Copy of Deciduous Forest Biome

Deciduous Forest Biome

Plant Adaptations

• In the spring, deciduous trees begin producing thin, broad, light-weight leaves.
• This type of leaf structure easily captures the sunlight needed for food production (photosynthesis).

Plant Life

• In the Fall, the tree cuts off the supply of water to the leaves and seals off the area between the leaf stem and the tree trunk.
• The leaf is unable to continue producing chlorophyll.

Trees of this biome include Maple, Oak, Hickory, Beech, and Evergreens, such as Hemlock, Spruce, and Fir.

A deciduous forest typically has three to four, and sometimes five, layers of plant growth.

2.

1.

The second layer (canopy) of plant growth includes saplings and species of trees that are naturally shorter in stature.

Tall deciduous trees make up the top layer (emergent) of plant growth, and they create a moderately dense forest canopy.

4.

Geographic Location

Forest herbs, such as wildflowers and berries, and shrubs make up a fourth layer.

Animal Adaptations

3.

Only a small percentage of light gets through the canopy so understory vegetation typically consists of trees stunted through lack of light.

5.

A fifth layer would include mosses and lichens that grow on tree trunks. This layer is called the forest floor.

Migration and hibernation are two adaptations used by the animals in this biome. While a wide variety of birds migrate, many of the mammals hibernate during the cold winter months when food is in short supply.

Animal Life

Mammals commonly found include bears, raccoons, squirrels, skunks, wood mice, and, in the U.S., deer. Bobcats, mountain lions, timber wolves, and coyotes, and elk are also natural residents but they're endangered.

Climograph

• A forest is an area of land covered with trees. Forests grow where temperatures remain above 0°C for at least three months a year and where yearly average rainfall is at least moderate.
• Forests in the Deciduous Biome have an average of 100 cm of precipitation a year.
• There is no clearly defined rainy or dry season. There are a wide variety of trees found here. The deciduous trees shed their leaves in the fall.

Example Food Web

Decomposers: An organism that primarily feeds on dead organisms or the waste from living organisms

• Decomposers are the garbage men of the animal kingdom; they take all the dead animals and plants (consumers and decomposers) and break them down into their nutrient components so that plants can use them to make more food.

Bear

Timber Wolves

Consumers: any organism that can’t make its own food.

• Consumers have to feed on producers or other consumers to survive. Deer are herbivores, which means that they only eat plants (Producers). Bears are omnivores and are another example of consumers.

Forest Snake

Racoon

Squirrel

Deer

Producers: Photosynthesizing organisms:

• Producers are any kind of green plant. Green plants make their food by taking sunlight and using the energy to make sugar.
• The plant uses this sugar, also called glucose to make many things, such as wood, leaves, roots, and bark.

Saplings

Oak Tree

Possible Solutions

Environmental Issues

People live too close to the deciduous forest

Acid Rain- Caused by industrial and vehicle emissions. Damages leaves and causes them to produce less seeds.

• Recycle. It reduces the cut down of trees.
• Use both faces of the paper.
• Drive less, more carpool reduces acid rain.
• More and more industries now have to re-plant twice as many trees after cutting them down.

Cutting of Trees- Trees cut for timber and to clear land for agriculture. It leaves thousands of species of animals without a home.

Introduction of Non-native Organisms- Upsets the balances of the ecosystem, by competing for food with native organisms.

Vocabulary

Clear cutting:

• The process of removing all of the trees from an area of land.
• Clearing land for use in agriculture and clear cut logging have destroyed and continue to destroy millions of trees in the deciduous forest!

Work Cited

Selective Cutting :

• The process of thinning the forest by cutting and removing only middle-aged or mature trees.
• Selective cutting is not recommended for timber management of southern bottom land forests for oaks and hickories, which are shade-intolerant species.

• L., Michael. "Earth Floor: Biomes." Earth Floor: Biomes. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

• "Tips on Using Excel for Climatographs." Excel Tips. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013

• J., Marietta. "Climate:." Temperate Deciduous Forest. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.