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Environment and Ecology

The Earth’s Environment

What is a climate, and how is it characterized?

Climate refers to the long-term weather conditions of a region, based on long-term averaging of temperature. Climates often undergo cyclic changes over decades, centuries, and millennia, but it is difficult to predict future climate changes. A climate diagram summarizes seasonal variation in temperature, precipitation, length of wet/dry seasons, and portion of the year spent in specific temperature ranges. Weather and climate are important because they are the determining factors of biomes and ecosystems.



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