Exploring the coniferous (taiga / boreal) forest biome.
Video
Finland in Northern Europe is the home of saunas and traditionally they are heated using wood from trees like these.
I am here in a forest in the Nuuksio National Park. It’s a coniferous forest, also known as a taiga or boreal forest.
It’s a terrestrial biome found in the temperate regions of the world at around 60 degrees north of the equator. Other countries like Japan, the USA, Canada, Russia and other parts of Scandinavia, also have coniferous biomes, like Finland.
It’s winter and the seasons tend to be similar to those in the UK: usually mild, short, warm summers and long, cold winters with adequate rainfall. This is known as a cool temperate climate.
The forest is dense and made up of spruce and pine trees, that grow closely together to try and create warmth and survive the cold conditions. Many of these trees are known as evergreens, as they don’t lose their leaves or needles in winter.
This is a Scots pine - you can tell from its distinctive bark, its height and its shape. The branches grow really close together and they’re quite short. In winter when it snows, it just slides off, because the branches are very flexible.
These spruce and pine trees also have very thick bark to cope with the cold weather and the thin, waxy needles reduce water loss. Their thick, straight, strong trunks make excellent plywood and lumber for building.
As you can see, not much light can penetrate through the canopy. On the forest floor only a few herbaceous plants can grow and survive the low light conditions - like mosses, lichen and ferns.
The understory floor is covered in pine needles. And while it makes it nice and spongy to walk on these pine needles don’t decay easily, which means that the soil is poor and acidic.
Lots of animals inhabit this coniferous forest, including the Siberian flying squirrel - and what a looker it is, with those big black eyes! It is a shy, nocturnal animal and it doesn’t hibernate for the whole winter. Instead, it will occasionally sleep for several days. It evolved to be able to glide swiftly through the trees due to a flap of skin between its front and rear legs. It can glide from tree to tree across distances of over 100 metres.
Reindeer are also built for this ecosystem with their antlers, thick warm coats and strong sense of smell, that helps them to find food hidden beneath the snow.
This is a wood lemming. It’s tiny and they only grow up to about 8 cm in length. They don’t hibernate over winter and they love to feed on vegetation buried under the snow. Wood lemmings don’t live very long - around one or two years - and that’s due to the harsh conditions here.
The amazing adaptations by plants and animals have enabled them to not only survive but flourish in this very special environment.
Right! Well, I’m off to go relax in the sauna. You know what they say: ‘When in Rome…’ or, should I say, ‘When in Finland…’
Video summary
Download/print a transcript of the video.
Wildlife presenter Ferne Corrigan visits Finland to learn how plants and animals adapt to living in coniferous forests.
Ferne is in the Nuuksio National Park in Finland, where she describes the location of coniferous or taiga forests around the world and what the climate is like.
Ferne focuses on the adaptations of Scot’s Pine and Spruce trees, and the effect pine needles have had on both plant life and the soil fertility.
Ferne also looks at the adaptations that the Siberian flying squirrel, reindeer and wood lemming have made to survive in this biome.
This clip is from the series Ecosystems and Biomes.
Teacher notes
Download/print the Teacher Notes for this episode (pdf).
Before watching the video
Look at a map of the distribution of the coniferous forests. Ask students to look for a pattern in the distribution and discuss why the coniferous forest is located where it is.
Ask students about the types of animals that they think might live in the coniferous forest and what type of climate they live in. Students could make predictions, which they could then add to once they have watched the film.
Introduce key terms such as:
Taiga: A coniferous forest found at high latitudes.
Lumber: Wood cut into logs ready to be sold.
Herbaceous: Plants such as mosses, lichens and ferns which have a non-woody stem and die back to the ground each year.
Nocturnal: Something that sleeps during the day and is more active at night.
During the video
You may wish to stop at relevant points during this short film to pose questions and check understanding or wait until the end. Useful questions might include:
- Where are coniferous forests found?
- What type of climate does the coniferous forest have?
- What type of trees are found in the coniferous forest?
- What adaptations do trees in the coniferous forest have?
- What types of plants are found at the ground layer of a coniferous forest?
- What is the soil like in the coniferous forest?
- What types of animals live in the coniferous forest?
- What adaptations do animals in the coniferous forest have?
- Why do some animals hibernate in the temperate forest?
After watching
Ask students to look back at their predictions, were they right about what they thought they would see in the coniferous forest? Students could complete a spider diagram to note down the basic information about each of the coniferous forest characteristics: vegetation, climate, animals and location.
Give students an image of the Scots Pine and ask them to annotate it with their adaptations. Discuss with students how those adaptations enable the plants to survive in the climate of the coniferous forest. Students could do the same with one of the animals living in the coniferous forest such as the wood lemming or a reindeer. Students could then design their own animal or plant that is adapted to survive in the coniferous forest.
Discuss with students how they think humans would use the coniferous forests. Online mapping could be used to look at areas of settlement in coniferous forests.
Where next?
Compare the coniferous forest to a contrasting biome such as the tropical rainforest or the temperate savanna.
Students could compare:
- Animals
- Vegetation
- Climate
- Human uses
Students could also look at groups of people that live in areas of coniferous forests.
Curriculum notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching Geography at KS3 and GCSE.
This topic appears in OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC KS4/GCSE in England, CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland, Progression Step 4/5/GCSE in Wales, and SQA National 4/5 in Scotland.
More videos from this series
The wildlife and ecosystem of temperate savannas. video
Exploring grasslands to discover how plants, animals and people have adapted to the temperate savanna biome.
How animals have adapted to live in the Italian Alps. video
How plants, animals and people have adapted to an Alpine mountain region of Italy.
How animals have adapted to live in the polar biome. video
How animals have adapted to survive the freezing conditions of the polar ecosystem.
