Extensive and picturesque coniferous forests stretch between the tundra in the north and the deciduous forest in the south. One type of such a forest is called northern boreal, it is located between 50 ° and 60 ° north latitude. Another type is coniferous forest temperate zone , grows in the lower latitudes of North America, Europe and Asia, on the high elevations of the mountains.
Coniferous forests are found mainly in the northern hemisphere, although some of them can also be found in the southern hemisphere.
This largest land biotope in the world consists mainly of conifers - trees on which needles grow instead of leaves, cones instead of flowers, and seeds develop in cones. Conifers tend to be evergreen, that is, their needles are held on branches all year round. An exception can be considered only the genus of larch, the needles of which turn yellow and crumble at the end of each summer. Such devices help plants survive in very cold or dry areas. Some of the most common species are spruce, pine and fir.
Precipitation in coniferous forests ranges from 300 to 900 mm per year, and in some temperate forest tracts, up to 2000 m. The amount of precipitation depends on the location of the forest. In the northern boreal forests, winters are long, cold and dry, and summers are short, moderately warm, with plenty of moisture. At lower latitudes, precipitation is evenly distributed throughout the year.
The air temperature in the zones of growth of pine and spruce forests is from -40 ° C to 20 ° C, the average summer temperature is 10 ° C.
Coniferous forests - the evergreen kingdom
Conifers grow where the summers are short and cool, and winters are long and harsh, with heavy snowfall that can last up to 6 months. The needle-shaped leaves have a waxy outer coating that prevents the loss of water in frosty weather. The branches, in turn, are soft and flexible and usually point downward, so that the snow rolls off without difficulty. Larches have been found in some of the coldest regions of our planet.
Evergreen forests consist mainly of species such as spruce, fir, pine and larch. The leaves of these trees are small and look like needles or flakes, and most of them remain green all year round (evergreen). All conifers are able to live in cold and acidic soil.
All coniferous forests in the world are classified according to the following types:
- Eurasian coniferous forest with Siberian pine, Siberian fir, Siberian and Daurian dominant in the east ( Landlady Gmelin) by larch trees. Scots pine and spruce are important forest-forming species in Western Europe.
- FROMconiferous forest with a predominance of white spruce, black spruce and balsam fir.
- Tropicalth and subtropicalth coniferous forest with an abundance of cypresses, cedars and sequoia.
Northern coniferous forests, such as the coniferous forest in Siberia, are called taiga or boreal forests. They cover vast areas of North America from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean and are located throughout Northern Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and throughout Asia through Siberia and Mongolia to northern China and northern Japan.
The growing season in boreal forests is 130 days.
Cypresses, cedars and sequoias grow strictly vertically. The highest of them can reach 110 m in height. Trees are usually pyramidal. Short lateral branches grow quite close to each other, but they are so flexible that the snow just slides off.
(pine and larch prevail):
(spruce and fir prevail):
Life in the coniferous forest
The biome is noticeably higher compared to the tundra: nesting birds alone have 120-150 species, and mammals up to 40-50. At the same time, biodiversity coniferous forests significantly inferior in its wealth to the tropical regions.
Even evergreen trees eventually drop their leaves and grow new ones. The needles fall on the forest floor and form a thick spring carpet of needles. The light, usually acidic soils of coniferous forests are called podzols and have a compacted layer of humus, which contains many mushrooms. Filamentous mushrooms help decompose needles that have fallen to the ground. These organisms provide nutrients from fallen needles back to the roots of the trees. But since the needles decompose very slowly, the soils under such trees have a low content of minerals and organic matter, and the number of invertebrates such as earthworms there are very few in them.
Mosquitoes, flies and other insects are common inhabitants of the coniferous forest, but due to low temperatures there are few cold-blooded vertebrates, such as snakes and frogs. Birds of coniferous forests include woodpeckers, crossbills, kings, grouse, waxwings, black grouse, hawks and owls. Among mammals, shrews, field voles, squirrels, martens, moose, deer, lynxes and wolves are common.
Too little light penetrates through the thick dome of coniferous trees. Due to the constant darkness in the lower tier, only ferns grow and quite a bit herbaceous plants. Mosses and lichens on the contrary, are found everywhere on forest soil, trunks and tree branches. There are very few flowering plants.
Currently, extensive logging in boreal forests may soon lead to their extinction.
The value of coniferous forests
Coniferous forests are the main source of commercial wood in the world. Their use has many advantages:
- With the exception of very cold areas, they grow rapidly and can be cut down every 40-50 years.
