Tag: Biodiversity

Shrublands―Biomes, By GeoDivide

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Biomes is a documentary series created by GeoDivide, which explores our planet with beautiful high-quality documentaries including the latest in timelapse and drone technology.

Shrublands are relatively arid regions of Earth where it is too dry for trees to flourish. Often overlooked, they take second or third place to forests or grasslands when it comes to beauty contests. They are a mix of shrubs and grasses, spanning the subtropics to the temperate latitudes. Shrublands have surprising biodiversity considering their parched appearance. They are a place of heat and drought, yet still abundant with life.

From the Mediterranean to Southern California, Central Chile, the Cape of South Africa, and Australia, the Mediterranean scrub biome dominates. While in the subtropics, from Texas and Mexico to the Caatinga of NE Brazil, the Gran Chaco of Paraguay, the Sahel of Africa, these are transitions between the Savannah and deserts.

Savannah―Biomes, By GeoDivide

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Biomes is a documentary series created by GeoDivide, which explores our planet with beautiful high-quality documentaries including the latest in timelapse and drone technology.

The Savannah is the vast open country of the tropics. It consists of a patchwork of trees and shrubs on a bed of grass. It is a place of deluge and drought. It dominates the continent at the center of our world. Of all the world’s habitats, it supports the earth’s most famous wildlife, the safari.

The tropics of our planet have two habitats that are instantly recognizable. The first of these is the tropical rainforest. The other, much drier one is that of the tropical savannah. Spreading out over vast plains across three continents, the Savannahs of the tropics make up for any lack of biodiversity compared to their richer rainforest cousin in the sheer quantity of large mammalian wildlife, feeding on the endless grass, and on the animals that eat that grass.

So where in the world do we find Savannah? Well if we apply the strict definition of a natural mix of trees, shrubs, and grass, then they can occur in temperate and subtropical latitudes as well as the tropics. But these areas are relatively small compared to the tropical savannah that dominates the tropics, in South America, Australia, and above all, Africa.

Tropical Forests―Biomes, By GeoDivide

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Biomes is a documentary series created by GeoDivide, which explores our planet with beautiful high-quality documentaries including the latest in timelapse and drone technology.

Tropical forests offer the greatest biodiversity of any area of Earth with over half of all plant and animal species. They are the “lungs of the world – absorbing more CO2 and producing more oxygen than any other”. A product of constant heat and abundant rain, it’s no wonder that plants grow here more vigorously than in any other biome. But it is also the biome that is under the greatest threat. Known as jungle, selva, or rainforest, these regions are in fact two distinct biomes – the evergreen and seasonal forests of the tropics.

Tropical forests are basically found in two types – the classic rainforest that has hardwood evergreen trees, and the “dry” forest or seasonal forest that sheds its leaves in the dry season.

A typical tropical forest in cross section has these layers:

  • Forest floor
  • Understory
  • Canopy
  • Emergent

The amount of biomass in these layers varies depending on the amount and patterns of rainfall, with the canopy being thickest in the rainforest. The forest floor becomes thicker as the canopy thins.

Tropical forests are found all around the equatorial regions, including:

  • Central America and the Caribbean
  • The Amazon Basin of South America
  • West Africa and the Congo Basin
  • The Indian Subcontinent
  • Southeast Asia and the southern coast of China
  • The archipelagos of The Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia
  • The north-west coasts of Australia, and most Pacific islands including Fiji and Hawai’i

The tropical forests are under greater threat than at any time, as they are cut down to make way for agriculture.