There are many types of biomes and there is also a good variety of ways to their classification. Rainforest, grassland, marine system, and freshwater system
Grassland is mostly covered by grass. Moderately dry climate conditions and season disturbances, such as floods and fire are conductive to the growth of grasses and prohibitive of trees and shrubs. Grasslands are found in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions. There are a couple of types of grasslands. Plant life is susceptible to fires. Fires tend to originate more frequently near human population. There are savannas which is basically tropical grassland and Great Plains are temperate zone, and steppes. These ecosystems are dominated by grasses and shrubs and trees are limited. Savanna is a type of grassland that have scattered trees around. Savannas have annual rainfall of 20 to 50 inches a year. It is found to be warm or hot climates, and have long period of drought when fire occur. Tropical grassland have scattered shrubs and trees are found near the equator. Temperatures are warmer and more stable than grasslands. There are two different types of grassland; tall grass and short grass. In the summer, it can be as high as 80ºF and in winter, the temperature can be as low as -30ºF. In the grassland there are basically two season; growing and dormant seasons. The length of growing season is determined by how long rainy season last. In temperature grassland the average rainfall ranges from 10-40inches. Most common types of plants on the North America prairie are sunflowers, clovers, wild indigos, and buffalo grass. Common animals in the grassland are coyotes, wild turkeys, eagles, bison, and crickets. Other animals in the savanna include zebras, buffaloes, snakes, giraffes, lions, hyenas, and kangaroos.
Human population has a major impact on all biomes. Grasslands are disappearing due to the dividing land for farming and urban developments. People are building cities, roads, and schools near these grasslands which are causing them to disappear. People are illegally poaching endangered animals like tigers, prairie dogs, elephants, and leopards. Farmers are killing prairie dogs. Bison population almost became extinct due to the overhunting for their fur. Lands are being converted into cropland, and reducing the food source for the wild animals. Grassland is becoming vulnerable due to global warming. The weather pattern and water availability can throw area off balance and change it forever. In northern Europe, grassland is much influenced by livestock grazing.
There are 10 different ecosystems which are Pineywoods, Gulf Prairies and Marshes, Post Oak Savanna, Blackland Prairies, Cross Timbers and Prairies, South Texas Plains, Edwards Plateau, Rolling Plains, High Plains, and Trans-Pecos. The area extends into Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. “The terrain is rolling with lower, wetter bottomlands that grow hardwood trees such as elm, mesquite and ash. This region is home to a variety of plants and animals that like woodlands and shorelines.” (Texas Parks and wildlife, n.d.)
Fragmentation is the product of increased human population, and the expansion of the grasslands (due to human activity). Fragmented Population caused from human interference has led to a lack of gene flow within species. Although this problem poses a legitimate threat, no real action has been taken to prevent fragmentation from continuing. Human activities such as “the expansion of farmland, human occupation, the lack of accessible habitat, and the sparsity of suitable/favorable habitat” (Thalmann et al., 2011) are facilitating this critical issue. Lacking gene diversity is caused from extreme isolation, small numbers, and lack of gene flow (Thalmann et al., 2011).
The Taiga Biome is a large, naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major part of both Siberia and North America. It is usually found at high elevations at more temperate latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the largest terrestrial biome on earth, covering around 50 million acres of land (NP, UC Santa Barbara). It is known for its subarctic climate that ranges between -51 to -1 °C in the winter and -21 to 7 °C in the summer. The two main season found in the taiga are summer and winter as autumn and spring are usually very short and barely noticeable. Winter makes up around six months of the year, with only around 50-100 frost-free days during the summer. Summer is also the season during which the taiga receives the most precipitation in form of rain. The remainder is made up of snow and dew, which adds up to around 30-85cm of precipitation yearly (NP, S.L. Woodward).
Another biome in the park is their temperate forest. Temperate forests have high humidity, high levels of precipitation, and variety of trees are also included. Freshwater biomes surround the park as well.
Temperate grassland biomes can be found in North America, Africa, the pampas of South America and many parts of Eurasia. Grass is the main plant in Temperate Grassland biomes, trees and shrubs are rare to see in this type of biome. Temperate grasslands also have an extremely high abundance of wildlife. The wildlife living in this biome includes bison and pronghorn sheep, but mainly the animals most affected were the cattle and horses that lived on the surrounding farms.
