TUNDRA

Coldest of all biomes

• “tunturia” (Finnish) –treeless plains

• -40 – 18oC with low amounts of precipitation (similar to desert)

• Almost no trees due to short growing season and permafrost

• lichens, mosses, grasses, sedges, shrubs

• Regions south of the ice caps of the Arctic and extending across North America, Europe, and Siberia (high mountain tops)

TAIGA/BOREAL

Largest terrestrial biomeConiferous forest

• consist mostly of conifers (needles and cones) Conifers tend to be evergreen, that is, they bear needles all year long which help conifes survive in areas that are very cold or dry.

• Some of the more common conifers are spruces, pines, and firs.

• -40°C to 20°C, average summer temperature is 10°C

• Restricted to the northern hemisphere (taiga/boreal) yet some tropical conferous forests exist in Asia and the lower latitudes

• Canada, Europe, Asia, and the United States

TEMPERATE FORESTS

Seasonal and most colorful biomeDeciduous forests

• most notable for their four seasons. Leaves change color in autumn, fall off in the winter, and grow back in the spring which allows plants to survive cold winters

• -30°C to 30°C, yearly average is 10°C, hot summers, cold winters

• Broadleaf trees (oaks, maples, beeches), shrubs, perennial herbs, and mosses

• Eastern United States, Canada, Europe, China, and Japan

DESERT Hottest and driest of all biomes

• The temperature in the desert can change drastically from day to night because the air is so dry that heat escapes rapidly at night. Average of 38°C (day), average of -3.9°C (night)

• about 250 mm of rain per year which means that the desert only gets 10 percent of the rain that a rainforest gets (2000mm)!

• Cacti, small bushes, short grasses

• Between 15° and 35° latitude (North and South of the equator); examples are Mojave, Sonoran, Chihuahua, and Great Basin (North America); Sahara (Africa); Negev (Middle East); and Gobi (Asia)

GRASSLAND Grass, grass, grass!

• generally open and continuous, fairly flat areas of grass.

• Grasses (prairie clover, salvia, oats, wheat, barley, coneflowers) and a lot of herbivores

• The height of grass correlates with the amount of rainfall it receives. Grasslands receive about 500 to 900 mm of rain per year (deserts <300 mm and tropical forests >2,000 mm)

• The prairies of the Great Plains of North America, the pampas of South America, the veldt of South Africa, the steppes of Central Eurasia, and surrounding the deserts in Australia

• Found on every continent except Antarctica

TROPICAL RAINFOREST Most diverse and humid among all biomes!

Wet the whole year round

• 20°C to 25°C, must remain warm and frost-free

• 2,000 to 10,000 millimeters of rain per year

• Between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn

• known for its dense canopies of vegetation that form different layers