Desert

Deserts are very hot and dry places. Deserts get very little rain each year. Deserts host plants and animals living in what strikes many humans as oppressive environments. Solar energy that green plants convert into food fuels life here. Although in most ecosystems plants compete for sunlight, here most plants are adapted to minimize the effects of too much solar energy. Annuals compress their life cycles and go dormant as conditions grow unfavorable. Many animals get their energy by eating plants, but desert plants give up the fruit of their production very reluctantly. Sharp spines and chemical-laden leaves discourage plant-eaters. The kangaroo rat avoids these obstacles by eating seeds that, while safe to eat, can be hard to find. Many are small and look like grains of sand. With sensitive front paws a kangaroo rat sifts sand to find seeds by touch, eats them and transforms them into animal tissue. The solar energy flows while the animals such as kangaroo rats, and other herbivores like rabbits get hunted by: owls, snakes, coyotes and other carnivores.

Rainforests are very dense, warm, wet forests. They are havens for millions of plants and animals. The plants of the rainforest generate much of the Earth's oxygen. These plants are also very important to people in other ways; many are used in new drugs that fight disease and illness. It is almost always raining in a rainforest. Rainforests get over 2 m. of rain each year. This is about 3.8 cm of rain each week. The range of temperature in a tropical rainforest is usually between 24-27 C. An incredible number of animals live in rainforests. Millions of insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals call them home. Insects are the most numerous animals in rainforests.

The marine ecosystem has many different zones. There is the intertidal zone which has all of the rocks, sandy beaches, estuaries, mangrove swamps, and coral reefs. It has a cool climate because it is mostly on shore. Then theres the neritic zone that is the relatively shallow ocean that extends to the edge of the continental shelf. It has a cool water climate. Then there is the oceanic zone, this zone is located over the ocean basins. Its climate gets a little colder than the neritic zone. Then there is the euphoitic zone which holds many plankton and fish. Then the bathyal zone has little or no light that is very cold because of its elevation. Finally is the abyssal zone with no light at all and is under 6,000 feet and can support few life forms. It can also make us a smooth paste... doesn't that sound nice, but there is also the hadal zone which is the lowest zone, it consists of the canyons and trenchs under the abyssal zone.

Biomes

There is alot of biomes and they each have unique climates and flora and fauna. There is the desert, rainforest, marine, mountain, chapparal, grasslands, and tundra. They each have way different animals and plants in there. The biomes have many different regions also and exist in many parts of the world.