(Source: 2010. NASA. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Experiments/Biome/) The link in the figure is clickable on the NASA web site.
This is a General Biology II topic. General Biology I students do not have to read this page... Geography is important -- there is a field in biology called Biogeography, but if for no other reason a certain amount of geography knowledge is needed in order to understand the BIOME maps in your textbook. You will also need some geography knowledge to understand climate (and the global warming discussion) and the textbook chapter about human impact on the environment. To learn this concept you will read this page and take three "biome quizzes":
The minimum required grade for i and ii is 100, and for iii it is 90. A biome is a large "geographic biotic unit, a major community of plants and animals with similar requirements of environmental conditions. It includes various communities and developmental stages of communities and is named for the dominant type of vegetation, such as grassland or coniferous forest. Several similar biomes constitute a biome type; for example, the temperate deciduous forest biome type includes the deciduous forest biomes of Asia, Europe, and North America." (Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biome Even though STC has one official book for the class you are registered for, there are several workable editions, and often students use copies of earlier textbooks or textbooks from other classes written by different authors, sometimes obtained free from another student. Depending on what textbook you use, locate the term "biome" in the index, and when look at that page. You will notice several maps. One of the maps is a world map of the Earth's terrestrial biomes -- the major global ecosystems on the planet. The only textbook used by STC that does NOT have a world biome map is "Essentials of Biology", a book selected by STC for non-majors that does NOT have a very good coverage of this topic -- unfortunately. (One page only, and most of it is a colorful picture...) The other textbooks used in General Biology and Environmental Biology have much better coverage. Biomes in "Biology" by Raven, et al., cover 3.5 pages (has a biome world map), "Principles of Environmental Science" by Cunningham, et al., cover 7.5 pages (has a biome world map). Much of this quiz will use the biome world map from "Biology" by Mader, which has -- in the opinion of this instructor -- the best coverage of the world biomes (for all of the classes mentioned above) and cover 10 pages of the book. Below are the three biome world maps -- I prefer the first -- it is much clearer in color than the other two... All three show the same thing, but having three to look at, with different colors, is a really good aid in learning the biomes. (As a start, if you scroll up and down between the maps you will notice how your brain will start to "absorb" some of the colors -- at least for some of the larger biomes. The brain is registering something, and you are beginning to learn...) 
If you look at one of the maps you will note the difference in latitude of deserts in Africa and Asia. Why is that? Notice that the taiga is missing on certain continents. Which? And why is that? Notice the tropical rainforest along the equator is interrupted on one continent. Which? Why? Notice the type of scrubland around the Mediterranean. It is called "scrubland" on the top map, "chaparral" on the middle map, and "Mediterranean woodlands and shrub" in the bottom map. This vegetation type (biome) is also present in smaller areas in North America, South America, and Australia, but not in Asia? Why is that?
Did yo have problem understanding the last paragraph (above)? That is probably because you don't have enough geography knowledge? While you may not know the "why", you should know the "which" in the paragraph above... You should know the names of the continents on Earth, and where they are located. Do you? You should also know the major oceans. Do you? Based on my almost 20 years of teaching college classes, I feel it is probably safe to assume that about half the students in class do not know the names of all the continents, a few of you might not even know where North America is located on the maps above, and a few of you do not know the difference between a continent and a country -- just as in the YouTube below... You will not understand the concept of "biomes" if you are geography illiterate, so the "Biome Quiz" will therefore start with learning the continents (and a refresher for those of you who already know them). While the Environmental Biology textbook has a world map at the back of the book, the books used by STC in General Biology do not... Here, below are a couple of maps you can use to learn the names and locations of the continents...
As you can see on the map above, there are seven (7) names in bold letters, those are the continents. A continent is made up of several countries, as can be seen in both the map above and below (the map below has most of the country names)... The continents are: Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, South America, and Antarctica. (Australia is of course both a name of a continent and a country. Sometimes the political unit including Australia, New Zealand, and several Pacific islands are referred to as Oceania -- but the name of the continent is Australia.)
Here (below) is a really simple map, with clear colors showing where one continent ends and another starts. Unfortunately it has a BIG MISTAKE. The smaller island east of Greenland should be in yellow color, not red. It is Iceland, and although it is not part of the mainland (the continent) Iceland is considered part of Europe -- NOT North America. But we will use the map anyway, for its simplicity. Because Greenland is part of Denmark, many geography experts is of the opinion that Greenland also should be considered part of Europe [yellow color] -- where Denmark is located -- but most people in the field consider Greenland part of North America [red color]. Iceland, however, IS part of Europe [yellow color]... [If you do not know what is Greenland, scroll up to the maps above and locate the big island...]
E I have added the letters W N E and S on the map above, because the same 20 years of teaching college classes mentioned above, has taught this instructor that some students coming to college do not know what is west, north, east and south on a map...
Like most quizzes in this class, the biome quiz is not a test, but a drill to help you learn. Furthermore it is split into several smaller quizzes. The first quiz, the Biome Quiz (Continents) is so important (and easy) that you will not "get away" with only earning a 90 -- you must score 100 before you can move on. We all have different methods of learning, perhaps this YouTube video will be helpful for some...?
If you wish to read more on this page, you may do so. However, at this point you are ready to take the first biome quiz, which covers the continents. If you wish, login to Blackboard and click on the Biome Quiz (Continents). Take the quiz, you need a 100 before you can continue to the second biome quiz, then come back here and continue reading...
