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The Forest Biome. By: Anne, Jared, and Katie. Overview.
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The Forest Biome By: Anne, Jared, and Katie
Overview • Dominated by trees, the forest biome requires an abundance of soil water. Moist climates support the growth of forests. A warm season, if not a warm climate, is necessary for growth in the forest biome. There are six formations within the forest biome.
Low Latitude Rainforest They occur near the equator, within the area bounded by latitudes 23.5 degrees N and 23.5 degrees S. One of the major characteristics of tropical forests is their distinct seasonality: winter is absent, and only two seasons are present (rainy and dry). The length of daylight is 12 hours and varies little.
Low Latitude Rainforest • Temperature is on average 20-25° C and varies little throughout the year: the average temperatures of the three warmest and three coldest months do not differ by more than 5 degrees. • Precipitation is evenly distributed throughout the year, with annual rainfall exceeding 2000 mm. • Soil is nutrient-poor and acidic. Decomposition is rapid and soils are subject to heavy leaching. • Canopy in tropical forests is multilayered and continuous, allowing little light penetration. • Flora is highly diverse: one square kilometer may contain as many as 100 different tree species. Trees are 25-35 m tall, with buttressed trunks and shallow roots, mostly evergreen, with large dark green leaves. Plants such as orchids, bromeliads, vines (lianas), ferns, mosses, and palms are present in tropical forests. • Fauna include numerous birds, bats, small mammals, and insects.
Monsoon Forest The Monsoon forests are different because they are deciduous forests and dry up during droughts and the dry season. The Monsoon forest typically has an open canopy, and are spaced further apart than Rainforests. This promotes vegetation on the forest floor.
Subtropical Evergreen Forest This forest is associated with moist subtropical climates. Vegetation consists of broadleaf and needleleaf evergreen trees.
Blah blah blah, wah wah wah • The Midlatitude Deciduous Forest • Eastern North America and Western Europe are where this native type of forest is found. Tall, broadleaf trees such as oak, beech, birch, hickory, walnut, maple, elm and ash are common to the midlatitude deciduous forest. Hemlock and other needleleaf pines will take over these forests once the larger deciduous trees have been cleared for lumber. The majority of this type of forest is found in the moist continental climate, although in Western Europe the climate is marine west-coast. This forest also occurs in Asia as a belt between the boreal forest to the north and steppe region to the south. In Patagonia, near the southern tip of South America, is a relatively small deciduous forest. There are deciduous forests located in New Zealand, and southeastern Australia. The average annual temperature in a deciduous forest is 50° F. The average rainfall is 30 to 60 inches per year. The soil of the deciduous forest is incredibly fertile due to the fallen leaves and ensuing nutrients. The world’s deciduous forests have been overtaken by agriculture because of their fertile soil. • The midlatitude deciduous forest is stratified by layers of canopy and supports animal life in each of the layers. The ground layer contains lichen, club mosses, and true mosses. The largest concentration of organisms is supported by the ground layer, due to a more uniform environment with regard to humidity and temperature. Soil invertabrates (insects, snails, etc.) support burrowing rodents (ground squirrels, mice, shrews) and some larger burrowing mammals (foxes, woodchucks,and rabbits.) Most of the larger mammals (various species of deer depending on the location of the forest) eat the ground and shrub layer vegetation. The next layer contains herbs such as ferms, the third layer contains shrubs including mountain laurel and huckleberries. The fourth layer is dominated by saplings. Well-fed smaller mammals are eaten by larger mammals and birds of prey. Birds live in various canopies depending on what they eat and how they nest. Predators other than bears include lynx, wildcats, wolves, the aforementioned fox, weasels, and birds of prey including owls.
The next blah blah wah wah • Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that has hard leaves and short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem). The word comes from the Greek sclero (hard) and phyllon (leaf). Sclerophyllous plants occur in all parts of the world but are most typical of Australia. They are also prominent in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome that covers the Mediterranean Basin, Californian woodlands, Chilean Matorral, and the Cape Province of South Africa. • In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation. Most areas of the Australian continent able to support woody plants are occupied by sclerophyll communities as forests, savannas or heathlands. Common plants include the Proteaceae (Grevilleas, Banksias and Hakeas), tea-trees, Acacias, Boronias, Eucalypts. • As a rule of thumb, the Mediterranean Basin is the Old World region where olive trees grow. • Dry sclerophyll forests (and woodlands) typically consist of multi-aged stands of eucalypts and have an understorey dominated by hard leafed shrubs, grasses, sedges or bracken fern. • LEAVES OF A EUCALYPT OR GUMTranspiration, or loss of water through the pores of the leaves, is further reduced by the fact that the leaves hang vertically, avoiding the sun in the hottest part of the day. Even their light, silvery color reflects sunlight and helps keep the leaves cool. The trees grow in areas of poor soil and little water, but they are so well adapted to their conditions that they still manage to gather and transpire about 240 liters of water every day.
The last blah blah wah wah • Wet Eucalypt Forest • Wet sclerophyll forest has a tall eucalypt overstorey and a dense understorey of ferns, soft broad leaved shrubs such as and musk, blanket bush, dogwood and small trees. • This subclassification of sclerophyll forest exists only in Australia and Tasmania and is so classified due to the dominant tree, the eucalyptus. A koala bear’s diet is primarily eucalyptus leaves.
