Biosphere as a Living Place
Terrestrial Biomes
We often think of the Biosphere as primarily a Physical Place, a place to live. As a Living Place the Biosphere extends up into the atmosphere a few miles, where spores and spiderlings may be found, down into Earth's crust rock a mile or so, where some bacteria live, and all the way down to the ocean floor, beneath the crushing weight of miles of water. Life exists in boiling water, and even in coolant water in nuclear reactors. Life is incredibly tough, tenacious and above all, inventive. Life finds ways to live in every conceivable place.
We tend to think of Earth as a kind of stage where living organisms play out their lives, but this is not so. In fact, life plays a major role in creating the conditions that favor it. The players help create the stage. In other words, over time, Life shapes the planet while the planet shapes Life. To explore see Biosphere as Process. See Adaptation.
Below are images of Terrestrial Biomes. A biome is a kind of place to live, one type of ecosystem within the Biosphere. Each biome is unique, but to help us see the effects of rainfall, climate, and soil types around the Earth, we use biome names as typical of places such as grasslands and deserts, where in response to similar pressures, plant and animal types have evolved to be similar. Temperate grasslands and shrub-lands are called steppes in cental Asia, veldt in South Africa, prairies in North America, even though they are somewhat similar biomes.
The continents of Earth as a whole can be mapped by biome kind, as a rough guide:
But notice what happens when you zoom in on one continent. It's still a rough guide, but does suggest the true complexity of the places life thrives.
| Mind-Experiment, Biome-Play |
Below are images of various biomes. 
For each picture, imagine you were a creature that lived there, that was adapted to live well there. Assume you were six inches long. What would you eat? Would you be fast? How would you move? Where would you sleep? What might you fear?
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| kelp forest, New Zealand |
pine mountains, New Mexico |
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alpine meadow, Washington |
taiga lake, Minnesota |
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high desert, Utah |
coral reef, Fiji |
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marsh, Minnesota |
sand dunes, Mongolia |
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mangrove tidewaters, Australia |
South Georgia island, shore |
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high desert sagebrush, New Mexico |
rainforest, Borneo |
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low tundra plants, hurrying through a short growing season, Canada |
tundra reindeer lichen
with sphagnum moss, Alaska
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