Babble Buster: What is a biome?

As we’ve been talking all about the natural world in this edition of EcoBabble, there was one word that I came across multiple times when writing this month’s Club Column that I felt it only fitting that we dip into some environmental science too!

Especially because, for all my experience writing for SaveMoneyCutCarbon, I had no idea what it meant either!

Let’s define it together

A biome is “a large area characterized by its vegetation, soil, climate, and wildlife. There are five major types of biomes: aquatic, grassland, forest, desert, and tundra” according to National Geographic. You might also hear them referred to as ecosystems (though biome is a broader term).

These biomes can be further broken down into more specific categories:

• Aquatic – an obvious one, but this is freshwater (lakes, rivers, even your garden pond) and marine which are the oceans coral reefs and estuaries that cover almost 75% of our beautiful blue planet.
• Grassland – another obvious one, this is land dominated by grass, tropical (sometimes called savannahs) and temperate. You’d find these across Africa, Australia, India and South America.
• Forest – Trees, beautiful, wonderful trees! There are three types: tropical, temperate and boreal (snow) forests. Containing most of the world’s biodiversity (hence why deforestation is such a devastatingly massive problem and contributor to climate change).
• Desert – not a yummy ice cream sundae (though I wouldn’t say no right now) these are dry areas where there is less than 50cm of rain annually, covering about 20% of the Earth’s surface.
• Tundra – these are extremely inhospitable environments like the arctic (found north of boreal forests) and alpine (aka mountains, where altitude is too high for trees to survive).

These beautiful biomes are our responsibility to protect – and we need to make sure they’re there for future generations to explore, enjoy and benefit from. Choosing to lead a more sustainable lifestyle by reducing emissions, saving energy and being as low waste as possible are great ways to start making an impact.

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