The Taiga Biome
Richard Wunschel's Flyer about a Taiga
The "Building Blocks" of a Taiga
This is the biome of the needleleaf pine, a kind of evergreen tree, whose leaves shed year round. The temperatures for winter average from -1C down to -54C. The summers are hot and moist, -7C to 21C. The autumn and spring come and go so fast, it's like they didn't even exist in the first place. There also aren't very many plants that live here, mostly coniferous trees like the needleleaf, and white spruce, but there are also some lichens and mosses which thrive in these conditions. Because of this, there are only specialized species which live in taigas. The rain comes down at 30 - 85 cm a year, most coming down as rain, snow, and dew.
Animals, Plants, and Scenery
Snowshoe Rabbit
White Spruce Tree
The white spruce, a type of evergreen tree native to taigas, has a natural protection against the harsh cold of a taiga winter, which is its waxy leaves. The wax prevents the tree from both drying out and freezing. Because a taiga is suspectible to fires, these trees have adapted to that too: thick bark protects the tree from a fire that would normally penetrate a decidous tree.