Biome is a community of plants and animals in equilibrium with the environmental characteristics, i.e., climate, soils, hydrology, etc., of a major geographical area. A biome is the combination of flora and fauna in a set of environmental conditions. It represents a climax community. Animals and plants are part of parcel of the biome. In every biome biodiversity is maintained. Biome is the integral part of the biodiversity.
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Important Facts:
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Biomes are commonly treated as the terrestrial communities. But the communities of inter tidal Zones, estuaries, coral reefs and fresh water environments and also considered as biomes by some scientists.
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Climate is the major environmental cause, which directly affects the characteristics of flora in a specific biome.
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There are natural disturbances, like fire, volcanoes, floods, insect infestation, overheat, etc. Most of the biomes are capable of absorbing and recovering from a considerable amount of natural disturbances.
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‘Flora’ is the combination of plants in a particular area. Each biome has a characteristic flora. The term ‘flora’ also refers to the friendly bacteria which help to protect the human body against invasion of pathogen.
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Fauna: The animal life characteristics of a particular biome. The savanna biome, for example, supports large populations of herbivores, such as wildebeest, antelope and kangaroo, and predators in the form of lions, cheetahs, hyenas or dingoes that prey on them. Any change in a biome, whether natural or human-induced, has the potential to alter the associated fauna.
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Grasslands: Each grassland is a biome of its own. ‘Grassland’ means a region in which climax vegetation is dominated by grasser, but may contain a variety of plants – perennial or annual. The grasslands from each one of the earth’s major biomes.
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The natural construction of biomes having biodiversity is badly disturbed due to the environmental pollution. For example, the deforestation in an area badly affects against flora and fauna of that area. Thus the deforestation disturbs the biomes of that area. The petroleum leakages from the ships and wells badly disturb the biomes of the sea-shore of that area. The sea birds and animals die due to the floating of oil and oil products on the sea water. We see such sceneries in sea waters in the TVs and newspapers.