter, heavier in summer. Soils acidic and humus-rich, much litter.

CONIFEROUS FOREST
Plants: Coniferous trees (spruce, fir, pine, hemlock), smaller amounts of deciduous trees (birch, maple). Animals: Large herbivores such as mule deer, moose, elk; smaller herbivores such as mice, rabbits, red squirrels; predators like lynx, foxes, bears, wolverines, fisher; important nesting area for many migratory warblers, thrushes and others.

 Location: Western and Central Europe, Eastern Asia, eastern North America. Climate and Soils: Seasonal; temperatures below freezing in winter, summers often warm and humid.

 Plants: Broad-leaved deciduous (leafshedding) trees (oaks, chestnuts, hickories, maples, ash, beech) with some coniferous mixed in (pines, hemlocks); shrubby undergrowth, ferns, lichens and mosses. Animals: squirrels, chipmunks, porcupines, hedgehogs, raccoons, rabbits, mice, deer, foxes, coyotes, black bear; birds such as thrushes, warblers, woodpeckers, owls, hawks; snakes, frogs, toads, and salamanders.

Tropical Rainforest
Location: South America, Central America, Western and central equatorial Africa, the Philippines, Thailand and other countries located in Southeast Asia, various island in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Climate and Soils: Non seasonal. Annual temperature average 28C

 Plants: Great diversity of towering trees, the tallest being 60 m; orchids, or so; bananas, coconuts, mangoes. Animals: colorful insects; amphibians, reptiles, and lizards, parrots, snakes, macaws; monkeys and small mammals, tigers, jaguars.

Grasslands
Location: Central North. America, Central Russia and Siberia, sub-equatorial Africa and South America, much of Southern India, North Australia. Climate and Soils: Highly seasonal, abundant rainfall during wet season, hot and dry in summers and dry seasons. Fires frequent

Grasslands
Plants: Grass species, from tall grasses in higher rainfall areas to short grasses where drier. Animals: Large grazing mammals like bison, antelopes; wild horses; kangaroos; giraffes, zebras, rhinos, warthogs. Predators like wolves, coyotes, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, lions. Variety of birds, small burrowing animals such as rabbits, prairie dogs, mongoose, spring hares.

 Location: North and Southwest Africa; parts of the Middle East and Asia; Australia; the Great Basin and southwest of the United States; north Mexico. Climate and Soils: Very dry; hot days and cold nights, varying with latitude

 Plants: thorny bushes and shrubs, occasional cacti, and small flowers that quickly carpet the desert floor after brief rains; extensive shallow root systems as well as deep taproots (as long as 100 feet) provide means of access to scarce rainfall and groundwater. Animals: rats, lizards, toads, snakes and other reptiles, owls, hawks, vultures, small birds, and numerous insects.

FRESHWATER SWAMPS, MARSHES, AND BOGS Locations: Wetlands in poorly drained regions receiving moderate to heavy precipitation; often occupy sites of lakes and ponds that have filled in. Environmental parameters: Shallow systems, sometimes only seasonally wet. Sediment is black and rich, often anaerobic below the surface. Nutrients usually abundant, except in acidic bogs.

 Plants: Marshes usually heavily vegetated with cattails, sedges and reeds. Swamps vegetated by water tolerant trees such as red maple and cedars. Bogs occupied by sphagnum moss and low shrubs like leather leaf. Animals: Amphibians and reptiles, small fish, numerous invertebrates; wading birds, ducks and geese; raccoons. Alligators are present in warmer regions.

LAKES AND RIVERS

Locations: Lakes and ponds: physical depressions that allow precipitation and groundwater to accumulate; rivers and streams: water flows by gravity toward oceans or large lakes. Environmental parameters: Lower concentration of dissolved solids than in ocean, determined primarily by soils around water body

 Plants: Microscopic algae suspended in water (phyto-plankton) or on rocks and sediment (periphyton); higher plants rooted on bottom and submerged or emergent (macrophytes). Animals: Microscopic crustaceans zooplankton; many invertebrates, especially insect larvae; reptiles and amphibians common; many kinds of fish feeding on other animal and plant life; otters, raccoons, wading birds, ducks, geese and swans.

ESTUARIES

 Locations: Coastal regions where rivers meet the ocean; may form bays behind outer sandy barrier island. Environmental parameters: Variable salinity due to mixing of fresh and salt water on a gradient from freshwater to the ocean; tides create two-way currents, promote mixing. Often rich in nutrients and suspended sediments. Bottom sediments often anaerobic just below the surface.

 Plants: Phytoplankton in water column, rooted aquatics such as eelgrass and kelps; salt marsh grasses growing intertidally and forming unique salt marsh environments; in tropics, mangrove swamps form, with many salt-tolerant species of trees and shrubs. Animals: Zooplankton in water column; rich shellfish, crustacean and worm fauna on and in bottom sediments; abundant fish, some larvae of oceanic species, wading birds, ducks and geese abundant.

INTER-TIDAL ZONE
Locations: Land margins along the ocean wherever tides occur. Environmental parameters: Cyclical exposure to air and inundation with seawater due to tides; strong wave action on outward facing land. If substratum is sandy, beaches will occur; otherwise, rocky surfaces will occur, where competition for space between attached algae and shellfish is intense.

 Plants: Microscopic algae on wet sand beaches; large red and brown algae such as kelp, Irish moss and rockweed attached to rocky surfaces where wave action is strong. Animals: Small crustaceans and mollusks in sand beaches; snails, bivalve mollusks, barnacles, anemones, sea urchins and starfish abundant on rocky intertidal, especially in tide pools; wading birds, gulls, terns, loons, ducks, grebes.

COASTAL OCEAN
Locations: From coastline outward, often over a continental shelf, to a depth of 200 meters. In tropics, coral reefs are major shallow coastal forms. Environmental parameters: High productivity due to coastal upwelling and transport of nutrients from estuaries water column mixes to bottom except where seasonal vertical beautification develops. Tidal currents promote mixing.

 Plants: Microscopic phytoplankton algae doing productivity; some large benthic plants where water main permits. In coral reefs, symbiotic algae living in coral animals other large algae and turtle grass predominate. Animals: Abundant microscopic zooplankton in water column; rich bottom fauna of worms, shellfish and crustaceans; great variety of fauna on coral reefs; diving ducks, gannets, puffins, cormorants and other fish-feeding birds abundant; seals, sea lions, penguins, dolphins and whales regionally abundant.

Dugongs are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of the U.S.A. and as vulnerable by the IUCN. relict in the last decades. Our country has started a remarkable rescue program for the animal, with special emphasis on the release back of dugongs accidentally trapped in fish corals or caught in fish nets.

Open ocean

 Locations: Covering 70% of the earth's surface, from the edge of the continental shelf outwards. Environmental parameters: Great (depths to 11,000 meters), all but upper 200 meters without light and cold. Nutrient-poor, except where vertical currents bring deep water to surface (upwelling). Plants: Exclusively phytoplankton Varies according to nutrient availability. Animals: Diverse zooplankton fauna together with fish fauna adapted to different depths. Bottom fauna sparse except in regions of deep hydrothermal vents. Seabirds like petrel, shearwater, and albatross. Whales, dolphins, tuna, sharks, flying fish, squid. Unique deep-sea fish that glow in the dark