PBS LearningMedia: Biomes

The distribution of plants and animals around the world is anything but random. Instead, it is a result of the interplay of individual environmental tolerances of species and the environmental conditions, especially variations in temperature and precipitation. These interactions result in biomes, the categories into which ecologists organize similar communities of plants, animals, and the environmental conditions in which they live. This interactive resource adapted from NASA features some of the physical and biological characteristics of seven of the world’s biomes.