Terrestrial biomes
Ecosystems on Earth
According to the type of vegetation that mainly characterizes them, ecosystems can be recognized and divided into:
• deserts
• savannahs
• steppe
• temperate forest
• tropical forest
• boreal forest (taiga)
• tundra
• mediterranean vegetation
Water ecosystems can instead be divided into:
• freshwater ecosystems: lakes and ponds, rivers and torrents, marshes and swamps;
• marine ecosystems: reef; oceans, continental plateaus, nutrient upstream-flowing areas, estuaries.
But there are not only natural ecosystems on Earth, there are also those that have been artificially created by man as soon as his development led him to organise his social life and way of living and producing in specific manners.
Artificial ecosystems can be divided into:
• urban-industrial ecosystems (metropolises);
• rural ecosystems (small towns);
• agro-ecosystems (farmlands).
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