Terrestrial Biomes

Free Response

The extremely low precipitation of subtropical desert biomes might lead one to expect fire to be a major disturbance factor; however, fire is more common in the temperate grassland biome than in the subtropical desert biome. Why is this?

Hint:

Fire is less common in desert biomes than in temperate grasslands because deserts have low net primary productivity and, thus, very little plant biomass to fuel a fire.

In what ways are the subtropical desert and the arctic tundra similar?

Hint:

Both the subtropical desert and the arctic tundra have a low supply of water. In the desert, this is due to extremely low precipitation, and in the arctic tundra, much of the water is unavailable to plants because it is frozen. Both the subtropical desert and the arctic tundra have low net primary productivity.