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The great complexity that the ecosystems of each corner of the planet present leads to a classification of their characteristics and forms of life that must take into account various factors, including whether it is terrestrial areas, or on the contrary, fresh or marine waters. . In this context and in order to facilitate the understanding of nature, numerous ecologists have proposed throughout history different systems for classifying ecosystems into life zones or biomes. All the fauna and flora of the planet coexist in them, as well as microorganisms that have adapted their development and way of life to the climatic and geographical characteristics of each terrestrial or marine biome.
If you want to learn more about the characteristics of the environment in which animals and plants live, continue reading this Green Ecologist article in which we tell you what are biomes, their types and examples.
What are biomes - simple definition
Biomes are each and every one of the ecosystem ensembles that exist in a certain biographical area of the planet. Coming from the Greek "bios" (life), biomes encompass the various species of living beings (animals, plants and microorganisms) that predominate in an area delimited by very specific climatic characteristics. In this way, biomes present the climate factor and the biodiversity factor as its main components.
One of the main functions that biomes perform is to illustrate and present information about the biodiversity that characterizes each region of the planet, also determining how biodiversity is greater in those biomes located close to the equator, while at the poles, the biodiversity of these biomes decreases.
Biomes are sometimes called biotic areas or bioclimatic landscapesHowever, there are other terms such as habitat and ecozone with which it should not be confused, although it is a common mistake.
To better strengthen the term biome, let's see in the next sections the different types of biomes that exist in nature, as well as some examples of the most characteristic and surprising biomes.
Biome types
Depending on the type of vegetation and other factors such as the level of precipitation and humidity, the temperature gradients according to altitude and latitude, as well as the type of community structure and the way of growth of its species, allow differentiation between the types of biomes of the world.
Therefore, it is a rather complex classification, which throughout the history of ecology, has been studied with the aim of establishing the most optimal and illustrative method to differentiate the biomes of the planet. Among these classification methods, the system developed by Heinrich Walter stands out, based on the seasonality of temperature and rainfall, and other climatic features such as wet and cold conditions; in addition to the types of vegetation that define each of these 9 major biomes resulting:
- Equatorial (tropical and evergreen rain forests)
- Tropical (seasonal forests with scrub or even savannas)
- Subtropical (desert vegetation)
- Mediterranean (shrubs and forests adapted to droughts and sensitive to frost)
- Warm temperate (temperate frost sensitive and evergreen forest)
- Nemoral (temperate frost-resistant and deciduous forest)
- Continental (temperate deserts and grasslands)
- Borealis (frost-resistant needle-leaved evergreen forests)
- Polar (low growth vegetation without trees, on permanently frozen soils)
Other classification systems, such as the one established by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), identify different types of main habitats in which the biomes are organized, first of all, into two large subgroups, depending on whether they are terrestrial biomes or marine biomes, and within them, the terrestrial ones in the subgroup of terrestrial and freshwater biomes, while for the marine biomes differentiates between coastal and continental shelf biomes and the subgroup of open and deep sea biomes.
Examples of biomes
Each and every one of these types of biomes includes different examples that receive one or another name according to their climatic characteristics and geographical area in which they are found. Let's see some of these examples of terrestrial and marine biomes:
Examples of terrestrial biomes
- Temperate coniferous forest
- Deserts and xerophilous scrub
- Steppes and temperate scrub
- Prairies and flooded savannas
- Subtropical savannas
- Tropical forests
- Tundras
- Taigas
- Mangroves
In this other Green Ecologist article you can discover much more about the Types of terrestrial biomes.
Marine biomes
- Oceanic islands
- Tropical corals
- Temperate offshore platforms
If you want to read more articles similar to What are biomes: types and examples, we recommend that you enter our Ecosystems category.
Bibliography- Valdez, E. (2016) Biogeography. Autonomous Mexico State University, pp: 5-16.
- Olson, D. & Dinerstrein, E. (2002) The Global 200: Priority ecoregions for global conservation. Missouri Botanical Garden. Volume 89, pages: 199-224.
- Alexandre, F. & Durand-Dastes, F. (10/25/2008) Biome. Hipergéo Magazine. Recovered from http://www.hypergeo.eu/spip.php?article429.
