What are biomes?

Why do animals live where they do? Zoological realms provide only partial answers to this question; hence the concept of the biome, a smaller region. In the biome, now generally defined as an area controlled on land by climate, and distinguished on land or in the sea by the dominance of certain types of plants or ani¬mals, ecological relationships can be closely studied. Thus, for example, in colder regions a coniferous forest biome stands revealed: a forest dominated by cold-resisting evergreens whose superior adaptations and utilization of the available light, water and mineral nutrients limit the growth of other types of plants— and strongly influence the animal population.

BIOMES

Coniferous Forest
Young spruces and first begin to crowd out deciduous aspens in the coniferous forest bi¬ome. Evergreens domínate this broad belt, some 400 to 800 miles wide, which stretches across Canada, Alaska and Eurasia and, farther south, covers high mountains. Moose are found in the northern area, mule deer in the western mountains. One bird, the red crossbill, has a beak so specialized for picking seeds from cones that it can live only here.
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