Enviroment and Pollution control Assignment

Submitted by :Abishwor Pandit

079bch004
Submitted to: Nirmal Sir
CONTENTS

Major Biomes of the World

• Desert
• Temperate Grassland
• Savanna
• Mediterranean Shrublands (Chaparral)
• Tropical Dry Forest
• Tropical Rainforest
• Temperate Deciduous Forest
• Temperate Rainforest
• Taiga, Northern Coniferous Forest, or Boreal
Forest
• Tundra
Biome, also known as a major life zone, is an area that includes
communities of plants and animals that have a common adaptation
to that particular environment. Some of the major biomes of the
world are :

1) Desert
Deserts are extremely dry environments that are home to well-
adapted plants and animals. The main types of deserts include
hot and dry deserts, semi-arid deserts, coastal deserts, and
cold deserts. Deserts cover about 20% of Earth's surface and
can vary significantly in climate, flora, and fauna.

Climate:
Desert receives less than 10 inches rain annually. Deserts
experiences very hot day (50°C) and very cold night . Cold
deserts such as Antarctica experiences freezing temperature
throughout day and night most of the year.

Human Impact:
Throughout history, deserts have been regions where humans
have had little impact. The harshness of the climate does not
allow for agriculture. Therefore, hunter-gatherer societies were
the most common ones associated with deserts. Some
deserts support nomadic herding in which herders move their
livestock to find patches of vegetation for grazing. Modern
technology allows for the transport of water to the desert. This
has resulted in the development of cities in some desert areas
and some limited agriculture as a result of irrigation.
2) TEMPERATE GRASSLAND

Temperate grasslands have cold winters and warm summers

with some rain. The grasses die back to their roots annually and

the soil and the sod protect the roots and the new buds from the

cold of winter or dry conditions. A few trees may be found in this

biome along the streams, but not many due to the lack of

rainfall.

Climate:

These grasslands have a temperate climate with cold winters

and hot summers. The temperatures can vary from -40 degrees

Fahrenheit to more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Rainfall plays a

major role in the characteristics of the grasslands. The wetter

regions produce longer grasses which experts call as prairies in

North America, pampas in South America and the veldt in Africa.

But the drier regions produce shorter grasses that call as

steppes.
 For Prairie’s annual rainfall varies between 20 and 35 inches. For

Steppes annual rainfall varies between 10 and 20 inches. Mostly

rainfall is occurring in the spring and early summer. North

America, South America, and Africa have prairies, whereas

steppes occur in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Human Impact:

Most of the moist grasslands of the world have been converted

to agriculture, since the rich, deep soil that developed as a result

of the activities of centuries of soil building is useful for growing

cultivated grasses such as corn (maize) and wheat. The drier

grass lands have been converted to the raising of domesticated

grazers such as cattle, sheep, and goats. Therefore, little

undisturbed grassland is left, and those fragments that remain

need to be preserved as refuges for the grassland species that

once occupied huge portions of the globe.

3) Savanna
The savanna biome is often described as an area of grassland
with dispersed trees or clusters of trees. The lack of water
makes the savanna a difficult place for tall plants such as
trees to grow.

Climate:

In general, savannas grow in tropical regions 8° to 20° from the

Equator. Conditions are warm to hot in all seasons, but

significant rainfall occurs for only a few months each year about

October to March in the Southern Hemisphere and April to

September in the Northern Hemisphere.

Human Impact:

Indigenous People (native people) – Savanna areas are popular

with nomads (people who move from place to place) e.g. Massai

tribe of Kenya. This method of farming can be beneficial to the

environment. Grazing animals are not kept in just one area. They

are moved from place to place, allowing vegetation to recover.

However, in times of serious drought animals can remove the

scarce vegetation cover. This leaves the soil prone to erosion.

Desertification (land turning to desert) occurs in extreme cases.

 Tourism – The rich variety of wildlife in savanna areas attracts

many tourists on safari. Transport used by the tourists often

damages vegetation and scares the wildlife.

4) Mediterranean Shrublands (Chaparral):

Mediterranean Chaparral biome is localized in the coastal
areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea including parts of
Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor. This
subtropical Mediterranean biome, composed of shrub lands
and woodlands is called the maquis in Europe.

