The Taiga Biome Allyson Regehr
The taiga, or snow forest, is the world's largest biome. It is largely characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. Due to its subarctic climate not much grows in the taiga except trees and lichens that grow on said trees.
While there may be few plants that grow in the Taiga, there are a multitude of animals. Among these animals are:
There are three major decomposers that exist in the subarctic climate of the taiga, they are sowbugs, honey fungus, and common bacterial nematodes.
Of course, with so many diverse and interesting animals there are many diverse relationships that take place. Some examples are:
Predator Prey: The gray wolf that hunts the mule deer for food
Scavengers: Scavengers like the mule deer or pine marten must search for their food.
Symbiosis (Mutualism): The tree moss that grows on the trees in the taiga helps both the trees and the moss by protecting the tree from the outside world and it provides the moss a place to live.
Collectively these animals live in the frozen lands that make up taiga's around the world.
You would think that since the taiga is so cold, there must not be much of it or you'd know more about it, but you'd actually be wrong in the assumption. The taiga is actually the world's largest terrestrial biome, covering most of Canada, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and extreme northern parts of the United States.
The physical barriers of the taiga very much vary from one taiga to another. Take the taiga in Russia for example, it is bordered by both an ocean and a mountain range. Obviously the weather provides the most constant barrier. Since it's so cold the soil below is in a constant permafrost, which prevents water from draining. This makes water pool up and create bogs.
The biotic factors that limit this biome are majorly based around the amount of evolution that has to take place to live in this biome. To be able to survive organisms must be able to withstand the cold and break through things that may be extremely hard so that they can get to food and water.
There are three major abiotic factors of the taiga biome, those being extreme temperatures, hard soil, and constant very heavy snowfall. These three conditions alone make it very hard for anything to survive for long in the taiga if it is not specifically adapted for extremely cold conditions.