THE MAJOR BIOCLIMATIC ZONES: THE TORRID ZONE

General characteristics

Location: between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

Main characteristic: a very high temperature, always over 18ºC, but can distinguish two types:

The equatorial bioclimate.

Location: located next to the Equator areas.

Location of equatorial climates.

Source: By Koppen_World_Map_Hi-Res.png: Peel, M. C., Finlayson, B. L., and McMahon, T. A.(University of Melbourne)derivative work: Me ne frego (talk) - Koppen_World_Map_Hi-Res.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14798010

Main features

• Temperatures are consistently high, around 25 ° C. In addition, the atmospheric temperature range is very narrow, only 3 ° C.
• Precipitation levels exceed 1,500 mm and are distributed equally throughout the year. As a result there is only a season, hot and humid.
• The rivers are regular and have a high amount of wáter.

• The vegetation is characterized by the appearance of the jungle or rainforest: dense forest, which remains green throughout the year. It has two main characteristics:

1. It is divided in several layers according to the height of the different vegetation species.
2. It consists of a huge of variety of vegetal species.

Rainforest canopy.

The bioclimate tropical.

Tropical humid climates.

Source: By Koppen_World_Map_Hi-Res.png: Peel, M. C., Finlayson, B. L., and McMahon, T. A.(University of Melbourne)derivative work: Me ne frego (talk) - Koppen_World_Map_Hi-Res.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14798346

Tropical dry climates.

Location: extends from the equator to the two tropics.

Main features:

• High temperatures, always above 18 ° C, but had a wider atmospheric temperature range, between 3 and 10 ° C.
• Precipitation levels are high, between 750 and 1,500 mm, but irregular, making it appear two seasons: a rainy summer and a dry season of winter season.
• The rivers are irregular.

There are two subtypes:

• humid tropical area with a three-month dry season or less.
• dry tropical zone or savanah with dry season of more tan three months.

The vegetation, which depends on the levels of precipitation. We can distinguish:

• tropical Woodland, less dense than the equatorial rainforest.

Tropical humid rainforest, India.

Source: By Aditya thaokar (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• Savannah, it consists of:

1. tall grasses that grow during the wet season and die during the dry season.
2. Scrub plants and trees such as the acacia and baobabs.

Grassland, Africa.

Acacia, Kenia.

Extenal links:

Ecuatorial bioclimate.

http://www.alevelgeography.com/characteristics-of-the-tropical-equatorial-rainforest/

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/ecology/biogeography/a/tropical-rainforest-biomes

http://www.ri.net/schools/West_Warwick/manateeproject/Rainforest2/climate.htm

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/rnfrst_climate_page.htm

NOTE: many of these pages does not use the Celsius scale or the metric system. You have to make the conversion of the Fahrenheit degrees to Celsius degrees and of the inches to mm.

Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion chart:

http://www.metric-conversions.org/temperature/fahrenheit-

Inches to milimeters:

http://www.metric-conversions.org/length/inches-to-millimeters.htm

Examples of places with a continental bioclimate.

Kampala: https://en.climate-data.org/location/5578/

Singapore: https://en.climate-data.org/continent/asia/#example0

Amazon rainforest: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/rainforest_ecology.html

Tropical dry bioclimate:

http://www.ducksters.com/science/ecosystems/savanna_biome.php

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/3491529-tropical-dry-rainforest-biome

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/savanna_climate_page.htm

Examples of places with a tropical dry bioclimate.

Darwin:  https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Rainfall-Temperature-Sunshine,Darwin,Australia

https://en.climate-data.org/location/6322/

Brasilia: https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Rainfall-Temperature-Sunshine,Brasilia,Brazil
https://en.climate-data.org/location/852/