Sample Answer for How Humans interact with Biomes

A biome is a major world region which is characterised by similarities in climate, soil, vegetation, and animals. A biome I have studied is the tropical rainforest biome in the Amazon in Brazil. The biome has an equatorial climate, which has influenced the soils and vegetation in the biome. This essay will examine the biomes climate and discuss how it effects soils and vegetation in the biome.

Climate

A biome has a tropical climate, it is characterised by its high temperature, high rainfall, and high humidity. The biome has a large amount of sunlight because of its position on the equator. There are 12 hours of sun per day, 365 days per year. The daily temperatures are high, over 27°C. There is little seasonal temperature change. The diurnal range is greater than any seasonal variation. The biome has high rainfall, with over 2000 mm of rainfall per annum. Over 50% of the precipitation is self-produced by evaporation and transpiration due to trade winds converging in a low-pressure zone. Most rainfall occurs in the afternoon. Moist air rises due to solar heating from the equator during the morning, causing heavy afternoon rainfall. Conventional thunderstorms are common. The biome also has high humidity; it is greater than 80%. Humidity is higher during the wetter months. The biome is kept humid by the constant cloud cover.

How climate impacts on soils

The tropical climate has caused the formation of its Latosol soil. This is a zonal soil. Zonal soils are formed by the climate and processes that occur upon them. Latosols are up to 30 meters deep. This is due to the rapid chemical weathering of parent material caused by moisture and humidity. The soil is impacted by the climate's precipitation. The heavy rainfall causes heavy leaching. Leaching is the draining of nutrients through the soil. As such, Latosols lack minerals and nutrients. The heavy leaching also influences the soil colour, draining most minerals at the A and B horizons of the soil. This leaves just iron and aluminium oxide. Iron oxide provides a reddish colour and alluminium oxide provides a yellow colour. The leeching also causes the soils to develop a hard pan. The O horizon of the soil is also affected by the biome's climate. Due to the hot, humid conditions, it is ideal for bacteria and other microorganisms which can be active for most of the year. Due to this, they decompose matter on the forest floor which forms a thin nutrient-rich humus layer. However, the heavy rain washes out the humus, so little humus gets past the O horizon.

How climate impacts on vegetation

The biome's climate impacts the flora and vegetation of the biome. The high temperature (27°C), high rainfall (2000mm per annum), and high humidity all create the conditions for lush plant growth. This results in trees growing to a gigantic size, with the tallest being up to 50 meters tall. As the plants need sunlight and nutrients to survive, they adapt to the climate by growing to different heights, which causes different rainforest layers to form. These layers are the top layer, canopy layer, understory, and lowest layer. The top layer has scattered tall trees called emergent trees. They need the climate's sunlight, so they are fast-growing. The canopy layer consists of the crowns of other trees. They have adapted to the climate through their leaves, which have drip tips allowing rainwater to run off quickly. Below this is the understory. The understory has larger, wider leaves that capture any water or sunlight that trickles down. Finally, there is the lowest layer. Plants called lianas have their roots here, but they wrap around other trees to access sunlight higher up. Less than 2% of light reaches this far down, so plants have adapted to take advantage of the climate.

Therefore, climate heavily influences the soils and vegetation of the tropical rainforest biome. The biome has a hot, humid tropical climate. This causes the development of both the latosol soil and the various layers of flora in the biome, showing that climate influences a biome's soils and vegetation.