Difference Between Biome and Biosphere

Biome vs Biosphere

Biome and biosphere are two completely different components, and these terms are used in ecology. In order to make it convenient for the reader, it could be stated that all the biomes on the earth collectively form the biosphere. As an example, all the body systems collectively create the organism, where biome is like the body system while the organism is as the biosphere. This article goes through some of the important and interesting facts about both biomes and biosphere and presents a comparison between the two.

Biome

A biome could be simply referred as the collection of a similar type of ecosystems distributed all over the world. As an example, all the tropical rainforests could be collectively referred as the biome of that ecosystem. Primarily there are two main types of biomes known as aquatic and terrestrial; aquatic biomes are of two main types known as freshwater biomes and marine biomes. Climatology and geography have been defined for a particular biome, so that those conditions are similar in each ecosystem distributed on the earth of the particular biome. However, the composition of biological species in different ecosystems of the same biome could be different. Despite the differences in species, the ecological niches are the same in each ecosystem within one biome; thus, the type of species would be mostly similar.

As an example, soil organisms may be of different species, but the ecological niches present in two ecosystems of one biome are the same as the soil conditions are the same. The height of the trees, as an example, is more or less the same, but those would be of different species in two ecosystems of the same biome. Despite the fact that geography and climatology of a particular biome are defined, the plant types (shrubs, grasses, or trees), leaf types (broad or needle-like), and spacing between plants are important in defining biomes. One of the prevailing factors that should be considered in studying the biomes is the climate, as different climates favour different ecosystems. Climate is influenced by geography, and those factors together facilitate the prevalence of species and all those are interrelated. Most of the biomes with high species richness are close to the equator while there are only few or no biomes towards the polar ice caps of the Earth.

Biosphere

Biosphere is simply the collection of all the living beings of the earth. In other words, all the ecosystems of the earth could be collectively referred to as the biosphere. The biosphere is composed of biomes; biome is a collection of similar ecosystems, and ecosystem is a collection of different species where they coexist with each other by sharing different ecological niches. Each species is composed of different individuals. Therefore, the basic component of the biosphere is an individual of any species. Some definitions state that it is the sum of all ecosystems and those are distributed in different regions depending on the climate and geography; hence, the biosphere is the Life Zone of the Earth.

All the ecosystems and living beings are globally connected through climatic conditions such as wind and water currents; thus, the biosphere could be identified as a global ecological system that integrates all the living beings. However, this system is highly complex towards the tropical belt of the earth than towards the melted zones with ice.

What is the difference between Biome and Biosphere?

• A biome is the collection of a particular ecosystem, while biosphere is the collection of all the biomes.

• Basic component of a biome is the particular ecosystem, while biosphere is basically composed of individuals of different species.

• The species richness is always at its highest level in the biosphere while it is at a comparatively lower level in a biome.