- What is a terrestrial ecosystem?
- Characteristics of a terrestrial ecosystem
- Types of terrestrial ecosystems
- Examples of terrestrial ecosystem
We explain what a terrestrial ecosystem is and the main characteristics of this biome. Also, how it is classified and examples.
What is a terrestrial ecosystem?
Terrestrial ecosystems are those ecosystems that take place in the I usually firm and in the air, or on landforms (moutains, etc.), places where they find everything they need to be born, grow and reproduce.
They are distinguished from aquatic ecosystems and of the mixed ones in that they do not present a predominance of large bodies of water, such as lakes, rivers or seas. Even so, they present different ranges of rainfall, depending on their geographical and climatic characteristics.
Thus, the terrestrial fauna has adapted millions of years ago to the rigidity of the I usually and the drought of air (compared to Water where it originated), by means of solid limbs for walking, instead of swimming, and skins with their own moisturizing capacity, so as not to dry out. Flying, terrestrial and subterranean animals coexist in terrestrial ecosystems.
Similarly, these ecosystems are some of the most affected by the pollution and by the incidence of human activities, such as logging, urban expansion or the accumulation of solid waste.
Characteristics of a terrestrial ecosystem
Water is a factor of capital importance for life in terrestrial ecosystems, since they only receive it from part of the rain, which in some environments it can be very scarce.
However, life on earth has other advantages such as the greater presence of light and the cleaning of the environment, as well as huge platforms on which plant life grows up to the heights and a great climatic and topographic diversity.
At the same time, in terrestrial ecosystems the wind is the main agent of erosion, as well as transportation of certain species, and in them plant life coexists with animal, fungal, microbiological and amphibian. In the jungles, for example, the biodiversity it reaches some of its greatest known limits.
Types of terrestrial ecosystems
Terrestrial ecosystems are abundant, and can be classified according to their climatic characteristics and the abiotic factors present in them:
- Aggregates. Those with a low incidence of precipitation and therefore enormous drought, with high temperatures during the day and low at night (or low and lower still, such as the Antarctic polar desert) and difficult conditions for life. There is usually little vegetation and life very specialized to the conditions.
- Prairies. Ecosystems of low vegetation and generally in plains, flooded or not during the rainy season, in which animal life abounds and there is usually great climatic variation during the seasons.
- Jungle. They generally have large accumulations of dense vegetation, of great size, with very low understory and huge accumulations of organic material. They are hotbeds of life, with thousands of species of all kinds and hot and humid climatic cycles, common in the equator.
- Mountainous. Usually mixed, combining other ecosystems but tending towards the arid as one ascends in the mountain, given the drop in oxygen and temperatures.
Examples of terrestrial ecosystem
Deserts currently occupy a third of planet Earth in total.
Some terrestrial ecosystems are:
- Hot deserts. The arid ecosystems par excellence, with xerophytic vegetation adapted to the extreme heat daytime and very little precipitation, but with a fauna very particular that takes refuge from the heat as it can. They currently occupy a third of the planet Earth total.
- Humid rainforest. Located in the Ecuadorian regions of America Y AfricaThese are huge agglomerations of plant and animal life, in closed habitats and abundant rainfall. They tend to occur in hot regions, without seasons beyond a dry season and a rainy season. They are the most biodiverse regions on the planet.
- Grasslands Also called grasslands or grasslandsThey are ecosystems in which a herbaceous vegetation predominates, that is to say, of low-lying grasses. They usually occur in places of low precipitation and temperate temperatures, with summers intense and cold winters.
- Taiga. Also called Forest boreal or coniferous forestThese are large closed formations of tall vegetation, considered the largest forest mass on the planet. They are located in the cold areas of northern Russia and Siberia, northern Canada and Europe, and have temperatures of 19 ° C in summer and -30 ° C in winter, that is, a huge thermal variation. Its fauna is composed of small mammals Y predators land and air, mainly.