What is an Ecosystem?
Ecosystem: Any geographic area with all of the living
organisms present and the nonliving parts of their physical environment.
Involves the movement and storage of energy and matter through living
things and activities.
What is a Biome?
A biome is a large geographical area of distinctive plant and animal
groups, which are adapted to that particular environment. The climate
and geography of a region determines what type of biome can exist
in that region. Major biomes include deserts, forests, grasslands,
tundra, and several types of aquatic environments. Each biome consists
of many ecosystems whose communities have adapted to the small differences
in climate and the environment inside the biome.
All living things are closely related to their environment. Any change
in one part of an environment, like an increase or decrease of a species
of animal or plant, causes a ripple effect of change in through other
parts of the environment.
The earth includes a huge variety of living things, from complex plants
and animals to very simple, one-celled organisms. But large or small,
simple or complex, no organism lives alone. Each depends in some way
on other living and nonliving things in its surroundings.
Major Types of Biomes
The map below shows the major types of biomes across the world:
To understand a world biome, you need to know:
What
the climate of the region is like.
Where
each biome is found and and what its geography is like.
The
special adaptations of the vegetation.
The
types of animals found in the biome and their physical and behavioral
adaptations to their environment.
Ecological Relationships of Biomes
The survival and well being of a biome and its organisms
depends on ecological relationships throughout the world. Even changes
in distant parts of the world and its atmosphere affect our environment
and us. The eruption of a volcano in Mexico, or Southeast Asia can
bring the temperature of the whole world down a few degrees for several
years.
