Taiga • The Taiga lies in the Northern Hemisphere right under the artic circle. • Taiga are found in Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Siberia so in cold places. • The world’s largest Taiga is found in Russia. It stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Ural Mountains covering an area of 5800 kilometer square • The soil of the Taiga contains very little nutrients and it could freeze making it difficult for plants to grow there. • Beneath the soil is Permafrost which is a layer of soil that is permanently frozen or bedrock lies beneath soil. • The permafrost and bedrock makes it difficult for water on the top layers of soil flow down. • This creates a wetland (soft ground) that is mostly made of decaying plant matter or a bog (also known as …show more content…
It has long cold winters and short mild rainy summers similar to the Alpine biome. • Coniferous trees such as spruce, pine, and fir are usually found in the Taiga. • Coniferous trees don’t have large leaves but thin needles that they don’t shed in the winter. The seeds are packed inside protective cones. • Conifers have sap inside their needles to prevent freezing. The dark color and triangle shape helps them absorb as much sunlight as possible. • Other than conifers there is only one deciduous tree which is the larch. • In the floor of the Taiga there are moss, lichen, and mushrooms. These organisms could grow in the harsh environments of the Tundra. They have very short roots, needs little water, and suitable for the cold. • All animals in the Taiga adapted to the harsh conditions. Most birds migrate south during the winter. Small rodent-like animals live in the bottom. Owls and eagles prey on these small mammals. • Big mammals like the moose and boar also live in the Taiga. Having thick fur allows them to survive the cold winter months. • Only few carnivorous mammals exist in the Taiga. Lynx and bears are commonly found. The biggest cat in the world, the Siberian tiger lives in a small part of Eastern
The tar pits were surrounded by grasslands, shrubby areas and pine forests. Sabertooth cats fed off of herbivores so they often times lived in areas like this because many of the plant-eating animals sabertooth cats relied on lived in these areas. Smilodons also preferred to live in closed habitats so that it was easy to ambush it’s prey while hiding in bushes. Fossils show some evidence that Sabertooths were social, perhaps even living in groups to care for one another. Fossil records also suggest that they lived in icy lands, as they lived during the end of the Dinosaurs and during the Ice Age.
Isle Royal is located fifty-six miles north of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. It is the largest wilderness area in Michigan (USNPS, 2014). The island is surrounded by Lake Superior, which creates a cooler temperature. This results in arctic plant species growth on the island. There are only eighteen mammal species present on the island because most mammals cannot make the trip across the frozen great lake (USNPS, 2014). The need for an ice bridge is not the only environmental factor that is stopping the migration of animals; there is also the severe cold, and also wind and fog (Vucetich, 2012). Some species such as caribou and coyote have found the island to be too intense and have gone extinct (Vucetich, 2012). Due to the harsh weather and isolation of the island, humans have never regularly lived on the island (Vucetich, 2012). Some of species that are present such as the red squirrel are becoming their own subspecies due to its separation from the mainland (USNPS, 2014). The isolation of Isle Royal is what makes it a great place to conduct research, it has very low human interaction and the species that are on the island will have been and continue to be isolated from the mainland.
Plants make up most of the Pine Barrens. For instance, pine trees such as the short needles, pitch pines, jack pines, long needles, yellow pines, and many others make up most of the pine forest in the Pinelands. Other trees include the pine oaks and the cedar trees. Due to the roots of these cedar trees, water in the Pine Barrens appears a brownish red color. This
The Eastern Hemlock is often used for construction timber. The Eastern Hemlock is the offical state tree of Pennsylvania and is often found in cool moist habitats. This evergreen produces cones 3/4" long that are egg-shaped and hanging singly from the tips of twigs. Under each small section of the pine cone are 2 small, winged seeds (Cook Forest, 2013).
The Taiga is a biome that originates from Northern Russia that means or describes a cool large land with many conifers. Upper North America, Northern Europe and Northern Asia all are mostly Taiga. It is the largest biome and contains mostly conifers but does not have that many animals. The climate is mostly very cold and snowy in the winter and warm in the summer while fall and spring are just transition seasons.
in the Canadian Shield there are many types of living organisms living in it, such as moose, black bears, grizzly bears, wolves, foxes, beavers, minks, martens, wolverines, lynxes, wood buffalo, woodland caribou, shrews, weasels and hares, these animals live here because they can find enough food, water and shelter in the Canadian Shield
Redwoods were named for the color of their bark and heartwood. These trees have a high resistance to fungus and diseases due to the high tanin content in the wood. The dense, fibrous bark has an even higher content, and acts as an insulator from periodic fires which have plagued the countryside for centuries. Though these trees are immense, they have delicate foliage. The needles are narrow and sharp-pointed, and combine to form feathery sprays. The cones are an inch long and typically contain fourteen to twenty-four seeds. The older trees offspring sprout form their parents' roots in order to take advantage of the established root system.
Abiotic factors of the arctic tundra are strong winds, little precipitation. Also very short summer days, instead there are very long and cold winters. There is poor soil and a permafrost which is a layer of permanently frozen subsoil. The biotic factors are that plants and mosses have to adapt to the long and cold winters, since the sun does not come up during winter. Also the wildlife animal that live there are Snowy owls, reindeer, white foxes, lemmings, arctic hares, wolverines, caribou, migrating birds, mosquitoes, black flies, and the chief predator the Polar
The tundra artic plains completely cover most of the earth’s lands north of the coniferous forest belt. The tundra’s ecosystem is very sensitive. It doesn’t have the ability to restore itself. Controlled by sedge, heath, willow, moss, and lichen. Plains that are pretty much alike, called alpine tundra, occur above the timberline in the high mountains of the world.
Podzol Soils, found in the north, are used for recreation and forestry, while Luvisol Soils located in the south are for agricultural use. These leached, wet-climate soils combined with a fairly mild climate are responsible for over 50% of Canada’s class 1 agricultural land, while 62% of the land is capable of classes 1, 2, and 3.
Frost line is underground water in soil is expected to freeze. The depth is mostly depends on the location of the weather conditions in the area. When frost heave it can damage the building by moving location of the foundations. Foundations are expected to build under the frost depth. The building code requires for the northern five feet.
"Life in the Polar Regions: Animals, Plants, and Others in Extreme Environments." Windows to the Universe. 12 Nov. 2010. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. .
Arctic tundra is located in the northern hemisphere, encircling the North Pole and extending south to the Coniferous forests of the Taiga. The arctic is known for its cold, desert-like conditions. The growing season ranges from 50 to 60 days. The average winter temperature is -34° C (-30° F), but the average summer temperature is 3-12° C (37-54° F), which enables this biome to sustain life. Rainfall may vary in different regions of the arctic. Yearly precipitation, including mel...
What it looks like: Siberian tiger is the largest and most rare of all members of the cat family. This cat is 8-10 feet long, excluding their 25-38 inch rattling tail. This species of tiger weighs 400-700 pounds. Like all members of the tiger family, males are significantly larger than females.
earth. Many species live in cold areas, but with the climate rising those areas are becoming