The world of biomes

Have you ever heard the word 'biome'? Some of you must have. Today, we will explore the world of biomes so that all of you can be educated about them. First, let's see what biomes are.

Biomes are the various regions of our planet that can best be distinguished (differentiated) by their climate, fauna and flora. There are different ways of classifying biomes, but the common elements are climate, habitat, animal and plant adaptation, biodiversity and human activity.

Biomes are defined as 'the world's major communities, classified according to the major plant life and

 characterised by adaptations of organisms to that particular environment'. Biomes have moved and changed many times during the history of life on Earth. More recently, human activities have drastically altered these communities.

Biomes are grouped into six major types; Desert, Freshwater, Marine, Forest, Grassland and Tundra. It is important to know the inter-relationship between each of these elements in a biome. A change in one affects the other directly or indirectly.

Why organise natural world into biomes?

Have you ever wondered why these biomes are organised into various categories? To understand why biomes are classified as they are, we should first know what characterises a biome.

Biomes (bioclimatic zones) are appropriate divisions to organise the natural world, because the organisms that live in each of them possess adaptations which are common to them, in particular to the climate of each zone and to the characteristic vegetation types that develop in them.

All the elements of a biome exist in some meaningful relationship with each other. A change in one (e.g. the habitat) leads to a change in the biome. The original hunter/gatherer populations had relatively little effect on the environment, but with the increase in population, a substantial proportion of large animals have been hunted out.

Habitat destruction has also been caused by small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture and large-scale land clearing for ranching and farming.

Exploring different biomes

Different scientists classify biomes in different ways. For example, biomes have been listed as tundra, coniferous forests, grasslands, shrublands, rainforests, temperate deciduous forests and deserts.

Conservation and preservation of biomes

Because of the rapid changes made in the area of technology, biomes are also prone to change just like any other place on Earth. Let's see how this happens. Biomes have changed many times during the history of life on Earth. Different biomes have different effects on the planet.

The world's oceans have an even greater effect on global climate than forests. More recently, human activities have drastically altered these communities.

Thus, the conservation and preservation of biomes should be a major concern for all. We must understand how human activity affects these biomes. Aquatic biomes are the most valuable and they are also the most threatened by pollution.

A closer look at a desert biome

We will bring you information about all the different biomes in our future issues. But, today we will brief you on the desert biome just to give you a rough idea of what it's like.

Deserts seem to be the most inhospitable biome for humans, but humans have been able to adapt to desert life for hundreds of years. As long as traditional lifestyles remained in effect, the human impact on the desert was not severe. Desert dwellers understood the need to maintain a balance between themselves and their environment.

With rapid growth in population and firearms, animals were hunted down. Popular desert plants such as cacti, and animals such as lizards started to be sold at high prices to collectors. Many of these species are threatened as a result. Desertification continues at a fast rate.

In our next issues, we will brief you about the other biomes in the world.

Janani Amarasekara