-
Discuss in brief “distribution of natural vegetation”.
Discuss in brief “distribution of natural vegetation”. With its types.
-
2 Replies
-
DISCUSSING VARIOUS ELEMENTS/PARTS OF NATURAL VEGETATION AND WILDLIFE
Biosphere: Biosphere is the layer that is holding and preserving the existence of the earth. This one is the one that is benefiting from all the layers ie the lithosphere, hydrosphere and, atmosphere.
Ecosystem: The living part of the biosphere and its survival essentials is known as the ecosystem.
Natural Vegetation: It is the provider of so many essential items. It provides us with raw materials to cook food, some edible food items, timber to built shelter, road, railway. It reserves the groundwater. It provides a habitat to live in.
Wildlife: Living creatures, including animals, birds, insects, fishes, and other aquatic elements are all necessary elements to keep the ecosystem balanced.
DISTRIBUTION OF NATURAL VEGETATION
The prime factors are Temperature and moisture.
These two factors fix the arrangement/distribution of certain plant growth for any particular region. They determine the trees that can grow and the animal that can lives.
Humidity and precipitation play another important role too. Heavy rainfall indicates the higher growth of plants. Trees, under heavy rainfall conditions, grow thicker and longer.
While the heavy rainfall region has longer trees, the low or moderately low regions have a shorter tree that has shunted growth.
Types of Natural Vegetation in India
Tropical Evergreen Rain Forest
They have distinguishable characteristics that make them different from others. They have different shedding times of leaves from different types. Hence e, they remain heavy and green throughout the air. Condition: Excessive sunshine and rainfall.
Deciduous or Monsoon Type of Forests.
They have the same shedding time of leaves for all the trees present in that region. Hence, they remain heavy and green at one part of the year only.
Condition: moderate sunshine and rainfall
Mountain Forests
They are distinguishable for their specific structure of plantation. They are found in the hilly areas.
Condition: Hilly top, moderate rainfall.
Tidal or Mangrove Forests.
This vegetation covers all the parts that cover the coastal areas. They are good sources of timber in India
Condition: Heavy water access due to coastal presence and receive a good amount of sunlight.
Semi-Desert and Desert Vegetations
At last, there is the desert vegetation which is mostly characterized by its dry nature. The cactus is the famous plant of desert vegetation.
Condition: Poor rainfall
-
Vegetation refers to all plant life, including large organisms like trees and tiny mosses. Vegetation varies wildly across the globe’s surface, adapting to local conditions and climate. As a result, vegetation zones have been defined by scholars to describe the different ways that plants are distributed on the earth’s surface.
Vegetation Zones:
Vegetation zones are sometimes called “life zones,” which may capture meaning more intuitively. These zones host a certain variety of species, which carve out a niche in the climate, soil, and slope that is particular to a given zone. Vegetation zones are conducive in ecology, which studies the interaction between an organism and its environment.
Types of Vegetation Zones
1. Forest
2. Grassland
3. Tundra
4. Icesheet
5. Dessert
let’s have a quick brief of all:
Forest
Forests are large areas covered by trees. Once, forests covered most of the continent of Europe, and much of the North American continent, as well. Two fundamental categories are used by the researchers: deciduous and evergreen forests.
Deciduous trees have leaves that change color with the seasons and shed their leaves in late fall and winter. As the name suggests, Evergreen trees do not have leaves that change color. Instead, they have needles that remain green throughout the year. That’s not to say that needles don’t shed or new needles don’t grow during springtime, however.
Many different forest designations go beyond the distinction between evergreen and deciduous. These include –
- Temperate Forests, found in North America and Eurasia, these forests have four seasons and widely fluctuating temperatures.
- Tropical Forests, found near the equator, these warm-weather forests are highly biodiverse. Many rain forests are tropical, although there are also rainforests at higher latitudes, such as in Alaska.
- Boreal Forests, also called Taiga, are located in northern North America, Europe, and Asia, covering regions such as Siberia. Their average temperature is below freezing.
Grassland
What are some major vegetation types of local areas? Much of the world’s landmass is covered by some form of grassland. In the United States, the Great Plains of the Midwest region qualify as grassland. Meanwhile, large swathes of sub-Saharan Africa host savanna vegetation zones, which are home to grasses and drought-resistant trees.
Each grassland zone has major vegetation types, which sustain a unique mix of animal species or fauna depending on the local area. The grasses of the Great Plains once fed tens of millions of buffalo, while the savannas of eastern Africa are home to gazelle, lions, and hyenas.
Tundra
The world’s tundra cover many northerly regions and land at such high altitudes that cold temperatures are endemic. Tundra are characterized by such low temperatures that trees cannot grow. In the northern reaches of Siberia, Scandinavia, and Canada, the sun does not rise for months at a time, meaning that vegetation has a short growing season. Usually, the only plants that grow in tundra life zones are grasses, mosses, lichens, and small shrubs.
Desert
A desert is a region with deficient rainfall, defined as less than 10 inches a year. As a result, desert soil can be sandy. As in the case of the Sahara, or rocky, as in the case of much of the Namib. Although the stereotypical desert is hot and may have cacti, cold climates can also house deserts. In fact, the world’s largest dessert is Siberian dessert.
Ice Sheet
Ice sheets cover a significant portion of the earth’s landmass. Notable examples include the ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland. The ice sheet covering Antarctica is the largest mass of ice in the world. Its average thickness is over a mile deep and extends over an area of 5.4 million square miles.
