Coniferous forests (teach)

Introduces the elementary student to some more of the basic aspects of the geography and climate of the Coniferous forests and to plant and animal adaptions needed to survive there.

1. Where do we find them?

2. Europe
AsiaCanada
Alaska
northern Europe, In Alaska, Canada, and northern Asia

3. Because the northern coniferous forests
are located so far north, plants and
animals have adapted to survive.
Extreme cold in long winters
and short summers with very short growing
seasons. Winter days are that are very short,
some with only 2 or 3 hours of sunlight.
Summer days that are long, sometimes
with more than 20 hours of daylight.
are winters so long and summers so
short?
Survive what?
Why

4. Because...as the Earth orbits the sun it is
tilted the same way all the time.
winter in the
northern
coniferous
forests.
summer in the
northern
coniferous
forests.

5. In our summer Earth’s tilt points the north
pole toward the sun where it gets more
sunlight. So summer in the far north may last
only 2-3 months but the days are very long.
Lots of sunlight

6. When Earth is on the opposite side of its
orbit around the sun, it’s tilt is then away
from the sun, and the far north has winter
for 6-7 months. Winter days are short--the
sun may only rise for a few hours per day.
Lots of dark..

7. Milder in summer but cool --average
temperature 57 degrees F.
Cold and snowy in winter-- average
temperature 14 degrees F. (that is just 10º
degrees warmer than the freezer in your house)
if you lived there.

8. Not a lot of rain or snow. Average
annual rainfall 14-30 inches---more
than a desert, less than a deciduous
forest and much less than a rainforest.
Even with this small amount of precipitation,
there are swamp like regions the northern
coniferous forest called muskegs.

9. Muskegs exist because in
some areas beneath the
forest floor, there is a layer
of permanently frozen soil
called permafrost in other
paces there may be a giant
layer of solid bedrock.

Both the permafrost and
bedrock stop water from
draining through the top
layers of soil creating
shallow bogs known as
muskegs.
Muskegs can look like
solid ground, because
they are covered with
moss, short grasses, and
sometimes even trees.
However, the ground is
wet and spongy.

10. Conifer trees
pine firspruce
The major plants found in the Coniferous forests
are:

12. Summer in the
Coniferous Forest

13. Let’s now look at some adaptations that
coniferous trees have that allow them to
survive in the harsh conditions of the far
north.
First, because Conifer trees must
photosynthesize (make food) whenever
they can, the leaves on coniferous trees
stay green all year long.

14. summer winter
Conifer trees don’t drop leaves in the fall because the
growing season is so short and re-growing new leaves
each spring would waste far too much time and
energy.

15. If the branches held
snow, heavy wet snow would cause them to
break.
Conifers are triangular shaped so that their branches
will shed snow in the winter.

16. Do you think the beautiful acacia tree
of the African Savanna would be very
well adapted to the coniferous forest?
Why?

17. Conifer trees have also
adapted by growing
small needle shaped
leaves with a waxy
coating which help hold
water inside the tree.
Since there is not much
precipitation and most
water in the soil of a
coniferous forest is frozen
during winter, the roots
can absorb water only
during the short summer.
As the soil is often shallow
(permafrost and/or
bedrock) coniferous tree
roots often spread
horizontally and stay near
the surface.

18. Because these waxy leaves
are shaped like needles
that’s what they’ve been
named: “needles.”
The tree’s name “conifer”
comes from
the word
“cone” the
structure
used for
reproduction.
Female cone
Male cone

19. Seeds for creating
new Coniferous
trees are formed in
protective cones
When these seeds
are scattered and
germinate, a new
coniferous tree
seeding is created.

20. Moose Beaver Wolf Black bear
Hawk Owl Lynx
Wolverine
Red Squirrel
Snowshoe Rabbit

21. Decomposers
soil bacteria nematodes
worms, protozoa,
fungi
Conifer trees, shrubs,
grass, ferns, moss
Plant eaters/
primary consumers
A food web in the coniferous forest biome
Small predators,
carnivores, insectivores
wolves Lynx Large predators

22. With long cold winters
and scarce food, few
animals winter in the
northern coniferous
forest.
(more than 300 species of birds and
32,000 species of insects).
In summer,
however, a huge
number of insects live
in the marshy muskegs.
And millions of birds
from all over migrate
there to feed on the
insects.

