Habitat

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See Habitat in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A habitat is the place or environment where species populations live and grow. The immediate surroundings, and other physical factors, of individual plants or animals are known as microhabitats. There are many habitats on Earth that vary in the amount of moisture and rainfall, amount of light, temperature, soil qualities, and other factors. Habitats can be as large as an ocean, as in the case of tuna, or smaller than the intestine of a termite, as in the case of the cellulase-producing bacterial symbiotes of Trichonympha. Habitats typically have distinct organisms living in them. Organisms typically become interdependent and form complex communities. These complex communities, including the non-living elements of an area, are known as ecosystems.

Major regional groups of plant and animal communities best adapted to the region’s physical environment, latitude, altitude, and terrain are known as biomes. A fundamental classification of biomes is terrestrial and aquatic. Each fundamental classification includes subclasses. The terrestrial classification includes: rainforest, tundra, taiga (coniferous forest), desert, deciduous forest, and grasslands. The aquatic classification includes: rivers and streams, ponds and lakes, wetlands, shorelines, temperate oceans, and tropical oceans.

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