ecosystems are split into various biomes as ecological relationships within them are often similar, regardless of where in the world that biome is located. There
Geographic range, in ecology, the collective area in which all members of a particular species are found during their lifetime. The term geographic range has often referred to the natural extent of a species’ distribution; however, it also includes area
These processes are inter-related: For example, dust is produced on the land and blown up into the atmosphere where it affects the amount of sunlight falling on Earth. Dust can also be dissolved in the ocean, where it affects marine life. This in turn changes both the amount of carbon ...
Hot spot, any one of several biodiverse regions which requires protection on the grounds that it hosts a significant number of endangered species. There are currently 36 biodiversity hot spots worldwide, home to almost two billion people and covering two
After the Amazon Rainforest, the largest biome in the basin is the Cerrado on Brazil’s central plateau. This vast grassland region encompasses some 2,000,000 square km (770,000 square miles) and covers one-fourth of the country’s land area. The savannas, palm swamps, grasslands, and fo...
Baobab, genus of nine species of deciduous trees of the hibiscus family, several of which are endemic to Madagascar. The trees are long-lived, and the the oldest known flowering plant is an African baobab. Learn more about the distribution, importance, a
Cold desert, any large arid area of land that typically receives scant amounts of annual precipitation, which occurs mainly in the form of snow or fog. (The upper limit of mean annual precipitation is often considered to be fewer than 25 cm [9.8 inches];
Temperate rainforest, in ecology, a biome dominated by a mix of broad-leaved or coniferous trees that occurs in the middle latitudes, mostly between approximately 40° and 60° in both Northern and Southern hemispheres, and characterized by abundant mois