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GCSE
EdExcel syllabus 1312
A3 The Natural World
4. Forest distribution and environments
Chapter 4 pages 79-81
Tomorrow's Geography Mike Harcourt and Steph Warren,
published by Hodder and Stoughton 0 340 79965 X
4.3 the global distribution of tropical rainforests, temperate deciduous and temperate coniferous forests (taiga).
The ways in which trees in tropical rainforests and taiga have adapted to the natural environment.
students should -
Map the distribution of the three forests.
Describe and explain the ways that tropical rainforests and coniferous forests have adapted to their environments.
Forest distribution and environments
(4 lessons)
Forest distribution
- Map the distribution of northern Coniferous forests - taiga, and tropical rainforests on a world map.
- Make a labelled diagram of a coniferous tree, indicating how it has adapted to its environment, both climatic and soils. New Wider World by Waugh page 212 or
- Make an A4 page, using the data and illustrations on this web page, to show how the northern Coniferous forests have adapted to their environment.
- Make a diagram of the rainforest cross-section, showing its divisions and labelled with its adaptations to both climate and soils.
Three photographs of pine trees in Dunwich Forest - illustrates the layout of the forest, in densely-packed stands, allowing little light to penetrate to the forest floor.
The bark of pine trees is thick and provides good insulation against winter cold and against summer fires.
The cones (coniferous) contain the seeds of the tree, which are expelled as paper-like scraps when the cone becomes mature. The needles resist drought/cold and fall to the ground to provide a mat of vegetation.
Look at Norway - very good on the effects of acid rain.
World Forest Distribution
- one of many maps from a great Polish site
WWF site on the forest habitat .. information above and below.
Coniferous forests are made up mainly of cone-bearing or coniferous trees, such as spruces, hemlocks, pines and firs. These trees have small needle-like leaves that stay green all year around, shallow root systems, and soft wood. Coniferous forests are found mainly in the northern hemisphere, although some are found in the southern hemisphere.
The northern coniferous forests are called taiga (Russian for swamp forest) or boreal forests. They cover vast areas of North America from the Pacific to the Atlantic, across northern Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and across Asia through Siberia and Mongolia to northern China and northern Japan.
Coniferous trees thrive where summers are short and cool and winters long and harsh, with heavy snowfall that can last as long as six months. The needle-like leaves have a waxy outer coat which prevents water loss in freezing weather and the branches are soft and flexible, so that snow slides off them. Larches are coniferous trees found in some of the coldest regions. They shed their leaves in winter.
Coniferous trees such as cypresses, cedars and redwoods are found in warmer regions.
Life on the forest floor
Even evergreen trees eventually shed their leaves and grow new ones. The needles fall to the forest floor and form a thick springy mat. Thread-like fungi help to break down or decompose the fallen needles. These fungi provide nutrients from the decomposed needles back to the roots of the trees. But because pine needles do not decompose easily, the soils are poor and acid.These forests grow under widely differing conditions of climate and soil -- from the tropics to the subarctic, and from heavy clays to poor sands. However, coniferous trees are especially conditioned to the winter climate. The cone-bearers have adapted best: spruces, larches, pines and firs. Cypresses, cedars and redwoods come next. The trees grow upright; the tallest of them can reach 20 metres in height. The trees are usually pyramid-shaped. Short, lateral branches grow quite close together but they are so flexible that the snow simply slides off. The leaves are small, hard and evergreen.
Little light penetrates the thick canopy of trees to reach the forest floor. Because of this gloom, only ferns and a few herbaceous plants grow here. Mosses, liverworts and lichens are also found on the forest floor and grow on tree trunks and branches. There are few flowering plants.
climate - 2. Depressions & anticyclones
climate - 3. European Climates
Forests - 4. Distribution & coniferous
Forests - 5. Tropical forest ecosystem
