Taiga

Russian word for Forest

• largest biome in the world. It stretches over Eurasia and North America.

• 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.

• The taiga is also known as the boreal forest. Did you know that Boreal was the Greek goddess of the North Wind?

Location

The taiga is primarily a coniferous forest located

between 50 degrees latitude north and the Arctic

circle. 

Human impacts

• forest fires

• clear cutting

• air pollution

• poaching

……..are all major threats to the Siberian

Taiga and the Boreal forest.

Destruction of Taiga

• The taiga ecosystem is extremely sensitive to disturbance with little ability to restore itself.

• Disruption of vegetative cover causes permafrost to melt deeply, causing collapse of ground and loss of soil.

• Automobile tracks cause deep gullies that persist for years. The taiga wildlife is vulnerable to habitat destruction, to overhunting, and to extinction through loss of any of the animal or plant species that make up the fragile, highly individual tundra community of life.

Temperature

• 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.

Precipitation

• 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.

Seasons

• 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.

Soil/Land Formation

• similar to that of the tundra's. • some parts of the taiga have

permafrost. Water from precipitation and melting snow in warmer seasons cannot seep through the permafrost, so the taiga ground remains soft and damp in some parts.

• Other areas that do not have permafrost (like the Canadian shield in North America) have a layer of hard rock that remains close to the surface. This dense rock prevents water from escaping the surface and, therefore, leaves the soil soggy in the spring and summer seasons

Subclimaxes• bogs (muskeg) occur in poorly drained, glacial depressions.

Sphagnum moss forms a spongy mat over ponded water. Growing on this mat are species of the tundra such as cottongrass and shrubs of the heath family. Black spruce and larch ring the edge.

• Pine forests, in North America dominated by the jack pine (Pinus banksiana), occur on sandy outwash plains and former dune areas. These are low nutrient, droughty substrates not tolerated by spruce and fir.

• Larch forests claim the thin, waterlogged substrate in level areas underlain with permafrost. These forests are open with understories of shrubs, mosses and lichens. In Alaska stands of Larix larichina are localized phenomena, but in Siberia east of the Yenesei River the extreme continentality and nearly continuous permafrost give rise to vast areas dominated by Larix dihurica.

Latitudinal Zones within the forest running north to south - ecotone

• an open coniferous forest (the section most properly called taiga)

• the characteristic closed-canopy needleleaf evergreen boreal forest

• a mixed needleleaf evergreen-broadleaf deciduous forest, the ecotone with the Temperate Broadleaf Deciduous Forest.

• In the US, this southern ecotone is dominated by white pine (Pinus strobus), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), and American beech (Fagus americanus).

Trees

• Balsam Fir • Black Spruce • Douglas-fir • Eastern Red Cedar • Jack Pine • Paper Birch • Siberian Spruce • White Fir • White Poplar • White Spruce

Fall in the Taiga

Wildfires

• 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.

Needleleaf

Waxy coatings on needles prevents moisture from evaporating in drying winds.

It also allows the tree to surviveduring hard hitting winter droughts, and prevent snow from collecting on them, which may cause the branches to break.

Low Bio Diversity

• Evergreen trees reign supreme -- miles upon miles of the exact same species are tree is often the case in the taiga.

• Most trees in this biome tend to grow in dense patches of one or a few species. Spruce, hemlock and fir are the primary trees of the taiga. 

• There are a few broad leaf trees in the taiga: birch, poplar, and aspen. These species lose their leaves in the fall. By shedding their leaves, these deciduous trees save energy during the winter months. But in the spring, these trees have to grow back new leaves.

• In contrast, evergreen trees do not have to regrow leaves in the spring. However, they risk a chance of breakage from heavy snow falls. 

Animals

• 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.

Animals

• American Black Bear • Bald Eagle • Bobcat • Canadian Lynx • Gray Wolf • Grizzly Bear • Long-Eared Owl • Red Fox • River Otter • Snowshoe Rabbit • Wolverine

Birds of the Taiga

• 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

• Red deer, elk, and moose can be found in regions of the taiga where more deciduous trees grow.

•

Caribou & Reindeer• Once divided into several species, all caribou and reindeer,

including the domesticated reindeer, are now considered races of a single species. The races vary in coloration from almost black to brown, gray and almost white. 

• The caribou is the only deer in which both sexes have antlers, although those of the female are smaller.The antlers are unique in that the lowest, forward-pointing tine is itself branched. 

• Females are gregarious and gather in herds with their young, but adult males are often solitary.  In autumn, males fight to gather harems of 5 to 40 or so females. The female produces 1, occasionally 2, young after a gestation of about 240 days. Young caribou are able to run with the herd within a few hours of birth. 

