The Coniferous Forest
The coniferous forest biome is pretty much what it sounds like, a forest. It gets its name from the coniferous trees that reside within it, which get their names from the cones that grow on them in the place of flowers. Unlike deciduous trees, coniferous trees do not lose their pigment, and in turn, their leaves, in winter. Their needle-like leaves keep a dark green color throughout the entire year, and the trees never stop bearing them until they are dead, hence the name, “evergreen”. The dark green needles help to absorb a large amount of heat from the sun to speed up the process of photosynthesis. The coniferous forest spans much of North America, Europe and Asia,. The coniferous trees it gets its name from could be called the dominant species of tree in the forest, since most of the smaller plants die due to blockage, as they rely on photosynthesis to live and thus are not able to live in the shadows of the taller spruce, pine and firs.
The Boreal Forest is known for its long, cold and dry winters, and the summers are short, warm and moist, with spruce, fir, pine and tamarack or larch being the most common species. The Boreal forest cuts all the way through Canada and well into the interior of Alaska. Its soils are high in moisture, due to low temperature and lower evaporation and transpiration rates.
The temperature of the coniferous forest ranges from –20 degrees C to 40 degrees C, with an average summer temperature of 10 degrees. The precipitation is usually between 300 to 900 mm per year, although some temperate deciduous forests can get up to 2000 mm, all depending on the location of the forest. In general, the lower latitudes have more evenly distributed precipitation. The soils are high in moisture, due to low temperature and lower evaporation and transpiration rates. The diversity is low, with black spruce, tamarack, balsam fir and white spruce being the most common species of trees. The tamarack and black spruce are known to be found on wet, poorly drained mineral soils (or sometimes organic soils), while the white spruce is found on drier soils with a higher nutrient content. The balsam fir, however, is found on the eastern portion of the region and is the dominant species in its area. This forest region is also known to contain numerous patches of land covered with organic soils and peat, and can be anywhere between a few feet or almost a hundred feet deep.
The animal life of the coniferous forest consist of the omnivorous black bears, of whom are known to fatten up on salmon and wild berries before going into a winterlong hibernation, the adept carnivorous wild cats, ranging from cougars to lynxes, both of which feeds on rabbits and birds, with the smaller, weaker lynx changing its fur coat to adapt to the seasons as a sort of natural camouflage against predators, and the cougar boasting incredible strength, speed and stamina, giving it the ability to overcome any predator. Another similar species is or are the common coyote and larger wolf, similar in dietary habits to the bobcat and cougar, respectively, Other animals include rabbits, deer, and birds such as the falcon and eagle, all of which, for the most part, are herbivorous with the occasional omnivore.
