What is a Biome?

• Biomes are areas of the world defined by climate and geography

• Often referred to as large ecosystems• What are some examples of biomes?

– rain forest– desert– grassland– temperate deciduous forest– others?

Climate

• Climate is defined by 2 non-living factors– Annual average precipitation (rainfall)– Annual average temperature

• Climate plays a major role in determining world biomes

• Biomes can be represented on a graph– Rainfall on the X-axis– Temperature on Y-axis– This graph is called a Whittaker graph

Annual Precipitation (inches)

Aver

age

Tem

pera

ture

40 80 120 160

Biomes of the World

-10°C(14°F)

0°C(32°F)

10°C(50°F)

20°C(68°F)

tropical

temperate

drier wetter

c

olde

r

h

otte

r

30°C(86°F)

Whittaker Graph

rainforest

rainforest

tropical dry forest

temperate deciduous

forest

taiga

tundra

savannah

gras

slan

ds

dese

rt

What Biome Am I?

I give you an image and the climate……you give me the biome

Desert

• avg. precipitation: 5 in/yr• avg. temperature: 25 C

• avg. precipitation: 120 in/yr• avg. temperature: 25 C

Tropical Rainforest

• avg. precipitation: 20 in/yr• avg. temperature: 10 C

Grassland

• avg. precipitation: 100 in/yr• avg. temperature: 15 C

Temperate Rainforest

• avg. precipitation: 5 in/yr• avg. temperature: -10 C

Tundra

• avg. precipitation: 45 in/yr• avg. temperature: 10 C

Temperate Deciduous Forest

• avg. precipitation: 40 in/yr• avg. temperature: 0 C

Taiga

• avg. precipitation: 8 in/yr• avg. temperature: 0 C

Desert

• avg. precipitation: 30 in/yr• avg. temperature: 25 C

Savannah

• avg. precipitation: 50 in/yr• avg. temperature: 5 C

Taiga

Tropical Deciduous Forest

• avg. precipitation: 10 in/yr• avg. temperature: -8 C

Tundra

• avg. precipitation: 100 in/yr• avg. temperature: 20 C

Ocean