Biotic distribution is most strongly shaped by climate-related abiotic conditions, with temperature and precipitation (rainfall) being the primary drivers that determine which biomes can exist in a given area. Elevation, latitude (which influences climate via solar input and seasonality), and moisture availability further modulate these broad patterns, but climate—especially the combination of average temperatures and precipitation regimes—exerts the greatest influence on biome classification.
Key abiotic drivers
- Temperature: Sets metabolic rates, growing-season length, and which plant functional types can dominate a region. Warmer areas generally support more productive vegetation and different biome assemblages than colder regions.
- Precipitation: Determines soil moisture, water availability for photosynthesis, and the competitiveness of drought-tolerant versus water-loving species. Arid versus wet regimes strongly delineate desert, grassland, and forest biomes.
- Latitude and elevation: Influence the amount and intensity of solar radiation, daylight seasonality, and thus climate gradients that separate tropical, temperate, and polar biomes, with elevation adding a parallel climate axis on land.
- Soil moisture and type, seasonality, and disturbance regimes (e.g., fire frequency) interact with climate but are secondary modifiers to the main climate signal.
Common biome patterns
- Tropics: Warm temperatures year-round with generally high rainfall support tropical rainforests or savannas depending on rainfall distribution.
- Temperate zones: Moderate temperatures with distinct seasons, where precipitation patterns create deciduous forests, grasslands, or Mediterranean-type ecosystems.
- Polar and high-altitude: Cold conditions with limited liquid water availability and short growing seasons bias communities toward tundra or alpine biomes.
If you’d like, I can tailor this to a specific region or biome classification framework (e.g., WWF ecoregions, IB ESS terms) and highlight the exact climate thresholds commonly used to separate neighboring biomes.