Before we get to the biomes, we are also need to cover the oceans with a basic Biome Quiz (Oceans). The oceans are the large bodies of water separating many of the continents, affecting them by providing moisture and buffering the temperature (see map below). A large body of water change temperature slower than a landmass, which will help keeping temperatures higher in costal areas during the cold season, and help keeping temperatures lower in costal areas during the warm season. This will then in turn affect the vegetation of a biome.
We have already looked at maps with oceans (above). However, the ocean surrounding Antarctica is not named on those maps, we need another map. Here is one...
Find the following five (5) oceans on the map: the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, and the Southern Ocean. Let's use a simpler map. On the map below you can see the oceans really clearly...
Here is one more...
Again, if you wish to read more on this page, you may do so. However, at this point you are ready to take the second biome quiz, which covers the oceans. If you wish, login to Blackboard and click on the Biome Quiz (Oceans). Take the quiz, you need a 100 before you can continue to the third biome quiz, then come back here and continue reading...
Here is again one of the biome maps... Is the map above complicated? To help those of you who have problems with maps, we are going to simplify the biomes map with a figure that doesn't have any "confusing" landmasses or map symbols. Below is a figure of Earth with very distinctive bands marking the biomes. To simplify further we are only going to include the major biomes on the northern hemisphere and we are going to name them with easy to remember names. The southern hemisphere has the same biomes going south to the southern polar region.
Now imagine that you are standing at the North Pole, in the northern polar region at 90 degrees North latitude, and you are starting to walk south. During your long stroll you will see the major vegetation types that makes up the Earth. First you will walk over Arctic Grassland, then into a forest. The northern part of that forest, at about 60 degree North latitude, will be dominated by conifer trees and is often called Temperate Conifer Forest, or Taiga. This is the long band colored dark blue on the top map above. When you come further south you will notice that the trees are the kind with leaves that most people think of when thinking of leafs on a tree, we call that type of forest broad leaf forest, and since it is an a region warmer than the polar region, and cooler than the tropical region, we call the forest Temperate Broadleaf Forest. Most trees in this region loose their leaves during the colder parts of the year. You keep walking and you notice that the trees are fewer and fewer, until you only see grass. This is the Temperate Grassland -- called Prairie in North America. (There is a similar temperate grassland in the southern hemisphere, in South America it is called Pampas.) It doesn't rain enough in this region to sustain trees. The walk continues and now it is so dry that even grass have problem growing. We call this Desert, and most deserts in the world are located at about 30 degrees North latitude. At some point the grass reappear, but now the climate is warmer than on the Prairie, we are surrounded by Tropical Grassland, sometimes in Africa referred to as Savanna. (I am sure you have heard of the Savanna in movies, with elephants, lions and antelopes...) Finally the forest reappear, we are in a Tropical Forest. There are several kinds, if the annual rainfall is minimum 1750 - 2000 mm (68 - 78 inches) we call it a Tropical Rainforest. This is the long "band" (interrupted by mountains in some areas of South America and Africa) olive green color on the top map above. We have arrived at the equator, the imaginary line on Earth at 0 degree latitude...
The banding pattern you see from the polar ice to the tropical forest is due to global wind circulation moving moist are or dry air in a set pattern as can be seen in the figures below. 
Warm air goes up, cool are goes down. At the equator the sun heats the air, which is moist from all the evaporation (transpiration) from the tropical vegetation. The warm air rises, cools and loses the moisture as rain (condensation), forming a zone of high rainfall. This is where we find Tropical Rainforest. The cool, dry air, (dry since it lost the moisture as rain), continues north (or south in the southern hemisphere), and at 30 degrees North it meets dry air coming from the north rainy temperate area along 60 degree North, where we have another zone of high rainfall (not as much as in the Tropics, but nevertheless wet). The dry air meeting at 30 degrees latitude descends, creating zones of low rainfall. This is where we find most deserts on Earth. (We will discuss exceptions below.) The biomes and its vegetation, are the result of temperature and moisture patterns. For this reason you will also see a similar "banding pattern" when moving up high mountains (on mountains we call them mountain vegetation zones instead of biomes). If you have a mountain high enough in the tropical region, you will be able to walk (or climb) from a tropical forest at the bottom of the mountain, to ice and snow at the top of the mountain...
As explained above, most deserts are located along the 30 degree latitudes North and South. That is how it would be if it wasn't for mountains. Mountains will change this pattern, through a natural phenomenon called "rain shadow".
_Biomes_Desert.jpg)
When moist wind is coming in from the ocean or another area (such as a moist rainforest) and cross a mountain range, the air rises and releases the moisture as rain when condensation occur, as the air is cooled on the windward side of the mountain. When the wind reaches the leeward side of the mountain there is very little moisture left, and this side therefore receives very little rain. This side of the mountain is said to be in the "rain shadow", and depending on the geographical location the vegetation on the rain shadow is desert or savannah. This explains the deserts far north in the USA, and in other places, such as the northerly deserts in Asia -- on the rain shadow side of the Himalayas... Rain shadow is also the explanation for why there is no rainforest along the equator in EASTERN Africa -- the area that is called the human cradle (which also explains why humans became bipedal, but that is a different story...). (See the map below.)_Biomes_Tropic.jpg)
You are now ready to take the third biome quiz, which covers the biomes. Login to Blackboard and click on the Biome Quiz (Biomes). Take the quiz. When you have finished this third quiz with minimum 90, you have finished all Reading Quizzes. Congratulations...
Again, to take the quiz you must navigate to Blackboard. For some of the answers you may want to come back to this page and use these maps -- especially if you don't like the map in your own textbook, or if you have "Essentials" which doesn't have a map at all. Good luck!