The Taiga Biome

Taiga is the Russian word for forest and is the largest biome in the world. It stretches over Eurasia and North America. The taiga is located near the top of the world, just below the tundra biome. The winters in the taiga are very cold with only snowfall. The summers are warm, rainy, and humid. A lot of coniferous trees grow in the taiga. The taiga is also known as the boreal forest.

Here is some information about the temperatures and weather in the taiga. The average temperature is below freezing for six months out of the year. The winter temperature range is -54° to -1° C. The winters, as you can see, are really cold, with lots of snow. Temperature range in the summer gets as low as -7° C. The high in summer can be 25° C. The summers are mostly warm, rainy and humid. They are also very short with about 50 to 100 frost free days. The total precipitation in a year is 30 - 85 cm. The forms the precipitation comes in are rain, snow and dew. Most of the precipitation in the taiga falls as rain in the summer.

There are not a lot of species of plants in the taiga because of the harsh conditions. Not many plants can survive the extreme cold of the taiga winter. There are some lichens and mosses, but most plants are coniferous trees like pine, white spruce, hemlock and Douglas fir.

Coniferous trees are also known as evergreens. They have long, thin waxy needles. The wax gives them some protection from freezing temperatures and from drying out. Evergreens don't lose their leaves in the winter like deciduous trees. They keep their needles all year long.

The taiga is susceptible to many wildfires. Trees have adapted by growing thick bark. The fires will burn away the upper canopy of the trees and let sunlight reach the ground. New plants will grow and provide food for animals that once could not live there because there were only evergreen trees.

Animals of the taiga tend to be predators like the lynx and members of the weasel family like wolverines, bobcat, minks and ermine. They hunt herbivores like snowshoe rabbits, red squirrels and voles. Red deer, elk, and moose can be found in regions of the taiga where more deciduous trees grow. Many insect-eating birds come to the taiga to breed, feed and nest. They leave when the breeding season is over. Seed eaters like finches and sparrows, and omnivorous birds like crows stay all year long.

Exercise 5. Find information about any other biomes you like. Complete the same chart about these biomes. These web-links may be helpful:

http://www.worldbiomes.com

http://ths.sps.lane.edu/biomes/index1.html

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss5/biome

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes

Unit 1.3 Eco Problems

The words to be studied in 1.3:

soil грунт, земля, почва

littering мусор, сор

climate change изменение климата

deforestation вырубка леса, обезлесение

hunting охота

solution решение

to solve решать

tool (рабочий) инструмент, орудие, средство

to poach for браконьерствовать

oil spill разлив нефти на поверхности воды

nuclear wastes отходы атомной промышленности

car exhaust fumes выхлопные газы автомобиля

ozone depletion истощение озонового слоя

endangered animals животные, подвергающиеся опасности уничтожения

dumping industrial wastes сваливание промышленных отходов

Exercise 1. Read the list of problems. What problems are ecological? What problems are social or economic? Are some problems connected in any way?

Unemployment; littering; polluted air/soil/water; war; decreasing of population; deforestation; low income; hunger; illegal hunting (poaching for animals and birds); technical progress; oil spills; nuclear wastes.

When answering you can use:

I think that … is an ecological/a social/an economic problem.

I believe … and … can/cannot be connected.

Exercise 2. Read the list of other ecological problems. Match their definitions. One definition has no name. Can you guess it?

1) ozone depletion; 2) dumping industrial wastes; 3) car exhaust fumes.

a) gases ejected from a car engine as waste products;

b) destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer which protects the earth from ultraviolet radiation harmful to life;

c) throwing away of waste without environmental controls;

d) rain (also snow, fog) containing dangerous chemicals from car exhaust fumes, factories and plants.

Exercise 3. Read the text Ecological Problems – Definition. Find ecological problems which were not mentioned in exercises 1 and 2. What is the other name of eco problems?