Plants in the Taiga are typically coniferous trees and most conifers are evergreens. Conifers have: needle like leaves and are shaped like upside down cones.
Most coniferous trees have needle shaped leaves. The needle shape helps reduce the amount of water lost from the plant, as well as providing help for shedding snow. Needle leafs are an important caption as they donate collect much snow. Needles, like anything else can come in different shapes and sizes depending what tree they belong too. Quite often they are ling and skinny in shape. Spruce, Jack Pine and Larch are just some of the many types of trees that have needles. The larch is the only coniferous tree to lose its needles in the Winter, all the other conifers keep their evergreen needles all year long. You can read more about some of these trees in the 'plants' section under 'biotic factors'. Or click the button to the right. A lot of coniferous trees are also shaped like an upside down cone. This shape helps the snow fall from the tree easier, in a sliding motion so that the branches don't break as easily from the heavy weight of snow. In order for the coniferous trees to remain as healthy as possible, adaptions to reduce weight on the branches can help. If large amounts of snow collected on the branches it would weigh them down and they would eventually break off. This shape of the trees provides a smooth path for the snow to easily take and reduces the weight of snow for the tree to keep its branches all in one piece. Some animals in the Taiga will change fur colour depending on the season and animals also have wider paws to walk through the snow easier. Snowshoe Rabbits and Ermines are just a few example of animals that have fur that changes colour with season. These animals will have a pure white coat for the winter, with a black or a much darker coat in the summer. The change in coat colour can make an animal much harder to spot to their predators. In the Winter, the pure white coat will allow them to blend in with the snow. While, the darker coloured fur will make it easier for the snowshoe rabbit to blend in with dirt and rocks. This is the same as for animals such as the ermine and other similar animals. For more information about Ermines and Snowshoe Rabbits in the 'biotic features' section. Or click a button to the right. Some animals in the Taiga such as the Snowshoe Rabbit and the Lynx have wide paws, just like snowshoes. The wide paws distribute the animals weight more evenly to assist it in moving through the snow much easier. The hind legs of a Snowshoe Rabbit are also slightly larger and furrier, like their paws to provide a larger surface and extra support when walking though the snow. This is the reason behind the name, because of their paws acting like snowshoes. For more information about Snowshoe Rabbits, click the button on the right. |