Forest Biome
Forest is a broad term used to describe areas where there are a large number of trees. Depending on the type of trees in that area forests can be further divided into five main categories. These are: coniferous forest, deciduous forest, mixed leaved forest, Mediterranean forest, and tropical rainforests. Below are their descriptions.
Coniferous Forest
Coniferous forests are found mostly in the northern parts of North America, Europe, and Asia. Other names for the coniferous forest are: taiga (Russian for swamp forest) and boreal forest. The trees making up the coniferous forest are cone-bearing trees like the spruce, pine, fir and hemlock. These trees have needle-like leaves that keep their green color throughout the entire year. Coniferous forests are usually in areas where the summer is short and the winter is long and cold with heavy snowfall lasting up to 6 or 7 months.
Deciduous Forest
These forests are located in eastern North America, western and central Europe, and northeastern Asia where the summer season is warm and winters are cold. A deciduous forest differs from the coniferous forest in that the trees are broadleaved and fall off the tree during late summer to early autumn. The leaves are green during the spring and most of the summer, but then become shades of yellow, red, and orange before they fall of the trees. The leaves fall from the tree because they were designed to absorb sunlight better than that of the coniferous forest, leaving them sensitive to frost, snow and wind. Some common trees found in deciduous forest are the elm, oak and beech.
Mixed Forests
Mixed forests contain both deciduous trees and coniferous trees and are located in areas all throughout the world. The weather in these areas is able to support both types of trees and vegetation. These forests are common in mountain ranges and areas where temperatures are warm during the summer months and cold during the winter months.
Mediterranean Forests
These types of forest are generally called scrublands because the temperatures make it possible for short oaks and pines to grow, but the tree are very scattered resulting into an undeveloped forest. These forests contain a large amount of wildflowers and a diverse number of insect-eating birds. Another name for the Mediterranean forest is "maquis".
Tropical Rainforest
Tropical rainforests cover about 6% of the Earth's surface today, however they use to cover almost double that amount not to long ago. The rainforest is home to a very wide variety of colorful birds, insects, and mammals found nowhere else on earth. Tropical rainforest were named for their continuous rainfall throughout the year and hot temperatures due to their centralized location around the equator of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
Unlike other types of forests, the tropical rainforest can contain more than 300 species of trees some of which reach incredible heights (approximately 120 feet). The rainforest is divided into five layers: (1) emergent layer, (2) canopy, (3) middle layer, (4) shrub layer and (5) herbs. The emergent layer consists of scattered trees that reach higher than most of the other trees of the forest. The canopy below is formed by very close, equally sized fruit and flower producing trees that block much of the sunlight from getting through to the other layers. The middle layer contains smaller trees that are more evenly dispersed. The shrub layer is composed of woody bush-like shrubs and finally the herb layer, which receives little to now sunlight, contains small herbs that cover the forest ground. Because there are so many trees and plants within the rainforest, the soil is very poor in nutrients making the plants highly dependent on the rainfall that satisfy the nutrient demand.
The rainforest biome is very important because it houses the greatest variety of animals and plants found in any other land biome. For many decades human have been destroying the rainforest for wood and for cattle raising, however these practices have slowed down due to the loss of oxygen production and carbon dioxide emissions that have begun to dramatically effect the climate. Today, 50,000 square miles are being depleted yearly and at this rate it will only be about 30 years all rainforests are gone.