Describe The Fynbos Biome

A biome is a large area or habitat that occupies the earth. Animals, plants along with flora and fauna occupy biome habitats. They cleverly adapt to their environment and geographical location. The area that I have chosen to research are the Flinders Ranges. The Flinders Rangers are in South Australia, covering 37,000 square kilometres. The biome expands from Crystal Brook in the south to Mount Hopeless in the north. There are several main general features associated with this semi-arid biome. It has landforms that are above sea level. The biome has high mountain ranges with summits reaching 900 metres. The area has steep gorges, cliffs, ridges and plateaus. The biome edges have grasslands and foothills which contain creeks, gorges, valleys,

Since Freshwater biomes are found all over the world, the types of plants and animals that live in these waters can be different. Some examples of plants that may inhabit a Freshwater biome are grass, spike rush, water lilies, cattail, and sometimes trees. Most plants living in these waters are not recognized by humans. Animals that live in these biomes are frogs, turtles, snakes, fish, and sometimes alligators. Insects like mosquitos also inhabit these biomes greatly. Animals such as raccoons and earthworms live on the land surrounding the biome, but depend on the biome to survive. Some animals, such as beavers, live in both the water and the land surrounding it. Algae also plays a big role in a Freshwater biome ecosystem.

Biomes are appropriate conditions for organizing the natural world because the organisms that live in them common constellations of adaptations, particularly the climate of each of the areas and the characteristic vegetation types that develops in these divisions. It should be understood that the climate is perhaps the most important in determining classes of individuals who may live in an area and the ways they should be amended to live under different conditions of temperature and precipitation and seasonal distribution of these factors element. Every place on Earth has its own climate, influenced by both macroclimate regions as the particular microclimate. The soils are very important because they are essential to determine the types of plants that will grow into a bioclimatic zone in partical, in addition, also as substrates for animals serve. In turn, the soils are heavily influenced by regional climate, as well as the geology of the bedrock. At the same time we have to keep in mind the diversity of plants like the flora just like the diversity of the fauna as well as the adaptation of both.

This region is “heavily influenced by natural disturbances”. Species here have adapted to large wildfires; some, including the jack pine and black spruce, require these fires to reproduce. Heat is needed to release their seeds, and seed germination only occurs in favourable conditions produced by the fires.

The temperate woodland and shrubland biome, also known as chaparral is only found in a couple of places. It tends to grow in regions surrounding oceans such as western North America, central Chile, southwestern Australia, the southern tip of Africa, and around the Mediterranean Sea. In the summer the temperature is about 40 degrees Celsius and in the winter is 10 degrees Celsius. This biome has hot, dry summers and mildly cold, wet winters.

Hydrosol is a very wet kind of soil and is saturated for the majority of the year, often located where former lake beds occur. Sudosol is more sodic than acidic, it is a Texture Contrast Soil and therefore there is a strong contrast between the surface and the subsoil. This is the most common type of soil in the Mallee region. Vertosols are soils which grow and shrink, causing cracking when the soil dries out. They occur along the creek and river beds as well as the broad plains of the Mallee. Along the coastlines of the Mallee are Calcarosol soils, they, unlike Sudosols and Vertosols, do not have a strong texture contrast throughout its layers. Lastly, two sandy soils have been identified in the Mallee region: Rudosol and Tenosol. Rudosols are very young and undeveloped soils and are widespread in the Big Desert and Sunset Country. Tenosols are also rather undeveloped and occur in the same areas as Rudosols. Tenosols generally have a ‘low water holding capacity and fertility’. Having a vast selection of soils can only mean that a vast selection of produce comes from the area.

