Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Biome |
BiomeNoun1. A major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Geological | A community of living organisms in a single major ecological region. (references) |
Science | Well-defined terrestrial environment (e.g., desert, tundra, or tropical forest). The complex of living organisms found in an ecological region. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Earth's biomes comprise the biosphere and are described by the study of ecology. The concept of the biome embraces the idea of community, of interaction among plant and animal populations, and soil. A biome (which is also called a biotic area) may be defined as a major region of distinctive plant and animal communities well adapted to the physical environment of its distribution area.
Major biomes can be defined thanks to the global distribution pattern. It is frequent that local names are given to a biome when related to a specific continent. For example, temperate grassland biome is locally known as steppe, pampa or veld depending on the continent.
It is also defined by regional climate, in particular temperature and precipitations.
Other aspects are soil characteristics, as well as other physical parameters which might influence the quality of the environment : it might be related to substrate condition (due to periodic flooding for example) or altitude.
The biome is naturally defined by the type of vegetation found, vertical stratification, vegetation adaptation, or fauna.
Water and temperature are the two ecological factors which make it possible to define the climates. Those latter present a latitude distribution. It was noted a good coincidence existed between this distribution and homogeneous vegetation bands, which were called biomes.
This planetary distribution of large biomes might appear to be a simplification, but it covers an obvious climatic reality. Many people realise that biodiversity is getting higher from the poles towards the equator, be about about plant species or also with associated animal species.
Several biomes classifications may be found. Along the most common one, plants and animals extent patterns are strongly related to geography (latitude) and climate. Biomes are also sometimes identified according to the climax vegetation type, but a biome is not only composed of the climax vegetation, but also of all the associated, subclimax, or degraded flora, fauna and soils.
Two types of biomes may be defined, terrestrial (also called continental) biomes and aquatic biomes.
The most widely used definition of biomes is related to latitude (or temperature zoning) and humidity :
Another classification is also including two other points.
This classification gives the following terrestrial biomes :
See also : Ecozone -- EcotopeLatitude zonation
Aquatic Biomes
Altitude and latitude zonations
It proposes to take into account - to a certain point - altitude, as well as strong humidity access.
This classification is the one used to define the Global 200
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Biome."
Crosswords: Biome |
| Specialty definitions using "biome": Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study ♦ Ecological Entity. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Biome" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Biome" is used about 8 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 8 | 124,375 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "biome": prairie biome ♦ rain forest biome. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "biome"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Hungarian | életközösség (symbioses, symbiosis). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | iomebay.(various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "biome": biomechanical, biomechanically, biomechanics, biomedical, biomedicine, biomedicines, biomes, biometeorological, biometeorologies, biometeorology, biometric, biometrical, biometrician, biometricians, biometrics, biometries, biometry. (additional references) | |
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"Biome" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: baom, baume, Baumet, Beaumel, beme, Beomuy, Bhoma, bhome, Biame, biane, biem, Bienek, bigme, Bigombe, bima, bimah, bime, bi'me, Bimec, Bimie, bimm, bimo, bimod, bimoe, biode, Biolm, biom, biomed, biomek, biomem, biomen, bioned, bioner, biote, Biotex, Biovema, bioze, bipm, Birmi, Bisone, blome, blomet, boem, Bohme, boie, Boima, Boime, boire, boma, bome, Bomi, booma, boomex, Brione, Byamee, Byme, ibiom, iboe, Iowme, kimome. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-e-i-m-o" | |
-2 letters: bio, mib, mob, obe, obi. | |
-3 letters: be, bi, bo, em, me, mi, mo, oe, om. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-e-i-m-o" | |
+1 letter: biomes, emboli, mobile, zombie. | |
+2 letters: ameboid, amoebic, bevomit, bimboes, bioherm, bohemia, boomier, bromide, bromine, bromize, combine, embolic, embroil, imbower, microbe, mobiles, obelism, wombier, zombies. | |
+3 letters: aerobium, amberoid, amoeboid, becoming, bevomits, bichrome, biformed, bioherms, biometry, biramose, bloomier, boehmite, bohemian, bohemias, bombesin, bonhomie, boomiest, bromelin, bromides, bromines, bromized, bromizes, broomier, combined, combiner, combines, comblike, divebomb, embodied, embodier, embodies, embolies, embolism, embowing, embroils, embryoid, firebomb, forelimb, imbodied, imbodies, imbolden, imbowers, immobile, intombed, microbes, misbegot, mobilise, mobilize, nobelium, obeahism, obelisms, ribosome, semihobo, symbiote, tomblike, wombiest, womblike. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Usage Frequency | 5. Expressions 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Derivations | 9. Anagrams 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.