- Many conifers are well adjacent.
- Frozen soil simplifies access to wood for machinery and vehicles in winter.
- Softwood has many different uses - paper, construction and furniture, etc.
- Coniferous wood can be easily harvested like a crop using modern technology.
Acid rain
Over the past 50 years, coniferous forests around the world have suffered from acid rain. The main reasons for which are:
- Air emissions sulfur dioxide power plants, industrial enterprises
- Increase in the amount of emissions from power plants as well as cars nitric oxide
These pollutants are carried by air masses to areas of Western Europe. Fifty million hectares of forest in 25 european countries Suffers from acid rain. For example, coniferous mountain forests in Bavaria die. Cases of damage to conifers as well as deciduous tracts of Karelia and Siberia were noted.
The most common conifers:
- Common spruce
- White spruce
- Black spruce
- Canadian Tsuga
- Lebanese cedar
- European larch
- Juniper (heather)
- Fir
- Podocarpus
- Western pine
- Caribbean Pine
- Common pine
- Twisted pine
- Fitzroy cypress
Coniferous forest is one of the most interesting objects of wildlife of our planet. A lot of effort has been spent on its study and not in vain - for the forest for man has always been a source of infinite wealth.
Coniferous forests grow, mainly in areas with a cold climate. If we imagine their location on the globe, we will see a wide belt covering the northern part of Russia, Scandinavia, Canada and America. At the same time, there are few relict forests left; they are gradually replaced by artificially planted forests.
The main trees of the coniferous forest are cedar, pine, fir, larch. The requirements for moisture and soil fertility in these species are different, which is why they divide forests into two types - dark coniferous (spruce, fir, cedar) and light coniferous (pine, larch). In Russia, a mixture of these two types is often found.
Like any other forest, conifers have several floors (tiers). Tiers of coniferous forest, as a rule, clearly expressed. Upper (woody), undergrowth (or shrubby), grassy-shrub layer and moss-lichen cover. However, due to insufficient light, undergrowth and undergrowth-shrub layer may be absent in dark coniferous forests.
The species composition of plants depends on the degree of illumination, soil composition, and many other factors. But there are coniferous forest plants that are recognized as its characteristic and integral part. Of the shrubs, this is juniper, currant, buckthorn, willow. Shrubs - blueberries, lingonberries, cranberries, heather. Herbs - Ivan tea, angelica, cow parsnip, sour, grushanka and many others. Ferns and mosses (reindeer moss, sphagnum) are most typical for coniferous forests.
As already noted, the diversity of species largely depends on the quality of the soil. The soil of the coniferous forest can be not only clay, but also loamy and sandy. Coniferous forests rise both at rock outcrops and in marshy areas.
The massif in which firs and cedars prevail may seem gloomy and unsociable. Their branches are tightly closed to each other, creating an insurmountable barrier to the sun's rays. Who wants to live in such a place? There are also many who want to. Here you can hear the clatter of woodpeckers, the crows of the owl and the sparrow owl, the sharp cries of the kuksha and the trill of pine wood. Capercaillie, wild grouse, crossbills, tits, gaits, kings - all of them are birds of coniferous forest. Without some of them (pine trees, crossbills), its very existence would be difficult.
It is good to go to the pine or spruce forest for mushrooms. The dry earth, covered with a thick layer of needles, seems to spring under the feet, pushing. In the spruce tree there are mushrooms, chanterelles, russula, saffron milk mushrooms, raincoats, champignons. The pine forest will delight you with oils, honey mushrooms, sows, greenbacks. Mushrooms and rowers - autumn mushrooms coniferous forest.
What else will the forest give to its guests, where cedar giants and slender pines reign? Pine nuts, essential oils, berries, herbs - this is a small fraction of all its treasures. And let's not forget about hunting and fishing.
The trees themselves are actively used in construction and production. various materials. A huge role is played by forests and in the formation of an atmosphere suitable for breathing.
To date, many people have appreciated the benefits that rest in the coniferous forest brings. And it is becoming a tradition to gain strength not only on the seashore, but also in the green more often.
Inhale the aromas of tar, needles and listen to the singing of the wind in crowns. The collection of mushrooms, berries, cones - these are already forms of active pastime. What to say about dark nights and talking around the fire?
Conifers are mainly evergreens, woody or shrub, with leaves in the form of needles. Needles are needle-shaped, scaly or linear leaves. Conifers belong to the gymnosperms class. In total, coniferous plants number about 600 species. It is difficult to list the names of all conifers, but you can imagine a list of conifers, the most famous and common in our strip.
