Taiga
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. (Dillon Bartkus)
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.
