Concept and Classification of Biomes

A biome, also called bioclimatic landscape or biotic areas is a particular part of the planet that shares climate, flora and fauna. A biome is the set of characteristic ecosystems of a biogeographic region that is defined from vegetation and animal species predominate. It is the expression of the ecological conditions in the regional or continental level: the climate and soil determine the ecological conditions that respond communities of plants and animals of the biome in question.

Depending on the latitude, temperature, rainfall and altitude, you can divide the land into areas with similar characteristics; in each of these areas vegetation and fauna that develops when linked define a biome, comprising the notions of community and interaction between soil, plants and animals.

There are different biome classification systems, which generally tend to divide the land into two large groups terrestrial biomes and aquatic biomes.

• Terrestrial ecosystem: are those in which the flora and fauna develop in the soil or subsoil. Depend on humidity, temperature, altitude and latitude, so that the most biologically rich and diverse ecosystems is higher humidity, higher temperature, lower altitudes and lower latitudes.

Ecosystems can be classified according to the type of vegetation, finding the greatest biodiversity in forests, and this decreases in the bush, grasslands, into the wilderness. Depending on the density of the dominant vegetation, can be open or closed.

Among the major terrestrial ecosystems are:

1- Forests: forest ecosystems, forests form the largest mass of terrestrial biosphere. May be:

*Hardwood forest or broadleaf forests: mostly formed by trees bloom.

- Jungles: ecosystems with the greatest biological density, higher rainfall and evergreen vegetation. The climate determines different types: According latitude and temperature can be tropical or subtropical rainforest, according to seasonality and moisture is rainy or monsoon forest and according to altitude mountain jungle or basement. They are complex, the canopy and understory are considered markedly different subecosystems. The most extensive and diversified forest is the equatorial forest, which is basal-rainy-tropical type.

- Dry forest: tropical and subtropical forests with a long dry season and a short rainy, so abundant desert vegetation and deciduous.

- Temperate deciduous forest: in less humid Mediterranean forest and deciduous forest develops; in wetter regions is the laurifolio forest or temperate forest.

*Conifer forest or forest leaf acicular: composed primarily of gymnosperms such as conifers. 

- Taiga or Boreal Forest: forest of greater length but less biodiversity. It has about 4 months favorable season. The soil lichens and moss.

- Temperate coniferous forest: pine, cedar, fir and redwood, among others, which are among the highest in the world.

- Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests: subhumid forests, mainly pine.

2- Bushes: the bush or scrub ecosystems are those shortest plants such as shrubs and bushes. May be:

- Shrub: Depending on the region and type of bushes received various names such as chaparral, Mediterranean scrub, heathland, jaral and fynbos.

- Xeric: The desert scrub consists mainly of thorns as cacti and bromeliads in semi-desert regions.

- Alpine Tundra: has mountain brush, whose bushes are often called frailejones. They are wet ecosystems of high altitude and latitude equatorial own America, Africa and New Guinea.

3- Grasslands: arable or grassland ecosystems are those predominance of herbs and media often seasonally semiarid climate. May be:

- Meadow: temperate climate and green most of the year dominance of the wet season. They are easily transformed into agricultural land.

- Steppe: from warm to cold weather and yellowing most of the year dominance of continental arid climate.

- Savanna: tropical and subtropical climate, usually limited to the jungle. Seasonality leads to the migratory habits of wildlife. The absence or presence of irregular shrubs or trees leads to grassy savanna ecosystems, shrub savanna and forest or wooded savannah.

- Alpine meadow: also called mountain meadow, alpine tundra or mountain grassland. They are of high altitude ecosystems. In the Andes stand tall grasslands. It is also found in the Alps, Tibet and others.

4- Tundra: consists of mosses, lichens, grasses and small shrubs, so it really is a wetland ecosystem defined by the absence of trees and having the frozen subsoil. They are among the taiga and perpetual snow. The Arctic tundra has great extent in the Antarctic are small areas and alpine tundra is best defined as mountain meadow.

5- Desert: are divided into two:

- Desert itself: they have very little flora and fauna. They are typical of subtropical climates, 

but can also be found in tropical, temperate and cold areas in the mountains.

- Ice cap: the ice or polar desert. The ecosystem has more development on the coast or ice edge.

6- Human Ecosystem: natural ecosystem is not controlled or human intervention.

- Urban environment.

- Media rural farm and crop fields, breeding, mining, logging, etc.

- Artificial and semi-natural ecosystems: the creation of forests, ponds, introduction of new species, abandonment of farmland, desertification, etc.

• Aquatic ecosystem: include the waters of the oceans and inland waters sweet or savory. Each of these bodies of water has particular structures and physical properties with respect to light, temperature, waves, currents and chemical composition as well as different types of environmental organizations and distribution of organisms.

1- Marine ecosystem: oceanography is the study of these ecosystems. Can be of two types depending on receiving sunlight:

- Photic: when receiving enough light for photosynthesis, which happens to 200 m depth. Examples of such ecosystems are the beach or seaside, the continental shelf, open ocean, coral reef atoll lagoon, river mouth, etc.

- Aphotic: where sufficient light for photosynthesis fails. As in the shallow sea, deep, abyssal, sea ocean trench and most of the seabed.

2- Freshwater ecosystem: limnology is the study of ecosystems of rivers and lakes. This group not only considered running water ecosystems (lotic means) and still water (lentic media) but also watery habitats springs, hollow trees and even pockets of plants where water collects and environments groundwater.