Terrestrial Biome - Encyclopedia of Earth - Homework Help

Terrestrial Biome - Encyclopedia of Earth
Lead Author: Michael Pidwirny (other articles)
Article Topics: Geography, Environmental monitoring and Ecology
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editors: Sidney Draggan (other articles) and Mark McGinley (other articles)
Last Updated: December 4, 2007

Introduction
Many places on Earth share similar climatic conditions despite being found in geographically different areas. As a result of natural selection, comparable ecosystems have developed in these separated areas. Scientists call these major ecosystem types biomes. The geographical distribution (and productivity) of the various biomes is controlled primarily by the climatic variables precipitation and temperature. The maps in Figures 1 and 2 describe the geographical locations of the thirteen major terrestrial biomes of the world. Because of their scale, these maps ignore the many community variations that are present within each biome category.

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