Environmental Sciences set 3

Question 1

What is taiga?

Answer 1

Taiga is boreal forest

Question 2

How much of the earth is taiga/boreal forest?

Answer 2

11% is the biome of boreal forest

Question 3

What is special about taiga?

Answer 3

It is the world’s largest terrestrial (on land) biome

Question 4

Where is boreal forest located?

Answer 4

50-60 degrees north

Question 5

how are taiga and boreal forest different?

Answer 5

Taiga tends to be the northern area of the biome, and boreal forest is the southern part of the biome

Question 6

Which part of the boreal biome is closer to tundra?

Answer 6

the northern area ‘taiga’ is closer to tundra

Question 7

What is the boreal forest known for?

Answer 7

Boreal forest is known for its coniferous (cone bearing evergreen) trees and lots of lakes and rivers, bogs and marshes

Question 8

What is the soil like in boreal forests?

Answer 8

the soil is not fertile (not good for growing plants)

Question 9

Where are most nutrients in the boreal soil?

Answer 9

nutrients are at the surface of the soil in boreal biome

Question 10

What do evergreen needles do to the soil?

Answer 10

they make the soil acidic

Question 11

What is boreal biome weather like?

Answer 11

21 C in the summer to -54 in the winter, 200-600 mm of rain, and rarely droughts

Question 12

How are plants adapted to this biome?

Answer 12

plants are adapted to cold and low nutrients, they have a shallow root system,

Question 13

What is mycorrhizal fungi?

Answer 13

this is a fungus that helps the boreal plants to get nutrients

Question 14

What does the southern boreal forest look like?

Answer 14

Thick trees with a closed canopy (where the branches all meet). In clearings there are shrubs and wild flowers.

Question 15

What is usually on the forest floor in a boreal forest?

Answer 15

Moss tends to cover the forest floor

Question 16

How is a more northern boreal forest different than one in the south?

Answer 16

The northern forests have trees more spread apart.

Question 17

What is lichen woodland?

Answer 17

Lichen woodland is where the trees are spread apart

Question 18

What are the boreal biome trees?

Answer 18

spruce, firs, hemlock, larch, pine, aspen, birch, willow (must be where we live!)

Question 19

How are larch trees unusual?

Answer 19

They are found a lot in Siberia and their needles turn yellow and fall off in the winter

Question 20

How are animals adapted to the boreal biome environment?

Answer 20

they can live in cold, caribou, reindeer, moose,elk, bison, lynx, wolf, black and brown bears, beavers, racoons and voles.

Question 21

How do we know that humans have lived in boreal forests for a long time?

Answer 21

cave art from thousands of years ago

Question 22

Why is human impact on the boreal forest increasing?

Answer 22

More people are living in the forest areas and using the forest as a source of natural resources, trees, oil and gas

Question 23

How will climate change affect boreal forest biomes

Answer 23

warmer, drier conditions will cause trees to die and insects to increase.

Question 24

What is the Canadian Boreal Initiative?

Answer 24

It is a group of people working to save the forests and offer sustainable solutions to keep them strong

Question 25

What is arctic tundra?

Answer 25

Arctic tundra is the northern-most biome covering lands north of the arctic circle up to the polar ice cap and as south as the Hudson’s Bay

Question 26

How big is Arctic tundra biome?

Answer 26

1/5 of the earth’s surface is arctic tundra, 5 million acres

Question 27

Where does alpine tundra happen?

Answer 27

on mountains

Question 28

where does Antarctic tundra happen?

Answer 28

in Antarctica and surrounding islands

Question 29

What is arctic tundra like as a biome?

Answer 29

vast, dry, rocky, lack of trees

Question 30

What does tundra mean?

Answer 30

tunturi means treeless plain

Question 31

What is an important characteristic of tundra?

Answer 31

the perma frost layer – permanently frozen soil starts within a meter of the surface even in the summer

Question 32

how does permafrost affect roots

Answer 32

roots cannot extend into the soil very far, so trees are prevented from growing

Question 33

Where is the organic matter in tundra biome?

Answer 33

deposits of peat (decayed sphagnum moss) and humus (organic matter) still have carbon

Question 34

What is the temperature range in tundra?

Answer 34

very cold from 15.5 C in the summer to -90 C in the winter, summers are much shorter than winter.

Question 35

How is sunlight different in the arctic tundra?

Answer 35

Winter almost 24 hrs darkness, in the summer almost 24 hours of light

Question 36

How much precipitation falls in the arctic tundra?

Answer 36

200-600 mm of precipitation, but due to low temperatures not much evaporates so the soil is very soggy in the summer and frozen in the winter.

Question 37

What kinds of plants grow in the arctic tundra?

Answer 37

Herbaceous (non-woody) plants such as moss, grass, liverwort and lichen

Question 38

What kinds of trees live in the tundra?

Answer 38

If they are there, the trees are dwarf varieties such as willow, they are short and spread to the ground. This is a plant adaption to high winds

Question 39

How are plants adapted to this biome?

Answer 39

short growing seasons, go dormant (slow down life) in the winer, and have most of their biomass (mass of their living parts) below ground

Question 40

How are animals adapted to the arctic tundra biome environment?

Answer 40

Animals tend to be brown in summer and white in winter, birds leave in the winter (migrate) very few insects, but those that are there are huge…mosquitos

Question 41

What is human impact on tundra?

Answer 41

Until recently, very little, but now they have found oil up there, people are moving there.

Question 42

How does global warming affect tundra?

Answer 42

higher temperatures melt sea ice and permafrost, destroying habitats for plants and animals

Question 43

What is the Boreal Research Institute?

Answer 43

The Boreal Research Institute studies ways to help save the forest and reclaim land that was used for oil and gas or forestry.