When talking about nutrient content and nutrient type in bodies of water (especially lakes), three terms help identify these types of bodies of water- oligotropy, eutropy, and dystrophy. Eutropy refers to the probably the best possible condition for a body of water, because this type of body of water has many nutrients available to it (often in the form of silt) such as phosphorous. These bodies of water are usually near farms or forests and are thriving with life. Algae is a common type of organism that grows in eutropy’s, but can serve as a problem for the survival of other species. Oligotropy is basically the opposite of eutropy condition wise. Oligotropic bodies of water usually have a small amount of organic matter, few nutrients, and especially lack phosphorous. These water bodies are often near terrestrial ecosystems. Dystrophy refers to the condition in bodies of water that have an abundance of organic matter- so much so that the water is often brown. These bodies of water are often near bogs. Lakes can gain these types of nutrients through things such as runoff that bring soil nutrients into the water;

Stable sand dunes play an important part in protecting the coastline. They act as a buffer against wave damage during storms, protecting the land behind from salt-water intrusion. This sand barrier allows the development of more complex plant communities in areas protected from

Vegetation is a key factor in determining the structure of an ecosystem. It determines many ecological parameters within a plant community such as microclimate, energy budged, photosynthesis, water regimes, surface runoff and soil temperature (Tappeiner and Cernusca, 1996). Vegetation of an area varies from place to place according to habitat heterogeneity of the area itself. The description and classification of the plant community in an ecosystem is known as Phytosociology (Braun-Blanquet, 1932; Odum, 1971). It’s an important characteristic in describing vegetation that offers a preliminary picture of the ecological character of the vegetation (Kershaw, 1973). Each site of study

The ocean is one of, if not, the largest biome on earth. There are more than one million species of marine life. Covering over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, the ocean is our planet’s largest habitat, containing 99 percent of the living space on the planet. This area holds the life of nearly 50 percent of all species on Earth. Like lakes, oceans are subdivided into separate zones: intertidal, pelagic, abyssal, and benthic. All four zones have a great diversity of species. The intertidal zone is the region along the shoreline between average low tide and average high tide. In other words, this region goes through cycles of submergence and exposure to air. Animals in this zone must be able to survive the extended periods

The biome I chose was the tropical rain forest. The tropical rain forest has lots of dangerous and interesting animals. The tropical rain forest has a 70-85F weather all year long. The climate is warm but damp and wet. Tropical rain forests can be found between 30N- 30S. The tropical rain forest is full of life providing a habitat for lots of plants, flowers, and trees. The rain forest has a lot of dangers such as rainfall= 80-400 inches of rainfall per year. The tropical rain forest is a great place that is filled with life and is one of the most beautiful biomes in the world.

The project is located at an elevation of ~730 m above mean sea level and within the Basin and Range physiographic province (BR). The BR is composed of high relief mountains or foothills separated by low-lying valleys and salt flats. The salt flats of the Amargosa do not support plant life, but Phreatophytes (deeply rooted plants) occur on their edges and near the adjacent gravel-dominated alluvial fans. Iodine bush (Allenrolfea occidentalis) grows closet to the salt flats, while saltgrass (Distichlis stricta) and arrowweed (Pluchea sericea) occur more distal. The dominant species in the salt flat-proximal areas is honey mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) that occurs as large stands. Sacatone grass (Sporobolus airoides) and desert holly (Atriplex hymenelytra) intergrown with

This pristine environment also provided habitat for great diversity of plants and wildlife. Hundreds of species of native plants thrived in forest, marsh, and meadow. But now, in scarcely a

Savannas are important, it has a lot of fascinating plant and animals. It is also the home of a lot of fascinating plants and animals. The animals that live in the savanna would probably be extinct without the savanna because it's their home. They rely on this biome for food and water. The animals can't just go live somewhere else because their habitats are in the savanna and they’ve adapted their life to survival here. This paper will discuss and outline the important components of a savanna including the climate, landforms, location, and other important and interesting facts regarding the savannas across the world.

The defining character of a desert is usually low levels of rainfall with under 25 cm per year. Additional to that, the relationship between rainfall and the evaporated and transpired water must be taken into consideration. “A desert is a biological community in which most of the indigenous plants and animals are adapted to chronic aridity and periodic, extreme droughts, and in which these conditions are necessary to maintain the community’s structure” (Phillips, Comus, 2000, p. 10). This means that it is the environmental and climatic conditions that have created an evolutionary pressure for the flora to develop.