A BIOME is the largest geographic biotic unit, a major community of plants and animals with similar life forms and environmental conditions.
Biomes are distributed across the Earth based primarily on climate. Therefore, in areas that are far apart, you will sometimes find similar plants and animals because the climate is similar.
One factor affecting climate is latitude. Typically, the farther you move north or south of the equator, the colder the temperature gets. Another factor affecting climate is elevation. The higher you go in elevation, the colder the temperature gets.
Biomes usually found at cold latitudes far from the equator are sometimes also found on high mountains at low latitudes. Typically, a climb of 100 feet in elevation is equivalent to traveling 600 miles northward.
Although there is some disagreement among scientists on how to divide up the Earth’s biomes, most can agree on the following eight:
Tropical Rainforest
Tropical Savanna
Desert
Chaparral
Grassland
Temperate Deciduous Forest
Temperate Boreal Forest
Tundra
