by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: February 05, 2010

Biomes are places in the world that share similar characteristics of weather, geology, temperature, and other factors, and that sustain various types of life.  There are two major biomes on Earth: terrestrial and aquatic.

The aquatic biomes are divided into freshwater and marine, or saltwater. Brackish biomes are a mix of salt and fresh water.

TERRESTIAL BIOMES

The most basic list of terrestrial biomes includes: Tundra, forest, desert and grassland.

A more extensive list of forests will include: Deciduous and rainforests. Of rainforests, there are tropical, deciduous, tiaga, and temperate rainforests. Jungles are incorporated into rainforests, but may include any area that is densely overgrown. Because tropical rainforests have such dense canopies, jungles only can form when they are on the edges of rainforests or when some problem is compromising the high canopy, which cuts off sunlight and prevents growth in the lower plant life.

Tiaga is a term which confuses many, as it is included in some lists of biomes and excluded from others. This is the Russian word for the forest that has needle leaf trees and which is the largest terrestrial biome. Tiagas cover Eurasia and North America.

Chaparral can be called Mediterranean forest, woodlands, shrublands, mattoral, fynbos, maccia, or kwongan, depending on the country. These are combinations of tough, sturdy woody plants and scrub, oak forests, grassland, pine woods, walnut woods. The Mediterranean type of climate that sustains this particular 5% of the earths biomes exists in California, the Mediterranean Basin, South Africa, Austrailia, Chile, and part of Vancouver Island in Canada.

Deserts can be either dry, hot, cold, coastal or temperate. Deserts are overwhelmingly dry, the plant life has spines, thorns and thick skins, or is in the form of tough, low, scrub. Deserts can have extremes of heat and cold between day and night. Deserts that have more moisture will develop more scrub, sage, sagebrush and other plant life and can be called scrub deserts.

Grasslands can be called  pampas, steppe, puszta, savannah, the Austrailian Outback, plains and praries. The predominant feature is of course, grasses, but some have more or fewer trees, are more or less temperate, rather than tropical, and can vary widely in rainfall and temperature ranges throughout the day and through the seasons.

AQUATIC BIOMES

The ocean, or marine biome includes the

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