The taiga is the largest terrestrial biome in the world. It’s the great conifer forest that stretches across the continents of North America and Eurasia, in the north, where few people live. The taiga is mostly located between 50 degrees north latitude and the Arctic Circle.
Components of the taiga
Most of Scandinavia is part of the taiga. Much of Russia, from St. Petersburg to the east coast of Siberia, is too. So are northern Japan, northern Mongolia, northern China, and northern Kazakhstan.
The northernmost taiga is a krummholz forest that shades into tundra. Here the trees are twisted and dwarfed by harsh arctic winds. They grow slowly, and cling to life. Trees, or stands of trees, are relatively widely spaced, with tough lichen and mosses between. South of that, the middle taiga is mostly a closed cover conifer forest. South again or near warm water, the warmest parts of the taiga shade into deciduous forest or grasslands.
Muskegs are also called bogs. Spread through the taiga in areas where water does not drain well, the bogs support plants that thrive in soggy, highly acid soil. A spongy muskeg is a kettle of plants in various stages of decomposition. They are dotted with ponds of every size.
Animals of the taiga
Insects thrive in the long days of the northern summer. Birds flock to the taiga to live on the insects each year. Some fly south for the winter, while others over-winter in the dark and cold. Bald eagles and other raptors soar above the forests while long eared owls and other owl species hunt at night, preying on birds and other forest dwellers.
Beavers make dams in the muskegs, and black bears make dens where they can. Caribou and moose are common. Bobcat and Canadian lynx are less common, because they are predators. The wolverine, a member of the weasel family, is tough, hardy, and well adapted to the taiga, but disruptions of the ecosystem have made it increasingly rare.
Plants of the taiga
The commonest trees of the taiga are spruce, hemlock, and fir. They grow in unvarying stands of thousands of trees, without the variety of southern forests. These trees are evergreen, meaning they hold their needles all year, so they are ready to turn sunlight to plant energy as soon as the weather begins to warm. Their branches often slope downwards to shed snow, and their conical form makes them less susceptible to storm damage.
The Siberian Spruce, Pecea ovobata, covers nearly six percent of the taiga, providing food for moose, timber for an important industry, and shelter for small animals. Its needles are well adapted, with minimal surface area and a waxy coating. They actually help insulate the tree. Douglas-fir, white fir, and white spruce are other trees of the taiga.
Tamarack trees are conifers that lose their leaves in fall. They stand extreme cold, and are often found at the tree line, where the taiga shades into the tundra.
Birch, poplar, and aspen are deciduous trees that drop their leaves to save energy and survive the winter. They are slower to get started in spring than evergreens, and take less advantage of the brief summer, but are less likely to lose branches weighed down by winter snows.
Plants of the muskegs include sphagnum moss, pitcher plants, and fungi. Pitcher plants trap insects to supplement their nutrient poor diet. Agaric mushrooms (not technically plants but set in a separate kingdom) are often parasitic or saprobic, obtaining nutrients from dead plants. Sphagnum moss can hold up to 30 times its weight in water, according to the US Forest Service. It is the key species of the muskegs. Dwarfed contorted trees are also seen in muskegs. One common species is the Pinus contorta, the shore pine.
The trackless taiga runs for miles without a break. Yet it is vulnerable. It has always been susceptible to wildfire, but climate change may make such fires more common. No one knows. The taiga may spread north into the tundra as the climate warms, but its southern boundaries may shrink, as the steppes and deciduous forests move north.
