Delicious Deciduous Forests

MATT DERIGGI & IAN JEFFERS

Description
Temperate deciduous forests are located in the mid-latitude

areas which means that they are found between the polar regions and the tropics.
The deciduous forest regions are exposed to warm and cold

air masses, which cause this area to have four seasons. The temperature varies widely from season to season with cold winters and hot, wet summers.
The average yearly temperature is about 10C. The areas in

which deciduous forests are located get about 750 to 1,500 mm of precipitation spread fairly evenly throughout the year.

Location Overview
Deciduous biomes are located primarily in the

eastern half of the United States, Canada, Europe, parts of Russia, China, and Japan.

World Distribution
Temperate forests are found in the eastern 1/3rd of North

America, in western Europe, in China, Korea, Japan and Australia.

There is also a bit down in the southern tip of South

America.
The forest is shifted to the north in Europe; this is a result of

the warmer temperatures there as a result of the Atlantic that takes warm water from the Caribbean and equatorial Atlantic and sends it north - Great Britain is at a latitude where one would expect taiga to predominate instead of temperate forest if it weren't for the effect of the Atlantic Conveyor.

Temperate Deciduous Forests

They are plant communities distributed in North and South

America, Asia, Europe and for cultivation purposes in Oceania.

They have formed under climatic conditions which have great

seasonable temperature variability with growth occurring during warm summers and leaf drop in autumn and dormancy during cold winters.
These seasonally distinctive communities have diverse life

forms that are impacted greatly by the seasonality of their climate, mainly temperature and precipitation rates. regions.

Tropical and subtropical deciduous forest

These biomes have developed in response not to seasonal temperature variations but to seasonal rainfall patterns. During prolonged dry periods the foliage is dropped to conserve water and prevent death from drought. Leaf drop is not seasonally dependent as it is in temperate climates, and can occur any time of year and varies by region of the world.

Even within a small local area there can be variations in the

timing and duration of leaf drop; different sides of the same mountain and areas that have high water tables or areas along streams and rivers can produce a patchwork of leafy and leafless trees.

Climate
The average temperature of the forest is about 50 degrees F. The average amount of rainfall in the forest is 30 to 60 inches a

year.
As the seasons change, so do the colors of the leaves of the

deciduous. During the winter months water is generally not available to keep the leaves of some plants alive. The leaves of some plants fall off and grow back in the spring.
Those plants, like evergreens, keep their leaves during the winter

have special adaptations to stay alive. You can learn more about the vegetation of deciduous biomes.

Animals
Precipitation in the temperate deciduous forest is spread

throughout the year. During the winter months it is usually frozen and unavailable to animals. Animals living within this biome must adjust to cold winters and hot summers. Leaves generally fall off in the fall, leaving animals with less cover to hide themselves from predators. Also in the deciduous forests are such animals as:

Black Bear Brown Bear Fox Deer Raccoons Squirrels

Vegetation
In the deciduous forest there are many flowers like the

passion berry and the blue lily. There are many other flowers but those are some of the main ones.
The Deciduous forest does not have much vegetation but

there are many trees that contain outrageous amounts of flowers.

Animals need these trees because they provide shelter and

some use them for food and even water from the leaves.
The trees adapt to this forest by having thick bark barriers on

the trees to keep the animals out and the trees from dying.

Threats
The biggest threat to temperate forests is once
again development and agriculture.
Other threats to the forest come from logging; most of the

trees here are hardwoods, which means they have a denser wood than most of the coniferous trees. It also means they may grow more slowly, which means more pressure to cut the trees to maintain volume at the sawmill.
Acid Rain from coal-burning is another threat, as is global

warming, which in particular may change rainfall patterns.

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gOyBDzRIoI

Work Cited Page

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Experiments/Bio

me/biotemperate.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deciduous http://ths.sps.lane.edu/biomes/deciduous3/deciduo us3.html http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/tempded.ht m