THE TAIGA BIOME Zachary, Benny, Lily, Edward

TABLE OF CONTENTS MAP OF THE TAIGA INTRODUCTION TO THE TAIGA ANIMALS PLANTS HUMAN INFLUENCES

TAIGA MAP

THE TAIGA BIOME The taiga has different names. It is also known as a coniferous or boreal forest. The taiga is the largest terrestrial biome on the earth. Boreal was the Greek goddess of the north wind. Taiga is the biome of the needle leaf forest. The taiga is located near the top of the world. The taiga is in North America, Canada, Alaska, Europe, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Asia, Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. The height above sea level is high elevations or mountains. The average temperature in the taiga is 0 degrees. It has a range of 52 to 21 degrees. For all but 4 months of the year, the average temperature is below 0 degrees. The precipitation is 80 centimeters per year. It rains in the summer. It is also a windy and dry place. It has long, cold winters, and short mild, wet summers. Fires in the summer remove old sick trees to get new growth. Glaciers covered the taiga. When they moved back or left, it cut in the land. It filled with rain creating lakes and bogs. The evergreens in the taiga keep their leaves in the winter. There is permafrost below the soil as well as bedrock. There are many lakes and also a lot of muskeg. Muskeg is a wet spongy soil. It is found in the taiga. Animals can get stuck in muskeg and die. The vegetation in the taiga grows only 4 months when the temperature is above 0 degrees. It means the growing season is short. The plants must race to grow. Coniferous trees are spruce, pine, and larch species. Other plants are shrubs, grasslands and lichen. The animals in the taiga adapt to be able to eat coniferous needles like moose.

RIVER OTTER A river otter’s life span depends on the weather and if it is in the wild or captive. It weighs 10 to 30 pounds. It is a dark brown and a light brown or gray on his belly. The otter lives in the taiga. It eats fish, shellfish, crustacean, snails, amphibians and other small mammals. The river otter is known to be eaten by the fox and wolf. Some fun facts are that the river otter is a sign of survival in wetlands. The river otter is endangered in the USA. Luckily, it has some features that adapts it to water. Its nose closes automatically in the water and its coat is water proof. All these things make the river otter a very cool animal.

SNOWSHOE RABBIT The snowshoe rabbit weighs three to four pounds. It is a rusty brown in the summer and in the winter, it is pure white except for its eyelids. The rabbit lives in the taiga biome specifically, the forest area. It lives for about five years in the wild. It eats grass, clover and other greens in the summer. In the winter, it eats bark, twigs and bugs. It must cycle its food through its digestive system two times before it goes into its stomach. Wolves, bobcats and lynx eat it. The rabbit has fur on its feet so it doesn’t get cold. It turns different colors to hide from predators. This makes the snowshoe rabbit an unusual animal.

The Eastern Red Cedar is 50 feet high. The shape is pyramidal. The color is green. The Eastern Red Cedar has two kinds of leaves old leaves are flat and only 1/16 inch. The younger leaves are sharp pointed and may be up to ¾ of an inch. They have whitish leaves on top. In the summer the leaves are brilliant green and in the winter they are copper yellow. The wood of the Eastern Red Cedar is very durable, often used as fence posts. The oil repels moths; the oil is used in medicine and perfume. The cedar is a small evergreen. PLANTS OF THE TAIGA

The balsam fir can grow 40 to 80 feet tall. It can grow to be 200 years old. The needles are 1 1/2 inches long and they are flat, rounded at the tips and normally have a strong curve. The bark is green above and whitened below. The roots go 30 inches deep. The balsam fir is called the blister fir. Blisters of resin appear on the bark of old trees. The balsam fir can be found in North America from Virginia to Newfoundland and Northwest towards Yukon and the Labradors.

The negative influences in the taiga are that the people cut down the trees in the taiga. The Stewart Organization Council is a logging organization that ensures that the forests are renewed. The World Wildlife Foundation is a huge global organization. Cutting the trees destroys the animal’s habitats. The World Wildlife Foundation is trying to save the endangered species in the taiga. The negative influences in the taiga are that there are industries that pose threats to many animals in it. Logging happens across the taiga, and causes much impact. People cut down the trees to make the paper products. Many thousands of water fowl that are native to the taiga can be killed by pollution. The solution is that they need to preserve the area so they make sure they stop cutting down the trees. They should stop cutting down the animal’s habitats. Recycling paper can stop the cutting down of the trees. An animal, the Siberian tiger, is almost extinct. It lives in the taiga and the people cut down its habitat. The goal is to create more protective lands. HUMAN INFLUENCES ON THE TAIGA