A pyramid of biomass is a graphical representation of biomass present in a unit area of various trophic levels. It shows the relationship between biomass and trophic level quantifying the biomass available in each trophic level of an energy community at a given time. There are two main types of biomass pyramid – inverted pyramid…
A pyramid of numbers is a graphical representation that shows the number of organisms at each trophic level. It is an upright pyramid in light of the fact that in an ecosystem, the producers are always more in number than other trophic levels. The pyramid of numbers was advanced by Charles Elton in 1927. Charles…
Energy Pyramid is sometimes referred to as an ecological pyramid or trophic pyramid. It is a graphical representation between various organisms in an ecosystem. The pyramid is composed of several bars. Each bar has a different trophic level to represent. The order of these bars is based on who feeds on whom. It represents the…
Biodiversity, or Biological Diversity, is the sum of all the different species of plants, animals, fungi and microbial organisms that live on Earth, including the various ecosystems in which they live on. Biodiversity also includes the genetic information that these organisms contain. Therefore, on a smaller scale, you can use biodiversity to describe the variation…
Simply defined, a forest is a vast area including a large group of trees. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Forest is a minimum “Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent or trees able to reach these thresholds in…
An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals interrelating with each other in a particular area, as well as with their non-living environments. The non-living environments encompass atmosphere, weather, sun, soil, and climate. An ecosystem can be expansive, with several hundreds of different flora and fauna all living with a delicate balance, or it…
An ecosystem encompasses living organisms and the nonliving elements of their environments. Hence, the components of an ecosystem include animals, plants, microorganisms, rocks, soil, minerals, atmosphere, and the surrounding water masses. An ecosystem can be huge, cutting across several nations, or it can be relatively small, such as the body of an animal, which is…
Aquatic plants are simply plants that live in or around water. The opposite of an aquatic plant is a terrestrial plant, which simply means a plant that lives on land. Aquatic plants occur naturally in bodies of saltwater or freshwater, but they’re also commonly found in aquariums, water gardens, and decorative ponds. Just like terrestrial…
Taiga biome is derived from the Russian word, meaning forest. Despite that fact that it’s the largest terrestrial biome in the world, it’s a cold and lonely place, and many people are not familiar with the name. Although Taiga biome is so cold and remote, humans have had a deep influence here. Ancient humans hunted…
Planet Earth is a world filled with endless, scintillating places. It also harbors a glittering array of many plant and animal species. These plant and animal species live in completely diverse environments. These diverse environments are commonly known as biomes. Biomes differ in climate, precipitation, location, and plants and animals. There are two major categories…
In the prehistoric times, forests dominated the surface of the earth However, human activities such as farming and deforestation led to the proliferation of grasslands biomes. The proliferation of grassland biomes is evident by the fact they are found in pretty much every continent except Antarctica. It’s estimated that grasslands biomes cover more than 20% of…
Temperate grasslands were one of the greatest biomes in the natural fauna. However, human activities over the centuries altered its composition and today; it has become one of the most endangered of all the biomes in the world. Human activities like agriculture have also destroyed and reduced the biome to such a degree that it…
The word Tundra stems from the Finnish word tunturia, which means treeless mountain tract, and that’s what characterizes this biome. Out of all the biomes existing in the world, tundra is the coldest. Although peaceful, tundra has unique and rich biodiversity. It’s cover about 10% of the earth’s surface. Scientists believe that it’s the youngest…
Every inch of the earth’s surface consists of one or more biomes. A biome is a formation of flora and fauna (plants and animals) that have common characteristics as a result of similar climates and can be found on different continents. Essentially, biomes are distinct communities that have mushroomed due to a shared physical climate…
The word chaparral comes from the Spanish word Chaparro, meaning scrub oak. Chaparral biome is a relatively small yet one of the most extensive biomes in the world. It’s more extensive than the desert, the forests, and the sea shore. It’s virtually everywhere. Chaparral is created when cool water from an ocean or sea merges…