Major Ecosystems (Biomes)

Biome is a large, regional or sub continental biosystem characterized by a major vegetation type or other distinct landscape characters such as tropical deciduous forest, tundra biome, etc.

"The major terrestrial ecosystems (largest ecological units) of distinctive terrestrial areas with their climax plants and associated animals are known as Biomes".

Type of climax vegetation depends upon the physical factors like nature of soil, amount of rainfall, temperature variation, intensity and duration of sunlight, topography, geographical barriers like mountains, deserts, seas, latitude and longitude, etc.

Biomes are distributed over the surface of the earth as broad belts from the equator to the poles. They may or may not be continuous and the transitional zone between the adjacent biomes are called 'ecotones' or 'transition zones'.

Biomes are broadly classified into two namely:

a) Terrestrial biomes and

b) Aquatic biomes.