Terrestrial ecosystem

Terrestrial ecosystems encompass a wide variety of habitats distributed throughout the globe, and are those whose organisms, flora and fauna, develop on the ground or in the subsoil. Some also include in these the organisms that inhabit the air, and others consider it separately as a mixed or transitional ecosystem, although it would not be independent of the terrestrial environment.

These ecosystems have the greatest biological wealth due to the great variety of factors that condition them. The characteristics of the flora and fauna that live in each of these terrestrial ecosystems are different because they are adapted to their respective habitats with specific conditions, such as the availability of water (vital for hydration), solar radiation or the availability of food and nutrients. It is when sudden changes occur in them when these species begin to present difficulties to survive in these habitats, having to migrate, die and even become extinct.

General characteristics of terrestrial ecosystems

As we have commented in the previous section, the specific characteristics of these biological systems depend on the different types of terrestrial ecosystem, which differ from each other based on two types of factors that influence them: abiotic factors, physical factors and chemicals that determine the ecosystem; and biotic factors, related to the living beings that inhabit it.