Natural Vegetation and Habitats

The temperate grasslands of South Africa are known as the 'Velds', which are high-altitude plateaus characterized by grassland vegetation.

Steppes are the temperate grasslands found in Eurasia, including parts of northern Europe and Asia. Prairies are in North America, Pampas are in South America, and Velds are in South Africa.

Veld, also spelled veldt, is a type of wide-open rural landscape in Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Temperate forests in India are primarily found in the higher altitudes of the Himalayan mountain range due to the cooler climate.

Based on the object possessing life or not, the objects are classified as biotic and abiotic.

Abiotic: these are the objects that do not possess life. Among the given options only plants are included under biotic category and rest which includes air, water and soil belong to abiotic objects.

The world's largest mangrove ecoregion of the Sundarbans covers an area of 20,400 sq. km.  The dominant mangrove species Heritiera fomes is locally known as sundri or Sundari. 

Tarai, also spelled Terai, a region of northern India and southern Nepal running parallel to the lower ranges of the Himalayas. A strip of undulating former marshland, it stretches from the Yamuna River in the west to the Brahmaputra River in the east. At its northern edge are numerous springs forming several streams, including the important Ghaghara River, which intersect the Tarai (meaning “Moist Land”) and are responsible for its marshy character. Interspersed with the Tarai is the Bhabar, which is a region of coarse gravel and shingle deposits supporting sal (Shorea robusta) forests. Drainage and cultivation of the area, once extremely malarial, have diminished the marshlands.

The slope of the line is much steeper if we analyse the species-area relationships among very large areas like the entire continents. 

Natural Heritage is natural, not man-made, places or formations like rivers, wildlife, landscape, plants, etc. They are natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value. An important site of natural heritage can be listed as a World Heritage Site by the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO.

A biome is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in. They can be found over a range of continents. Biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate.

Forest Biomes represent the largest and most ecologically complex systems.  They contain a wide assortment of trees, plants, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, insects and micro-organisms which vary depending on the zone's climates.  Sadly, boreal and rainforest biomes are being cut down at an alarming rate, with hundreds of species of plants and animals disappearing from the planet on a daily basis. In forests temperature is generally lower in summer and higher in winter. The days are cooler and nights are warmer than in the surroundings. The floor of the forest is carpeted with lichens and mosses. Moisture content of the soil remains stable for longer periods because of absence of evaporation.

Ecological diversity is the diversity at ecosystem level. India with its deserts, rainforests, mangroves, coral reefs, wetlands, estuaries and alpine meadows has a greater ecosystem diversity than a  Scandinavian country like Norway.

Species diversity increases towards the equator. The two main reasons are phylogenetic niche conservatism and ecological productivity. The relatively high temperatures in the tropics generate and maintain high diversity. However, the tropical rainforests in developing countries are getting cleared nowadays, which is leading to a great loss of biodiversity.

Species diversity or genetic variation increases as one proceeds from high altitude to low altitude and high latitude to low latitude. Tropical rain forests are wet and dense. They exhibit maximum genetic variations due to increased temperature and rainfall.  They show high animal and plants biodiversity.