In the Savanna during the wet season, all of the plants are growing freely and at an enormous rate. It rains often during the wet season so the lakes and streams are flowing. The animals that migrated away during the dry season all return back to
Humans have played major roles in destroying and protecting a variety of ecosystems. Currently there are many people involved in changing others views on protective earth practices and aware of their impact on changing environments. This is best seen in climate change, conservation movements, and hunting and fishing practices and policies. However, there are already major impacts from climate change, particularly in northern areas, the future impact of a changing climate is rarely considered when determining land-use, including environmental assessments. With expanding resource removal behaviours, the impact of a changing climate and human activities on vulnerable wild life and ecosystems is a big problem. Adding to the problem is a lack of
Biomes, there are six different types of biomes on Earth. The tundra biome is one of these six on Earth and it has district, different characteristics than the other. There are two tundras so I picked the arctic tundra. The topics I will talk about in this essay are the characteristics, location,climate,some species and plants,and what I have learned.Have fun reading!
Tundra is the coldest of all the biomes, Tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturia, meaning treeless plain. It is noted for its frost-molded landscapes, extremely low temperatures, little precipitation, poor nutrients, and short growing seasons.A climate is a habitat around the world. The Tundra has snow everywhere and has very short growing seasons which means plants are hard to grow and farmers or whoever is planting crops need to plant early summer or fast enough before summer ends. The Tundra is located all over the world. Located in Alaska, Northern Canada, edges of Greenland, Northern Scandinavia, northern Siberia, and Russia. It is found in Alaska here in the United States. The Tundra is about 3 million square miles long
2)A savanna is a grassland with isolated trees scattered with shrubs. They can be found between a tropical rainforest and desert biome and are also known to be called as tropical grasslands. Usually not enough rain falls on a savanna to support anything more than it is , like a forest. Commonly It’s temperature year round is warm but they are known to have very different seasons , a very long dry season (winter), and a very wet season (summer).The savanna biome receives about 59 inches of rain. Majority of this occurs during the wet season. In the dry season only an average of about 4 inches of rain falls. Between December and February no rain will fall at all. Usually it is a little cooler during dry seasons which the temperature is around
"Wetlands" is the collective term for marshes, swamps, bogs, and similar areas. Wetlands are found in flat vegetated areas, in depressions on the landscape, and between water and dry land along the edges of streams, rivers, lakes, and coastlines. Wetland areas can be found in nearly every county and climatic zone in the United States. Inland wetlands receive water from precipitation, ground water and/or surface water. Coastal and estuarine wetlands receive water from precipitation, surface water, tides, and/or ground water. Surface water sources include runoff and stormwater.
In the northern part of the earth and the upper slopes of all mountains all over the world, a unique biome called tundra exists. Tundra is one of the coldest and harshest biomes of the world. The winters are long and cold, and the summers are short and cool. Tundra is far from the equator; therefore, Tundra soil is generally poor in nutrients. Since the biome is covered in snow throughout the year, the arctic tundra doesn’t seem like a place where plants and animals can survive. Yet, plants and animals are able to survive, thanks to their special adaptations. In fact, it isn’t the freezing temperature that they fear; it is us, human. Today, tundra faces lots of threats and problems because of human. One of the major problem is Global Warming.
The major biomes are the tundra, taiga, tropical rain forest, temperate forests, desert, grassland, savanna, chaparral, and marine. Each biome has it’s own characteristics, such as the tundra. The tundra is a biome that is located in the Northern Hemisphere of the world. It circles the North Pole and reaches down to the Taiga. The tundra has a very cold and harsh climate, especially in the winters.
Many of the issues of biodiversity loss can be traced back to human interaction to the environment. One of the issues is alteration and loss of habitats. A lot of this issue is based on the destruction of habitats and for the land to be used for human consumption. The land is either used up for agricultural use or for neighborhoods. Destroying habitats and building them for our own use can have a positive impact on our way of living but a negative impact on the environment. We would gain land for building land for crops and communities to be built. The habitat for the animals would be destroyed and the species local to the land would either relocate or die. There are restrictions to deforesting land and there are organizations to help protect the land.
One of the reasons for loss in biodiversity is alteration of habitats. A habitat is the natural environment in which a species of living organism lives. If the habitat of a species is changed, it will cause the species to die or migrate to other places where it can find its natural habitat. There are many ways in which the habitat of plants and animals can be altered. One of them is land use changes. Since the beginning of human life, human beings have been changing land use for farming. Large areas of forests have been cleared by humans to increase the area of farming to satisfy their growing needs. Many biodiversity-rich landscape characteristics have been lost due to intensive farming (Young, Richards, Fischer, Halada, Kull, Kuzniar, Tartes, Uzunov & Watt, 2007). For example, traditional farming was replaced by private farms in Europe after the First World War causing an immense change in land use patterns. Another major proble...