5 major biomes on earth

Alpine Tundra

Alpine biomes are found in the mountain regions all around the world. They are usually at an altitude of about 10,000 feet or more. The Alpine biome lies just below the snow line of a mountain. As you go up a mountain, you will travel through many biomes. In the North American Rocky Mountains you begin in a desert biome. As you climb you go through a deciduous forest biome, grassland biome, steppe biome, and taiga biome before you reach the cold Alpine biome.

Tundra Biomes

5 major biomes on earth

The word tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturia which means treeless land. Animal populations fluctuate throughout the seasons in the tundra biome. There are very few trees that grow in the tundra biome. During the summer, it is daylight 24 hours a day. The largest animal that lives in the tundra biome is the polar bear. The plants that grow in the tundra biome often grow in clusters to help protect themselves from the severe winter winds.

Temperate grassland

Temperate grasslands are characterized as having grasses as the dominant vegetation. Trees and large shrubs are absent. Temperatures vary more from summer to winter, and the amount of rainfall is less in temperate grasslands than in savannas.

Boreal Forest

Tropical Forest

Savvanah Biomes

Boreal forests, or taiga, represent the largest terrestial biome. Boreal forests can be found in the broad belt of Eurasia and North America. Seasons are divided into short, moist, and moderately warm summers and long, cold, and dry winters.

Tropical forests are characterized by the greatest diversity of species. The length of daylight is 12 hours. Winter is absent. There are only two seasons, rainy and dry

Freshwater Biome

Grasslands are also known as prairies, pampas, steppes, and savannas. There is a grassland biome on each continent with the exception of Antarctica. Twenty-five percent of the Earth is covered by the grassland biome. Tropical and temperate are the two kinds of grasslands. Tropical grasslands experience warm weather all year long while temperate grasslands are warm part of the year and very cold during the other part. Grassland's soil runs deep and is extremely fertile. Some animals that you can expect to find in a grassland biome are zebras, lions, wolves, prairie dogs, and foxes.

Coastal Desert

Temperate Forest

In freshwater biomes there are ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands. Freshwater is defined as having a low salt concentration — usually less than 1%. Plants and animals in freshwater regions are adjusted to the low salt content and would not be able to survive in areas of high salt concentration.

These deserts occur in moderately cool to warm areas. A good example is the Atacama of Chile. The cool winters of coastal deserts are followed by moderately long, warm summers. The soil is fine-textured with a moderate salt content. Other animals include: insects, mammals coyote and badger, toads, birds , lizards and snakes.

Cold Desert

Semiarid Desert

Forests consist of long, cold, snowy winters and humid summers. The Forest contains trees that produce cones for seeds. Some examples of animals in the forest are Grey wolves, field mice, Wood ducks, jack rabbits, and reindeer. Some common trees are the pine tree, blue spruce, cedar, mistletoe, and prickers.

Ocean Biomes

These deserts are characterized by cold winters with snowfall and high overall rainfall throughout the winter and occasionally over the summer. They occur in the Antarctic, Greenland and the Nearctic realm. The winters receive quite a bit of snow. The plants are widely scattered.

The summers are moderately long and dry, and like hot deserts, the winters normally bring low concentrations of rainfall. Cool nights help both plants and animals by reducing moisture loss from transpiration, sweating and breathing

Only 3% of the water on Earth comes from freshwater biomes, the rest is from the ocean. The ocean biome is home to the largest known mammal of the world - the blue whale. The ocean biome contains coral reef which is actually its own separate biome. Humans have only explored about 10% of the ocean biome. Although the temperatures of the oceans can vary, the average temperature of any ocean is 39° F.

Hot and dry deserts

There are many different Biomes, and a desert is one of them.

Although the daytime temperatures of the desert biome are very hot, they can get very cold at night. The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the desert biome. The vegetation does not grow very tall so the desert biome can only accommodate small animals, rodents, and reptiles. There is hardly any standing water in the desert biome. Dust storms occur when the wind picks up dust from the surface.Dust storms occur when the wind picks up dust from the surface.