Pine - an evergreen coniferous tree that grows everywhere throughout Russia, is distinguished by long needles and unpretentiousness to environmental conditions. Sunny pine groves are a real natural sanatorium.
- coniferous ornamental tree from the cypress family, many varieties of arborvitae are universally cultivated for landscaping parks and personal households.
- in wildlife grows in the tropical zone, it is also successfully bred as an ornamental tree or shrub, foliage differs from all previous conifers, leaves on upward shoots are arranged spirally, on horizontal shoots - linear. Yew is very poisonous, only the seedless berries are edible.
- coniferous shrub of the cypress family, used for decorative gardening.
- a mighty tree of the North Ocean coast of America of the cypress family. Trees - long-livers of this genus live for several thousand years.
- A beautiful coniferous tree that grows wild in the mountains of China.
The above list of conifers describes plants, each of which has many species - these are only the most common conifers.
In addition to the above, conifers include: cypress, tsuga, ginkgo, araucaria, nitsedrus, pseudotsuga, cunningamia, cryptomeria, sciadopitis, sequoiadendron and many others.
Hello dear Sprint Response site readers. In this article, you can find answers to the questions of the Supergame in the program "Field of Miracles" for October 27, 2017. The winner of the game agreed to the Super Game, so it took place. Answers to all questions of the Supergame can be found on our website in the same section. By the way, the winner won the Supergame, she guessed the main word.
Here are the questions in the Super Game "Fields of Miracles" 10.27.2017
Word horizontally (11 letters). What was the coniferous forest called in the European part of Russia and in the Urals?
The word is left vertically (5 letters). What was the name of the area from under the forest, the bush, cleared for arable land?
The word on the right is vertical (6 letters). An old Russian proverb says: "There is space in the steppe, in the forest ..."?
Answers to questions of the Super Game "Fields of Miracles" 10.27.2017
BEAUTY, cf. Coniferous forest. All species of resinous trees, such as pine, spruce, fir, etc., are called the red forest, or redwood. S. Aksakov, Notes of a gun hunter. I do not want to say that the redwood is worse, but the aspen forest is also beautiful. (Soloukhin, Third Hunt.)
Fight - the same as a purifier; the place where the forest is cut down, uprooted and burned for sowing; arable land cleared from under the forest.
In the desert, in the woods land.
- Woodland
- Fight
- Land
Coniferous forests are natural area, which consists of evergreens - conifers. Coniferous forests grow in the taiga of Northern Europe, Russia and North America. In the highlands of Australia and South America in some places there are coniferous forests. The climate of coniferous forests is very cold and humid.
According to the international classification, the following types of coniferous forest exist:
- evergreens;
- with falling needles;
- present in boggy forests;
- tropical and subtropical.
According to the density of the canopy, light coniferous and dark coniferous forests are distinguished.
There is such a thing as artificial coniferous forests. Coniferous trees were planted on mixed or deciduous forests in North America and Europe to restore the forest where it was intensively cut.
Coniferous forests of taiga
In the northern hemisphere of the planet, coniferous forests lie in the taiga zone. Here the main forest-forming species are as follows:
In Europe, pure pine and spruce-pine forests are found.
Pine forests
In Western Siberia, a wide variety of coniferous forests: cedar-pine, spruce-larch, pine, larch-cedar-pine, spruce-fir. Larch forests grow on the territory of Eastern Siberia. In coniferous forests, undergrowth can be birch, aspen or rhododendron.
In Canada, black spruce and white spruce, balsam fir and American larch are found in forests.
White spruce
There is also a Canadian Tsuga and twisted pine.
In impurities, aspen and birch are found.
Coniferous forests of tropical latitudes
Coniferous forests are found at some points in the tropics. Caribbean, western and tropical pine trees grow on the islands of the Caribbean.
Sumatran and island pine are found in South Asia and on the islands.
In the South American forests, such conifers as fitzroy cypress and Brazilian araucaria are represented.
In the tropical zone of Australia, coniferous forests are formed by the podocarpus.
The value of coniferous forests
There are many coniferous forests on the planet. As trees were cut down, people began to create artificial coniferous forests in the place where broad-leaved species grew. In these forests, a special vegetative and animal world. Coniferous trees themselves are of particular value. People cut them down for construction, furniture and other purposes. However, in order to have something to chop, you first need to plant and grow, and then use coniferous wood.