• Some populations migrate hundreds of miles between their breeding grounds on the tundra and winter feeding grounds farther south. Grass and other tundra plants are their main food in summer, but in winter caribou feed mainly on lichens, scraping away the snow with their hoofs to expose the plants.

AdaptationsSome animals have structural adaptations

that help them survive in the taiga.

• The Canada lynx's wide paws work like  snowshoes. They distribute the

lynx's weight, and help it move in the snow.

• Grizzly bears avoid the coldest weather by going into their dens in the fall and staying there until the early spring. They have a protective layer of fat that allows them to stay in their dens while the weather is cold. They don't hibernate but just sleep lightly and stay out of the cold!

Tree Adaptations

• Evergreen trees are cone-shaped to help snow slide off them so the branches won't break.

• The leaves or needles of evergreen trees lose less water than other kinds of leaves. This also helps them survive.

• Some broad-leaved trees like birch and aspen have adapted to the taiga, too. Both trees are very flexible and don't break easily when covered with ice and snow!

Tiaga Plants

• The taiga landscape is a stark and barren place. The plants growing in the tundra are often small and grow close to the ground

• During the short-growing season in the summer, the taiga blooms with a variety of low-growing plants. So what plant life is found there?

Taiga Plant Adaptations

• Where soil accumulates in pockets or cracks in rocks, small shrubs may grow.

• The taiga landscape is often covered with rocks. The constant freezing and thawing in the tundra helps to break the rocks into smaller pieces. 

Lichens

• Growing on the surface of this rock is a lichen. Lichens are unusual organisms that often grow on exposed rock surfaces. They are composed of a fungus and an algae living and growing together. There are several varieties of lichen, and in the autumn lichen turn various colors.

• Lichen is the favorite food of caribou and musk oxen.

Taiga Plant Adaptation

• Many plants, such as this one, have leaves that are dark red. Dark leaves allow the plant to absorb more heat from the sun in the cold taiga climate

Cushion Plants

• Many taiga plants, such as this one, are called cushion plants. That means they grow in a low, tight clump and look like a little cushion. Cushion plants are more common in the taiga where their growth habit helps protect them from the cold. 

Coevolution

• Taiga birds help distribute seeds. When they eat brightly colored berries, the birds carry seeds to other places and leave the seeds to grow.

Aurora Borealis

• The aurora borealis has fascinated, and often terrified, humans for thousands of years. The people of the north who saw the aurora frequently developed many legends and stories about it, while those who lived further south and rarely saw the aurora thought it was a supernatural omen of war or destruction.

• As people began to seek more natural explanations for the aurora, they came up with many theories: reflected firelight from the edge of the world, sunlight reflected from the arctic ice, or maybe reflected by ice crystals high in the sky. It wasn't until the 20th century that people finally began to make headway in the study of the aurora, and there are still many unanswered questions about it.

Extreme Climate Dangerous• The taiga has a very extreme climate. The intense cold

presents many problems if you are not prepared. • In any situation where extreme cold is present, hypothermia is

a risk you take. Hypothermia is the lowering of the body's core temperature.

• There are two types of hypothermia, acute and chronic. Acute hypothermia is the rapid lowering of the body's core temperature. Chronic hypothermia is the slow lowering of the body's core temperature. If the temperature drop occurs in less than four hours it is acute, otherwise it is chronic. Acute hypothermia is also called immersion hypothermia and typically occurs when a person is in cold water.

• Hypothermia is considered severe when the body's core temperature drops below 90 degrees F, and mild from normal body temperature to 90 degrees F.

Frostbite

• Frostbite is caused by exposure to severe cold. Frostbite occurs more often when the wind is blowing, quickly taking heat from the body. The ears, cheeks, nose, toes, and fingers are frostbitten the most frequently. When the part of the body is exposed to cold, the blood vessels constrict. When this occurs the blood supply to the chilled parts decreases and the tissues don't get the warmth they need.

True or False

• In Scandinavia and western Russia the spruce and fir is a common tree.

• Although the taiga’s summer is plentiful, some animals like wolves and caribou, travel north to the tundra for the summer.

• The taiga’s temperatures can drop below

-60 F in the winter and jump above 104 F in summer

Although the taiga's summer is plentiful, some animals, like wolves and caribou, travel north to the tundra for the summer.

Video results for taiga biome

• The Boreal Forest

Biome: Taiga Biome      3 min 14 sec - Sep 7, 2008www.thewildclassroom.com

Taiga Links

• Blue Planet Biomes--Taiga - Good general taiga site which includes location, climate, and detailed animal and plant information.

• Taiga Biological Station - This Canadian site answers the question "What is the taiga?" and provides a taiga food web.

• Taiga Rescue Network - Along with nature and climate information, this activist site includes information about indigenous people, natural resources, and government policies regarding the taiga. It also hosts a great taiga photo gallery.

• Wild Places--Coniferous Forests - Good general site made especially for kids.