which factors are used to characteize a biome such as the desert tropical rain forest or temperate grassland

Answer 1

Hi Irasema,

The answer is in your question! The short answer: Climate and Geography are the two factors used to classify a biome. While there are many factors that are taken into account when characterizing a biome, some major factors are often Weather (rainfall, snow, sunshine, etc.), Temperature, Seasons, and Humidity. These are often just grouped together as "Climate". The other major factor is "Geography", which can be broken up into other factors such as presence or absence of water, movement of water (stagnant vs river), plains, mountains, and even things such as mineral composition of the ground. Simply put though, biologists and ecologists use the climate and geography of an area to classify the biome. For example A desert receives very little rainfall, and is often characterized by few geographic features, but can have temperatures freezing below zero or in the scorching hundreds. Another example is a tropical rainforest has a dense collection of vegetation (geography), with a high degree of rain, in tropical conditions (climate). Often we find rain to be a significant factor on its own, because of how relevant it is to most classifications, but it falls under the overall climate category.