Transcript Taiga - Fitz

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Amelia, Grace, Richard, Laurent
The Land
* It stretches over Eurasia and North America. The taiga
is located near the top of the world, just below the
tundra biome.
* Taiga is the biggest biome constituting almost thirty
percent of the Earth’s entire forests
* In Asia taiga covers a considerable portion of Russia,
notably Siberia, but also northern Kazakhstan, the
north part of Mongolia. within Japan.
* For Europe, taiga covers a band across most
of Sweden, much of Finland and northern Norway.
* Within North America, taiga constitutes the majority
of interior Canada, along with the extreme northern
elements of the USA including much of Alaska.
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PEOPLE AND THE TAIGA:
The major industries of the taiga include logging, mining, and
hydroelectric development. These activities have had negative impacts on
areas of this biome and may continue to negatively affect it in the future.
A majority of the logging in the taiga is done by clear-cutting, using heavy
machinery to remove much of the surrounding forest.
Hydroelectric development may seem beneficial because it uses water to
generate power, but it has damaged the taiga by changing stream habitats
and flow patterns, and flooding large areas and changing the landscape.
Mining is a concern because it may result in pollution of The Taiga is
being destroyed everyday by humans.
Large-scale industrial forestry, or logging, is the greatest important
threat affecting the boreal forest. The wood is used in the "pulp factory"
for pulp and paper.
Other threats to the Taiga are oil and gas exploration, road building,
mining, human triggered forest fire, and climate change. Animals of the
Taiga are being hunted and trapped for their fur
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PLANTS: Compared to other biomes, the taiga has less diversity
in plant life. The most common type of tree found in the taiga is
the conifer, or cone-bearing tree. Conifers, also known as
evergreens, include pines, spruces and firs. There may also
occasionally be deciduous species present, such as oak, birch,
willow, or alder, in a particularly wet or disturbed area. The soil
in the taiga is thin, acidic and not very nutrient rich. It also is
rocky. Due to these factors, plants in the taiga have different
adaptations than the plants we find around Santa Barbara.
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The< name, evergreen, describes an important adaptation of
conifers. Just like Kermit, they are always green! Because they
don't drop their leaves in the winter, they don't have to regrow
them in the spring. This is good for trees in a tough environment
because growing new leaves takes a lot of energy. Another
adaptation of conifers to live in the with taiga has to do with
their needles. Although the taiga has moderately high
precipitation, the frozen winter ground makes it difficult for
trees to get water. Having thin needles a waxy coating limits
water loss of the conifer through transpiration. The dark color
of the pine needles is also important. What happens when you
where a dark T-shirt on a sunny day? You get hot, right? This is
because your dark shirt is absorbing energy from the sun. Well,
the dark needles do the same thing for the evergreen. They help
the tree absorb the maximum amount of energy from the sun
for photosynthesis. Conifers also have that pointy shape for a
good reason. The winter snow slides right off of their branches.
Without this shape the heavy snow might break or damage the
conifer branches.
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A tall, coniferous, evergreen tree with a
straight trunk, down-swept branches and
open, pyramidal crown with a nodding tip;
growing to a height of 30 - 50 m and a
diameter of 1 m.
Needles: nearly flat, soft, glossy, widely
spaced along twigs, of two lengths with
the shorter ones standing upright along
the top of the twigs producing a feathery,
flat look yellowish-green on top and
whitish on the underside. Bark: dark
brown to reddish-brown, becoming thick
and strongly grooved with age. Cones:
numerous, small 1.5 - 2.5 cm long,
greenish, turning brown with age hang
from the ends of the branchlets.
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The balsam fir is one of the more
important conifers of the Boreal
Forest. It may also be referred to as
balsam, Canadian balsam, eastern
fir, and braced balsam firsmall to
medium-sized evergreen conifer,
averaging 15 to 23 m (50 to 75 ft) in
height; topped with a dense crown.
Branches whorled; branchlets
principally opposite in flat sprays
with smooth, waxy bark. Bark on
trunk of young trees is smooth with
resin blisters but becoming scaly
with aging.
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Sometimes called evergreens, most
coniferous trees keep their foliage
year-round. There are over 600
living species of conifers, and while
there is some debate over how
many are native to Canada, the
number is approximately 30.
Conifers include the oldest and
tallest trees. The oldest, the
Bristlecone pine, can live to be
nearly 5,000 years old. The tallest,
the Coast redwood, grows to over
100 m high. Both of these conifers
grow in California. Products made
from coniferous trees include paper,
many kinds of lumber, furniture and
anti-cancer drugs. In large part
because of their usefulness, conifers
are in danger. Exploitation, forest
degradation and habitat destruction
have placed 34 per cent of conifers
under threat of extinction.
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in the taiga, the average temperature is
below freezing for six months of the year.
Although the cold winters have some
snowfall, most of the precipitation comes
during the warm, humid summer months.
The climate of the Taiga is very cold.
Climate affects the composition of the soil
making needles decompose slower, which
makes rich soil develop more slowly.
Temperatures can drop below - 60 degrees
C (- 76 degrees F) in winter. The lowest
temperature ever recorded was - 90
degrees F. Commonly weather rises above
104 degrees F (40 degrees C) in the
summer. It can rise up 180 degrees F (82
degrees C). Due to such harsh weather
there are few people and animals living in
the Taiga.
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Low
Winter -65 F
high
30 F(-1C)
Summer 20 F(-7C) 70 F( 21C)
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Long, cold winters, and short, mild, wet
summers are typical of this region. In the
winter, chilly winds from the arctic cause
bitterly cold weather in the taiga. The
length of day also varies with the seasons.
Winter days are short, while summer days
are long because of the tilt of the earth on
its axis. Fire is not uncommon in the taiga
during the summer. Fires may seem
destructive, but they actually help this
biome by removing old sick trees, making
room for new growth. Precipitation is
relatively high in the taiga and falls as snow
during the winter and rain during the
summer. The total yearly precipitation in
the taiga biome is 10 - 30 inches (25 - 75
cm).
* The sunlight has a great effect
on the Taiga. In the summer the
light is more direct. The
Northern Hemisphere tilts
toward the sun during the
summer. In these warm months
the Taiga can have sunlight for
up to 24 hours per day. In
winter the Taiga is tilted away
from the sun. There are a few
hours of sun in the middle of
the day, but it is mostly dark.
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