Browse by Biome

A biome is this atlas's broadest climate and vegetation classification: a recurring pattern of temperature, rainfall and dominant plant life that repeats across continents wherever the same conditions occur, named here using the common names the WWF and Olson terrestrial ecoregion scheme popularized worldwide, from Tropical Rainforest and Desert through Tundra and the ocean's own Marine biome. Six bands group the atlas's biome entities: Temperate and Boreal Forest, Tropical Forest, Grassland Savanna and Shrubland, Desert and Tundra, Freshwater and Wetland, and Marine and Coastal. A biome names the worldwide pattern; the specific named place living within that pattern, a rainforest or a reef by name, is an Ecosystem entity instead, and the landform or water body a biome sits upon stays with Geography under this atlas's own seam.