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• Ecosystem


  A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment
• Biome


  A large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g. forest or tundra
• Flora


  The plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period
• Fauna


  The animals of a particular region, habitat, or geological period
• Region


  An area or division, especially part of a country or the world having definable characteristics but not always fixed boundaries
• Biomes are diverse biological communities where various plants and animal species share common characteristics for the environment, they are thriving in. They are formed in response to a shared physical climate and on the world's different Continents.
• Tropical moist forest


  • Supports the world's one of the most complex and biologically rich biome
  • These forests do share standard features such as rainfall and unchanging temperatures
• Grasslands and savannahs


  • Areas with too little rainfall to support forests
  • Unlike grasslands, the savannahs have thin tree cover
  • Like tropical seasonal forests, most tropical savannahs and grasslands have a rainy season, but typically, rains are less abundant than in a forest
  • The plants in these areas have adaptations to survive drought, heat, and even fires
• Deserts


  • Occur when rainfall is rare and unpredictable (less than 30 cm) and hot or cold yet always dry
• Temperate (mid-latitude) grasslands


  • Occur where there is enough rain to support abundant grass but not enough for forests
• Temperate Shrublands


  • Dry environments can be biologically rich, where they can support drought-adapted trees, shrubs, and grasses
• Temperate forests


  • Can be evergreen or deciduous
  • Occupy a wide range of precipitation conditions, mainly between 30 and 55-degrees
  • Can be grouped by tree type, which can be broadleaf deciduous (losing leaves seasonally) or evergreen coniferous (cone-bearing)
• Deciduous Forests


  • Broadleaf forests occur throughout the world, where rainfall is plentiful, in mid-latitudes, deciduous forests located in the forest lose their leaves during winter
• Coniferous Forests


  • Grow in a wide range of temperatures and moisture conditions
  • Limited moisture area that may experience cold climates such as winter wherein moisture is unavailable
• Rainy forests


  • Often enclosed in fog, cool in temperature, and the most humid coastal forests are known as temperate rainforest
• Boreal Forests


  • Since conifers can survive winter cold, they tend to limit the existence of boreal forest or northern forest between about 50° and 60° north
  • Boreal forest, such as taiga (snow forest), known by its Russian name, describe as extreme, and ragged edge where forest progressively gives way to open tundra
• Tundra


  • A treeless landscape located in the mountaintops or high latitudes, and the growing season of this biome is only two to three months
• Arctic Tundra


  • An extended biome that has a short growing season, hence, it has low productivity
• Alpine Tundra


  • Has a similar environmental condition and vegetation to the arctic tundra
  • Occurs on near mountaintops, and these zones have a short and extraordinary growing season
• Marine Ecosystems


  • The diversity of organism in oceans and seas are no seen effectively
  • They are also as diverse and complex as terrestrial biomes
• Open ocean


  • Has areas of productive richness and diversity
  • Fish and plankton abound in regions such as the equatorial Pacific and Antarctic oceans, where currents distribute nutrients
• Phytoplankton


  Free-floating photosynthetic plants, microscopic algae that are essential to support the marine food web
• Coastal Zones


  • Shoreline communities vary in terms of depth, light, nutrient concentrations, and temperature
  • Excessive loads of nutrients may stimulate bacterial growth that consumes oxygen in the water, which is more than 200 "dead zones" occur in coastal zones
  • Coastal zones support vibrant, diverse biological communities
• Coral reefs


  • Known in marine ecosystems because of their exceptional biological productivity and their diverse, beautiful organisms
  • Reefs form clusters as colonial animals (coral polyps) that live symbiotically with photosynthetic algae
  • Elevated water temperatures cause coral bleaching, in which corals expel their algal partner and then die
• Mangroves


  • Trees that grow in saltwater
  • Take place along calm, shallow, tropical coastlines around the world
• Estuaries


  • Bays where river water meets the sea, hence, there is a mixing of saltwater and freshwater
• Salt marshes


  • Shallow wetlands flooded regularly or occasionally and drained by seawater, usually on shallow coastlines, including estuaries
• Tide pools


  • May experience violent, wave-blasted shorelines that support enchanting life-forms
• Barrier islands


  • Low, narrow, sandy islands that form parallel to a coastline
• Freshwater environments


  • Not that wide as the marine ecosystem, but they are abundant and center of biodiversity
• Freshwater lakes


  • Have distinct vertical zones
  • Close to the surface, a subcommunity of plankton, primarily microscopic plants, animals, and protists (single-celled organisms such as amoebae), float freely in the water column
  • A variety of snails, burrowing worms, fish, and other organisms occupy the bottom or benthos
  • Anaerobic bacteria (not using oxygen) may exist in low-oxygen sediments
• Epilimnion


  • The warmer upper layer of a lake mixed with wind and warmed by the sun
• Hypolimnion


  • The colder, deeper layer of a lake that is not combined
• Local conditions that influence the characteristics of an aquatic community

  • Excess nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates
  • Suspended matter, such as silt that affects light penetration
  • Depth
  • Temperature
  • Currents
  • Bottom characteristics, such as muddy, sandy, or rocky floor
  • Internal currents
  • Connections to, or isolation from, other aquatic and terrestrial system
• Wetlands


  • Shallow biological systems where the land surface is saturated or lowered in the late part of the year
• Swamps


  Wetlands with trees
• Marshes


  Wetlands without trees
• Bogs


  Areas of concentrated land, and usually, the ground is comprised of deep layers of accumulated, undecayed vegetation known as peat
• Fens


  Like bogs except that they are mainly fed by groundwater, so they have mineral-rich water and exceptionally adapted plant species
• Bogs


  Primarily fed by precipitation