Definition
What is a biome?
A biome is a major type of ecological community that covers a large area of the planet and is recognized by its characteristic vegetation and animal life. On land, the two main factors that decide which biome develops are temperature and rainfall, along with how much they vary through the day and the year; soil and light also play a part. Because similar climates favor similar kinds of plants, the same biome can appear on different continents.
Biologists commonly divide the land into eight major terrestrial biomes: tropical wet forest, savanna, subtropical desert, chaparral, temperate grassland, temperate forest, boreal forest (taiga) and arctic tundra. Water is split into freshwater and marine biomes. Classifications vary, however: some schemes recognize only a handful of broad biomes while others list dozens, and the boundaries between them are gradual rather than sharp.
A biome is a larger unit than an ecosystem, and one biome contains many ecosystems, as a marine biome includes both coral reefs and kelp forests. Biomes also shift as the climate changes: parts of North Africa that now lie in the Sahara Desert held rivers, trees and hippos about 10,000 years ago.
Word parts
Where does the word “biome” come from?
- bio-
- lifeGreek bios
- -ome
- a whole set or massNew Latin -oma, from Greek
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Terms that go with it
- EcosystemAn ecosystem is a community of living organisms together with the nonliving environment they interact with, linked by energy flow and nutrient cycling.
- BiodiversityBiodiversity is the variety of life in a place or on Earth as a whole, from genetic differences within species to the range of species and ecosystems.
- PopulationIn ecology, a population is all the individuals of one species that live in the same area at the same time and can breed with one another.
- Ecological nicheAn ecological niche is a species' role in its community: the conditions it tolerates, the resources it uses and how it interacts with other species.
- PhotosynthesisPhotosynthesis is the process in which plants, algae and cyanobacteria capture light energy and store it in sugar built from carbon dioxide and water.
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Checked against
Written for biofideX in plain words, after checking these references:
- OpenStax Biology 2e, 44.3 Terrestrial Biomes
- National Geographic Education: Biomes
- American Heritage Dictionary: -ome
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