Wildlife
A habitat, or biome, is the type of environment in which plant and animals live. Habitat is dictated by what kinds of plants grow there, the climate and the geography. Rainforest, coral reefs and the tundra are all habitats where particular kinds of plants and animals might be found.
Terrestrial habitats include forests, grasslands, deserts and rainforests. They are typically defined by factors such as plant structure (trees and grasses), leaf types (eg broadleaf and needleleaf), plant spacing (forest, woodland, savanna) and climate.
Beech wood 
Broadleaf forest 
Brownfield land 
Chalk grassland 
Coastal 
Coniferous forest 
Desert 
Farmland 
Flooded grassland 
Heathland 
Hedgerows 
Limestone pavements 
Mangroves 
Mediterranean forest 
Moorland 
Mountain grassland 
Mountains 
Oak wood 
Parkland 
Polar 
Rainforest 
Taiga 
Temperate grassland 
Tropical coniferous forest 
Tropical dry forest 
Tropical grassland 
Tundra 
Urban 
Wildflower meadow Freshwater habitats include bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams. About 3% of Earth's water is freshwater, but this includes the water locked up in the ice caps and trapped in rocks and soil as groundwater. Only a tiny fraction (0.014%) is surface water in the form of rivers, lakes and swamps.
Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by the oceans, an area of some 223698816km/sq. Although marine life evolved around three billion years before life on land, marine habitats are relatively poorly studied and much of the ocean's depths remains unexplored.
BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