23. only to return again the
following
spring.
Come winter, most of these birds migrate
(move) south in order to find warmer weather,
food and shelter....

24. With winters so long and cold in the northern
coniferous forests almost no cold blooded
reptiles and amphibians live there year round.
However, some warm blooded animals have
adapted to living in these harsh conditions.
During winter, along with the cold,
food is very hard to find for all animals.

25. Seed eating birds that live in the coniferous forest
have beaks that are adapted to reaching in between
the scales of cones to reach the seeds.
The long tips of the
upper and lower bill of
the Crossbill cross over
each other. The Red
Crossbill bites between
the scales of a cone and
pries them apart by
opening its bill. Then it
dislodges the seed with
its tongue.

26. As fall temperatures cool, birds
and mammals that live all year
long in the far northern forests
grow extra fur or feathers.
This extra layer of fur or feathers
provides insulation that helps
prevent body heat from escaping
during extreme winter conditions.

27. Most year-round inhabitants of the
coniferous forest, including herbivores,
omnivores and carnivores, really stuff
themselves during the late summer and fall,
eating all the food
they can get.
They are storing food
in their bodies as fat,
which of course causes
some serious weight
gain.

28. Notice pictures of this black bear in the late
fall and again in early spring. Bears can lose
up to 40 percent of their weight between fall
and spring.

full
hungry

29. We shall see that many animals living
through the winter in the northern
coniferous forests are able to survive by
storing food, either like this in their bodies
or in catches.
During the cold winter when little food was
available the bear lived on the extra layers of
fat she had piled on in the fall. In addition to
providing energy, those layers of fat helped
her keep warm during the cold bitter winter.

30. Like the bear, other
omnivores such as
raccoons and skunks eat
a lot of food in the fall.
They store this extra
food as fat preparing for
a long cold winter when
little food is available.

31. During the winter,
they sleep in dens
living off their stored
fat, coming out only
occasionally to look
for food.

32. Two large herbivores, the moose and the elk
live in the northern coniferous forest.
elk
moose
Since they don’t do extended sleeps during the
winter, they depend on extra hair and fat to
keep them warm during the cold winter.

33. In summer, of the moose eat large quanties of
water plants from bogs or streams while the elk
eats primarily grasses. During winter both must
survive on mostly twigs and bark.
The moose and the elk have very different
diets depending on the season.

34. Snowshoe hares are also
herbivorous. They feed on
grass, flowers, and other
greenery in summer. In
winter, they survive on
buds, soft bark, and twigs.

35. For getting around in deep snow, both moose
and snowshoe hares have very wide feet to
keeps them from sinking in the snow. Compare
the examples. Another adaptation.
Moose hoof
Jack Rabbit
Snowshoe Rabbit

36. The abundant red squirrel’s
summer diet includes seeds,
fruit, nuts, bark, buds, fungi
and insects. Occasionally
they eat birds eggs, young
birds and young mice but
seeds inside a cone are by far
their favorite food both
summer and winter.
Red squirrels build nests in
the conifer trees where
they raise their babies.

37. Tiny Taiga Voles are
herbivores that live near
streams and muskegs. They
eat mostly moss and grass.
Taiga voles dig underground
burrows where they build
nests of dry grasses.
During August and
September, they store food
in these burrows. During
the winter five to ten voles
huddle together for warmth
in a nest and share the
stored food.

38. And, at the top of the food chain:
and the hawk owl.
In the of northern coniferous forest are the
grey wolf,the lynx,

39. Some predatory birds such
as the North Hawk Owl live
year round in the northern
coniferous forest. A North
Hawk Owls hunts mainly
voles, red squirrels and
snowshoe hares.

40. Lynx are covered with beautiful thick fur that keeps
them warm during frigid winters. Their large furry
paws hit the ground with a spreading toe motion that
makes them function as natural snowshoes.
Lynx eat mice, squirrels, and birds, but prefer
the snowshoe hare.

41. Grey wolves, who must continue to hunt
through the winter, do grow an insulating
layer of hair to keep warm.
They hunt in packs. Whenever they can bring
down an elk or moose, the pack eats well for a
little while.

42. That’s it for the
Northern Coniferous Forests