Quick Looks
Biomes are unique situations. They are very specialized ecosystems that only exist in certain parts of the world. They are ecosystems that are defined by their environments. Factors like temperature, rainfall, and altitude all decide what type of life a biome can support. While you're here, take a walk through a few different biomes.
Hot and Wet
Tropical rain forests are warm and humid. Standing on the ground, you can look up and see a huge canopy of leaves above you. The trees are very tall, some fifty feet high. Even though the Sun is shining, you still walk around in the shade. As you walk through this biome, you see loads of different living creatures. There are lots of birds, some tiny mammals, but most of all insects. Wow! There are bugs everywhere. They crawl, fly, and jump all around you. As you continue walking, you notice all of the dead leaves on the ground. Every now and then a leaf falls from above and adds to the pile.
Dry and Hot
Imagine you are now in the desert. It's not just hot; it's incredibly hot and dry here. Your lips are chapped and you are very thirsty. The ground is all cracked and it may have been over a year since it rained. You see cacti (if it's one it's a cactus) and a bird every now and then. There are no trees at all. There are a few dried up bushes and a couple of insects on the ground. After the Sun goes down you notice all sorts of animals coming out of the ground. When it cools off, the burrowing animals come out to hunt the bugs. It's just too hot during the day.Cold and Colder
Life in the tundra is just as hard as life in the desert. You usually find tundra biomes in the far north. If you came in the winter, it would be dark all of the time. In the summer, the Sun barely sets. Even with all the light there is still very little life. You see a lot of lichen and mosses on the rocks, if you can even see the rocks under the snow. There are no trees. It wouldn't matter anyway; the roots couldn't go deep because the soil is frozen (a state called permafrost).
Or search the sites for a specific topic.
- Overview
- Ecology
- Ecosystems
- Food Chains
- Populations
- Land Biomes
- Erosion
- Deep Erosion
- Weathering
- Soils
- Soil Formation
- Natural Resources
- Energy Resources
- Recycling
- More Topics
Global Land Cover Types (NASA Earth Observatory Video)
Useful Reference Materials
Encyclopedia.com (Biomes):http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Biomes.aspx
Encyclopedia.com (Desert Biome):
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/desert_biome.aspx
Wikipedia (Biomes):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biome
Wikipedia (Savanna):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savanna
Encyclopædia Britannica (Forest Ecology):
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/213461/forest
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