|
A biome is the type of habitat in
certain places, like mountain tops, deserts, and tropical forests, and is
determined by the climate of the place. The taiga is the biome of the
needleleaf forest. Living in the taiga is cold and lonely. Coldness and
food shortages make things very difficult, mostly in the winter. Some of
the animals in the taiga hibernate in the winter, some fly south if they
can, while some just cooperate with the environment, which is very
difficult. Taiga is the Russian word for forest
and is the largest biome in the world. It stretches over Eurasia and North
America. The taiga is located near the top of the world, just below the
tundra biome. The winters in the taiga are very cold with only snowfall.
The summers are warm, rainy, and humid. A lot of coniferous trees grow in
the taiga. The taiga is also known as the boreal forest. Did you know that
Boreal was the Greek goddess of the North Wind? The taiga doesn't have as many plant
and animal species as the tropical or the deciduous forest biomes. It does
have millions of insects in the summertime. Birds migrate there every year
to nest and feed. Here is some information about the
temperatures and weather in the taiga. The average temperature is below
freezing for six months out of the year. The winter temperature range is
-54 to -1° C (-65 to 30° F). The winters, as you can see, are really cold,
with lots of snow. Temperature range in the summer gets
as low as -7° C (20° F). The high in summer can be 21° C (70° F). The
summers are mostly warm, rainy and humid. They are also very short with
about 50 to 100 frost free days. The total precipitation in a year is 30 -
85 cm (12 - 33 in) . The forms the precipitation comes in are rain, snow
and dew. Most of the precipitation in the taiga falls as rain in the
summer. The main seasons in the taiga are
winter and summer. The spring and autumn are so short, you hardly know
they exist. It is either hot and humid or very cold in the
taiga. There are not a lot of species of
plants in the taiga because of the harsh conditions. Not many plants can
survive the extreme cold of the taiga winter. There are some lichens and
mosses, but most plants are coniferous trees like pine, white spruce,
hemlock and douglas fir.
Coniferous trees are also known as
evergreens. They have long, thin waxy needles. The wax gives them some
protection from freezing temperatures and from drying out. Evergreens
don't loose their leaves in the winter like deciduous trees. They keep
their needles all year long. This is so they can start photosynthesis as
soon as the weather gets warm. The dark color of evergreen needles allows
them to absorb heat from the sun and also helps them start photosynthesis
early. Evergreens in the taiga tend to be
thin and grow close together. This gives them protection from the cold and
wind. Evergreens also are usually shaped like an upside down cone to
protects the branches from breaking under the weight of all that snow. The
snow slides right off the slanted branches. The taiga is susceptible to many
wildfires. Trees have adapted by growing thick bark. The fires will burn
away the upper canopy of the trees and let sunlight reach the ground. New
plants will grow and provide food for animals that once could not live
there because there were only evergreen trees. Animals of the taiga tend to be
predators like the lynx and members of the weasel family like wolverines,
bobcat, minks and ermine. They hunt herbivores like snowshoe rabbits, red squirrels and voles. Red deer, elk, and moose can be
found in regions of the taiga where more deciduous trees grow. Many insect eating birds come to the
taiga to breed. They leave when the breeding season is over. Seed eaters
like finches and sparrows, and omnivorous birds like crows stay all year
long.