5) Tropical Dry Forest:

tropical dry forest, biome of any open woodland in tropical
areas that have a long dry season followed by a season of
heavy rainfall. Tropical dry forests are found between 10° and
25° latitude and are often found north and south of the
world’s tropical rainforests. With a dry season that lasts six or
more months of the year, the climate is significantly more
seasonal than that of a rainforest. The trees usually shed their
leaves during the dry season and come into leaf at the start of
the rainy season.

6) Tropical Rainforest:
Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high
rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the
Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that
 occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zone
between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn).

7) Temperate Deciduous Forest:

Temperate deciduous forests are located in the mid-latitude
areas which means that they are found between the polar
regions and the tropics. The deciduous forest regions are
exposed to warm and cold air masses, which cause this area
to have four seasons. The temperature varies widely from
season to season with cold winters and hot, wet summers.
The average yearly temperature is about 10°C. The areas in
which deciduous forests are located get about 750 to 1,500
mm of precipitation spread fairly evenly throughout the year.

8) Temperate Rainforest:
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 moisture present throughout the year. Like
all rainforests, these forests are wet, receiving between
roughly 150 and 500 cm (about 60 and 200 inches) of
precipitation per year in the form of heavy rain and
coastal fog, and have lush plants growth. They differ
from tropical rainforests in that they experience
mild temperatures in both Summer and winter. These
ecological regions are of vital ecological importance, acting as
both stores of carbon and habitats for a wide variety of plants
and animals.
 9) Taiga, Northern Coniferous Forest, or Boreal Forest:
The taiga, which is also known as the boreal (meaning
northern) forest region, occupies about 17 percent of Earth’s
land surface area in a circumpolar belt of the far Northern
Hemisphere. Northward beyond this limit, the taiga merges
into the circumpolar tundra. The taiga is characterized
predominantly by a limited number of conifer species—
i.e., pine (Pinus), spruce (Picea), larch (Larix), fir (Abies)—and
to a lesser degree by some deciduous genera such
as birch (Betula) and poplar (Populus). These trees reach the
highest latitudes of any trees on Earth. Plants and animals in
the taiga are adapted to short growing seasons of long days
that vary from cool to warm. Winters are long and very cold,
the days are short, and a persistent snowpack is the norm.
The taiga biomes of North America and Eurasia display a
number of similarities, even sharing some plant and
animal species.

10) Tundra
The tundra is the coldest of the biomes. It also receives low amounts of
precipitation, making the tundra similar to a desert. Tundra is found in
the regions just below the ice caps of the Arctic, extending across
North America, to Europe, and Siberia in Asia. Much of Alaska and
about half of Canada are in the tundra biome. Tundra is also found at
the tops of very high mountains elsewhere in the world. Temperatures
are frequently extremely cold, but can get warm in the summers.
Tundra winters are long, dark, and cold, with mean temperatures below
0°C for six to 10 months of the year. The temperatures are so cold that
there is a layer of permanently frozen ground below the surface, called
permafrost. This permafrost is a defining characteristic of the tundra
biome. In the tundra summers, the top layer of soil thaws only a few
inches down, providing a growing surface for the roots of vegetation.
Precipitation in the tundra totals 150 to 250 mm a year, including
melted snow. That's less than most of the world's greatest deserts! Still,
the tundra is usually a wet place because the low temperatures cause
evaporation of water to be slow. Much of the arctic has rain and fog in
the summers, and water gathers in bogs and ponds.
Vegetation in the tundra has adapted to the cold and the short growing
season. Mosses, sedges, and lichens are common, while few trees
grow in the tundra. The trees that do manage to grow stay close to the
ground so they are insulated by snow during the cold winters.

References:
NASA Earth Observatory. (n.d.). Tundra biome. NASA.
Retrieved December 10, 2024
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Taiga. In Wikipedia. Retrieved
December 10, 2024
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Temperate rainforest. In
Britannica. Retrieved December 10, 2024
NASA Earth Observatory. (n.d.). Temperate biome. NASA.
Retrieved December 10, 2024
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Savanna. In Britannica.
Retrieved December 10, 2024
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Tropical dry forest. In
Britannica. Retrieved December 10, 2024