BIO 220 W2 Discussion Question One
BIO 220 W2 Discussion Question One
Select an example of a global biome and an example of an ecosystem found in that global biome (grassland, forest, desert). What kind of animals and plants would you expect to make up that ecosystem? Provide one symbiotic relationship example within your selected ecosystem (such as mutualism, commensalism, and predator prey).
The term was suggested in 1916 by Clements, originally as a synonym for biotic community of Möbius (1877).[2] Later, it gained its current definition, based on earlier concepts of phytophysiognomy, formation and vegetation (used in opposition to flora), with the inclusion of the animal element and the exclusion of the taxonomic element of species composition.[3][4] In 1935, Tansley added the climatic and soil aspects to the idea, calling it ecosystem.[5][6] The International Biological Program (1964–74) projects popularized the concept of biome.[7]
BIO 220 W2 Discussion Question One
However, in some contexts, the term biome is used in a different manner. In German literature, particularly in the Walter terminology, the term is used similarly as biotope (a concrete geographical unit), while the biome definition used in this article is used as an international, non-regional, terminology—irrespectively of the continent in which an area is present, it takes the same biome name—and corresponds to his “zonobiome”, “orobiome” and “pedobiome” (biomes determined by climate zone, altitude or soil).[8]
In Brazilian literature, the term “biome” is sometimes used as synonym of “biogeographic province“, an area based on species composition (the term “floristic province” being used when plant species are considered), or also as synonym of the “morphoclimatic and phytogeographical domain” of Ab’Sáber, a geographic space with subcontinental dimensions, with the predominance of similar geomorphologic and climatic characteristics, and of a certain vegetation form. Both include many biomes in fact.[3][9][10]
To divide the world into a few ecological zones is difficult, notably because of the small-scale variations that exist everywhere on earth and because of the gradual changeover from one biome to the other. Their boundaries must therefore be drawn arbitrarily and their characterization made according to the average conditions that predominate in them.[11]
A 1978 study on North American grasslands[12] found a positive logistic correlation between evapotranspiration in mm/yr and above-ground net primary production in g/m2/yr. The general results from the study were that precipitation and water use led to above-ground primary production, while solar irradiation and temperature lead to below-ground primary production (roots), and temperature and water lead to cool and warm season growth habit.[13] These findings help explain the categories used in Holdridge’s bioclassification scheme (see below), which were then later simplified by Whittaker. The number of classification schemes and the variety of determinants used in those schemes, however, should be taken as strong indicators that biomes do not fit perfectly into the classification schemes created.