Vegetation is not random: where a forest, grassland or desert grows depends mainly on temperature and moisture. Around the world the same climatic conditions produce the same kinds of natural vegetation, from steaming tropical rainforests to the frozen tundra.
In this article
Vegetation Belts of the World
What Decides the Vegetation
- The growth and type of natural vegetation depend mainly on temperature and moisture, and also on slope and soil thickness.
- Natural vegetation is grouped into three broad categories: forests, grasslands and shrubs.
Forest Belts
- Tropical evergreen forests (rainforests), with rosewood, ebony and mahogany, stay green all year and grow near the equator.
- Tropical deciduous (monsoon) forests of India, northern Australia and Central America shed their leaves in the dry season and hold sal, teak, neem and shisham.
- Temperate evergreen forests line the eastern margins of continents; Mediterranean regions are the orchards of the world; coniferous forests (with pine) grow in higher latitudes.
Grasslands and the Cold North
- Tropical grasslands: Savanna (East Africa), Campos (Brazil), Llanos (Venezuela).
- Temperate grasslands: Pampas (Argentina), Prairie (North America), Veld (South Africa), Steppe (Central Asia), Downs (Australia).
- On the tundra of the polar regions only mosses, lichens and small shrubs grow in the short summer, and animals like the polar bear and walrus have thick fur and skin.
CAPF (ACs) 2020: Chaparral Belongs to the Mediterranean, Not the Taiga
- CAPF asked which statement about vegetation types is NOT correct. Mahogany in tropical rainforests, sal in moist deciduous forest, and lichens in the tundra are all accurate. The false one claims Chaparral vegetation is found in Taiga climate.
- Chaparral is shrubland vegetation of the Mediterranean climate (hot dry summers, mild wet winters), not the cold coniferous Taiga belt. View this question on the full CAPF (ACs) 2020 paper →
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