Chapter 2

Climate Diagrams















 

Soils

BIOMES -- typically characterized by the founding plant associations

TROPICS -- What characterizes ALL tropical biomes?

  Tropical Rain Forest
        Near Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico


        El Salto Falls, San Luis Potosí, Mexico


        Canopy, with emergents, La Selva, Costa Rica


  Tropical Dry Forest

        Playa Hermosa, Dry Season, Guanacaste Province, Cost Rica

        Tempisque Valley, Palo Verde Science Station, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, Beginning of February

        Tempisque Valley, Palo Verde Science Station, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, Middle of April


  Tropical Savanna -- Grasslands

  Other tropical habitats
      Mid elevation mixed forest -- Queretaro/San Luis Potosí border, Mexico 1600m


    Paramo -- Cerro de la Muerte, Costa Rica, 3200m


     High elevation -- Volcan Citlatapetl, Mexico


        So, What DOES characterize all tropical biomes?


THE DESERT

   Near Big Pine, eastern California (next two pictures),




TEMPERATE BIOMES

  Mediterranean

  Grasslands
        Cimarron National Grasslands, Morton Co., Kansas

   Forests
        Mixed eastern deciduous (hickory-oak)/pine forest -- north Georgia!
                New River, West Virginia

        Temperate rain forest (how different from tropical rain forest?)
            Wolf Creek Pass, Colorado (note lichens hanging from pine trees)


        Oregon Cascades

SUBARCTIC/ARCTIC BIOMES

   Taiga and Tundra (can also be alpine)
        Old Monarch Pass, Chaffee Co. Colorado (tundra in foreground, taiga downhill)




MOUNTAINS -- Islands in the Sky
        East Turkey Creek, Chiracahua Mountains, Cochise Co., Arizona