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| Sunday, 26 June 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Coniferous forest biome
Our focus today is not on Sinharaja which is a tropical forest like the Amazon, but on coniferous forests. At the world level, there are three main forest zones - the boreal, temperate and tropical. Each zone is really the largest scale of ecosystem on Earth. Do you know what an ecosystem of such large-scale is known as? A biome. Let's take a journey into the boreal or coniferous forest biome... The boreal zone lies in the northern latitudes, where the winter climate is harsh and cold. Climate is the key to this ecosystem. Coniferous trees such as pine, fir and larch are well adapted to withstand the cold, dry climate with its short growing season. These trees have thin needles instead of leaves which minimise the loss of moisture. As most conifers are evergreen and do not shed their leaves in the winter, they are able to make the most use of the short growing season. In the northern latitudes where these trees are found in abundance, the soil is often shallow so the conifers have adapted to it by having shallow root systems. The word conifer means 'cone bearing'.
The coniferous forests are usually dark and there is very little undergrowth. The plant and animal life in these forests is not as varied as that in forests in the warmer climates. Often large areas of forests are made up of only a few species of trees. But there are species of insects, birds and animals which are part of the coniferous forest ecosystem. Over 25 per cent of the world's coniferous forests are located in North America, and form the dominant forest type, covering an area of approximately 410 million hectares. The trees found in this area range from the striking Douglas firs of Oregon, to the giant redwoods of California, to the whispering aspens of Alaska. Canada has 10 per cent of the world's forest-covered land. The coniferous forest stretches across 6,000 km, from Newfoundland to British Columbia. Over the past decade or so, the world's coniferous forests have been at the centre of a number of environmental issues.Acid rain (and snow) is killing thousands of coniferous trees in North America and Europe. It is estimated that twelve million tonnes of pollutants are deposited by acid rain on the boreal forests of eastern Canada each year. Even though there are disputes about the causes of acid rain, which is generally accepted to be the result of industrial pollutants mixing with moisture in the air, the effects of acid rain are quite clear and disastrous, upsetting the balance of the world's large-scale ecosystems such as the boreal or coniferous biome.Read more on various ecosystems of the world and find out how man has been instrumental in destroying these natural places of great value in the name of development.The Junior Observer featured an article on Ecosystems of the world on January 16. Next: Animal life of the coniferous forests. **** What is an ecosystem? A community of plants and animals, together with their immediate environment is an ecosystem. It is a functioning unit on the Earth's surface, comprising both living organisms such as the biotic community of animals and plants, and non-living elements - the abiotic community including air, water, soil and rock. There are ecosystems in your own neighbourhood. Take a close look at your garden, a pond or a woodland area close by, where a different mixture of plant and animal life is found along with materials such as water and soil. You will notice that each area has a different ecosystem. However, these are small-scale ecosystems. The tropical rainforest of the Amazon Basin or the hot desert of the Sahara are large-scale ecosystems. If you study ecosystems you will realise that sunlight is the main source of energy which plays a significant role in the existence of almost all ecosystems. But, very few ecosystems which are entirely natural and free from the influence of humans exist today. More ecosystems are threatened today than ever before. The tropical rainforest of the Amazon Basin, the Savanna grasslands and our own Sinharaja forest are ecosystems that are under threat of destruction mostly by humans, today. We need to take measures to introduce some form of protection if the world's large-scale ecosystems are to be protected and preserved for future generations. Pix: Internet *** Fact file * Conifers which are mostly evergreen trees, with thin needles instead of broad leaves have no flowers or fruits. * They produce two kinds of cones - those which have pollen and those that are fertilized by wind-blown pollen. * Grass grows under the trees where the ground is dry and where there is enough sunlight. Mosses and ferns grow in shaded areas. * Balsam fir trees, columbines (flowering plant), black and blue spruce trees, poison ivy, larch trees, mushrooms, fireweed, giant sequoia trees, poison oak, aspen trees, ferns and mosses are the trees and plants found in these forests. * A spruce tree may keep its needles for 15 years while other species
may keep theirs for only two or three years. |
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Woodlands on a large scale are known as forests. Many of you may have
been to the most famous forest in our country, the Sinharaja forest, which
is declared a world heritage site due to the indigenous fauna and flora
found there. 
