By Dan, Greg, Sander and Shravan

1. Coniferous Forest By Dan, Greg, Sander and Shravan

2. Taiga locations • Taiga is the Russian word for forest • The Taiga biome is the largest one in the world • It is located in northern north America and Eurasia below the Tundra biome • This biome is not divided into smaller biomes

3. Taiga Topography • The elevation is usually high • There is only snowfall in the winter • There is a lot of rain in the summer • There is a lot of sunlight in the summer, and hardly any in the winter • Vegetation is mainly pine trees

4. Seasonalchangesofthetaiga • Cold in the winter with temperatures ranging from -20F to 30F • Cold in summer with temperatures ranging from 20F to 70F • The spring and summer are so short, you hardly know they exist • Annual rainfall is usually 21-33inches • Hot and humid in the summer • Cold with lots of snow in the winter

5. Wildlife in a coniferous forest A common animal in the coniferous forest biome is the gray wolf The gray wolf is usually about 3 feet tall and about 3-5 feet in length Gray wolfs usually live to be 17 years old Gray wolfs are carnivores, who’s diet consists of moose,caribou and other deer-like animals http://hem.passagen.se/pepssi/animalgallery/wolfs.jpg

6. Wildlife continued The bald eagle weighs eight to twelve pounds Their wingspan can be up to two meters and they can be one meter in length from head to tail The bald eagle has very good vision which helps it hunt blueplanetbiomes.org

7. Environmental Problems Forest Depletion Poses Threats To The Coniferous Forests

8. Logging And Mining Threats To The Forests • Twelve-million hectares of Russian coniferous forests are lost each year! • American companies open logging operations all over the Russian forests with valuable trees • Siberia has one fifth of the worlds forested land, it would be a disastrous loss. Yukon.taiga.net/swyukon/

9. Logging/Mining Threats Cont. • 90% of the destruction comes from clear cutting. • Smelting plants produce pollution which creates acid rain that destroy trees. • Many trees are destroyed to mine beneath the forests. • Logging companies send trees down rivers which happens by sinking logs. This in turn causes flooding of thousands of hectares of forested land.

10. Global Warming and Related Damages (and some unrelated to global warming) • Oil taken from Siberia damages forests • Temperaturesrise and climates in the forests because of global warming • Over-hunting of caribou poses a major threat to this species • The dryness and heat of the global warming increases the severity, length and number of forest fires in Siberia • In 2003, 55 million acres were lost to forest fires http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2004/10/22/oil2_wideweb__430x255.jpg

11. Harmful Human Activities • Humans have heavily logged the large coniferous forests of Siberia • Humans have also caused global warming destroying tons of forest by increased fire and dryness • Humans have hunted caribou and other coniferous animals to an extremity • Human industry produces massive amounts of pollution that harm the trees www.saamicouncil.net

12. What Can You Do? • There are a number of environmentalist groups currently working to save these forests, by donating money, you can help save these valuable forests • You use a more fuel efficient life with fluorescent light bulbs, hybrid cars and other fuel efficient devices. This reduces oil demand and helps stop global warming.

13. 1. http://www.yukon.taiga.net/swyukon/ 2. http://www.blueplanetsbiomes.org/world_biomes.htm 3. http://www.mbgnet.net/index.html 4. http://www.american.edu/TED/TAIGA.HTM Bibliography