Information about deciduous forests. Temperate climates

According to the generally accepted classification, plants are divided into coniferous and deciduous. The latter include those that shed their green cover at a certain time. Typically, such trees grow during the spring and summer growing season, change color throughout the fall, and then shed their leaves. This is how they adapt to the winter cold.

There is a lot growing in deciduous forests different types trees, shrubs and herbs. Most of them are representatives broadleaf plants, such as oak, maple, beech, Walnut, hornbeam and chestnut. Small ones are also often found here deciduous trees- birch, poplar, linden, alder and aspen.

There are a few various types crops such as mountain laurel, azaleas and mosses that live in the shady forest where it reaches a small amount of sunlight.

Deciduous forests of Russia

On the territory of Russia, deciduous forests occupy a narrow strip between the southern steppes and northern zone mixed forests. This wedge stretches from the Baltic republics to the Urals and beyond, to Novosibirsk and the Mongolian border. This zone has a warm and humid climate.

IN northern regions The most common species are common oak, linden, ash, maple, and elm. In Western and southern parts the variety of species increases due to hornbeam, birch bark, nuts, sycamore, cherry, and poplar.

Most of the secondary forests in this area are pure birch stands, very popular among Russian landscape painters. You can’t count the variety of shrubs and herbs that the area is rich in deciduous forests Russia.

Soils

Brown soil predominates in the bulk of deciduous forests. This is very fertile land. In autumn, leaves fall from the trees, decompose and help give the soil its nutrients. Earthworms help mix nutrients, enriching it with humus.

Tree roots go deep into the ground, obtaining nutrients during the growing season. However, with the onset of autumn, the foliage falls off and enriches the soil with useful microelements.

Deciduous forest zone

Deciduous forests are located between the subtropics and the mixed and coniferous forests. This is somewhere between 500-600 and 430-460 latitudes. The reflection of latitudes is mirrored for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Regardless, the world's largest deciduous forests are usually concentrated in the North. You will meet them in Europe, North America, parts of Russia, China and Japan.

IN Southern Hemisphere There are also deciduous forests, although they are usually much smaller and extend across New Zealand, south-eastern Australia and South Asia. IN South America there are two large areas of deciduous forest in southern Chile and Paraguay. It should be noted that vegetation and animal world they are usually different from life in the north.

Deciduous forests tend to thrive in hilly areas with certain types soil.

Climate

As mentioned above, unlike conifers, deciduous forests are defined by the fact that their trees lose their leaves once a year with the changing seasons, it goes without saying that the climate of most of them is not extreme, but varies depending on the time of year. These areas will have four clearly defined periods, with distinct biological processes- foliage changes color in autumn, falls in winter and grows in spring. Deciduous forests are also sometimes called temperate and broadleaf, indicating that they are often found in areas temperate climate. It is this that provides pronounced seasonality, snow cover in winter and a relatively stable amount of annual precipitation.

average temperature in the warm seasons it is +15 C, and the lower temperature, as a rule, drops below 0 C. The amount of precipitation reaches 500-800 mm. These rates may vary depending on geographic location since, as mentioned above, deciduous forests can be found throughout the world.

For the normal functioning of deciduous forests, the warm period must be at least 120 days, but in some areas it reaches 250 days a year without frost.

The weather in a deciduous forest depends on the weather in the region. Colder winters tend to increase the diversity of vegetation species.

Forests temperate zone are forests growing in temperate regions, such as eastern North America, Western and Central Europe and Northeast Asia. Temperate forests occur at latitudes between approximately 25° and 50° in both hemispheres. They have a temperate climate and a growing season that lasts from 140 to 200 days per year. Precipitation in temperate forests is generally distributed evenly throughout the year. The temperate forest canopy mainly consists of broadleaf trees. In the polar regions, temperate forests give way.

Temperate forests first appeared about 65 million years ago, during the beginning of Cenozoic era. At that time, global temperatures dropped and forests began to emerge in more temperate areas above the equator. In these regions, temperatures were not only cooler, but also showed seasonal variations. Plants have evolved and adapted to climate change.

Today, in temperate forests that are closer to the tropics (where the climate has not changed as much), trees and other plant species more closely resemble the vegetation of . Temperate evergreen forests can be found in these regions. In areas where climate change has been more intense, deciduous trees have evolved (they shed their leaves each year when the weather turns cold as an adaptation, allowing the trees to withstand seasonal temperature fluctuations in those regions).

Main characteristics of temperate forests

The following are the main characteristics of temperate forests:

grow in temperate regions (at latitudes between approximately 25°-50° in both hemispheres);
experiences different seasons, with a growing season that lasts from 140 to 200 days;
The forest canopy consists primarily of deciduous trees.

Classification of temperate forests

Temperate forests are divided into following places a habitat:

Temperate deciduous forests - grow in eastern North America, central Europe and parts of Asia. They are characterized by temperature fluctuations from -30° to +30° C throughout the year. They receive about 750-1500 mm of precipitation per year. Vegetation deciduous forests includes a variety of broadleaf tree species (for example, oak, beech, maple, hickory, etc.), as well as various shrubs, perennial grasses, mosses and mushrooms. Temperate deciduous forests are found in mid-latitudes, between the polar regions and the tropics.
Temperate evergreen forests - consist mainly of evergreen trees that renew their foliage throughout the year. Temperate evergreen forests occur in eastern North America and the Basin Mediterranean Sea. They also include subtropical broadleaf evergreen forests in the Southeast United States, southern China, and eastern Brazil.

Some of the animals that inhabit temperate forests include:

The eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) is a species of chipmunk that lives in the deciduous forests of eastern North America. Eastern chipmunks are small rodents with red-brown fur adorned with dark, light, and brown stripes that run along the animal's back.
The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is a species of deer that inhabits the deciduous forests of eastern North America. White-tailed deer have a brown coat and a white tail.
The American black bear (Ursus americanus) is one of three species of bears that live in North America, the other two being and. Of these species, black bears are the smallest and most timid.
Robin (Erithacus rebecula) is a small bird from the flycatcher family (muscicapidae). The robins' range is quite extensive and includes: North-West Africa from Morocco to eastern Tunisia and the Mediterranean coast, as well as most of the Eurasian continent.

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They occupy a significantly smaller area in the forest zone than the taiga. They grow in the west of the European part of Russia and in the south of the Far East.

In Siberia, there are no mixed or broad-leaved forests: there the taiga directly transforms into the steppe.

Mixed forests are more than 90% composed of coniferous and small-leaved species. These are mainly spruce and pine with an admixture of birch and aspen. There are few broad-leaved species in mixed forests. Broad-leaved forests consist mainly of oak, linden, maple, elm, and in the southwestern regions - ash, hornbeam, and beech. The same breeds, but local species, are also represented in the Far East, where, in addition, Manchurian walnuts, grapes and vines grow.

The northern boundary of the zone lies approximately 57° N. sh., above which the oak disappears, and the southern one adjoins northern border forest-steppe, where spruce disappears. This territory forms a kind of triangle with vertices in Leningrad, Sverdlovsk, Kyiv.

Mixed and broad-leaved forests are located mainly on the East European Plain, which has a flat, low-lying surface interrupted by a number of hills. Here are the sources, watersheds and basins largest rivers European part of Russia: Volga, Dnieper, Western Dvina. On river floodplains, forests alternate with lush meadows, and on watersheds - with plowed fields. Flat lowlands due to proximity groundwater and limited drainage in some places are very swampy (Polesie, Meshchera). In addition to forest swamps and lakes, in some areas there are sandy soils, covered with pine. In forest clearings and swamps, many berry bushes and herbs grow.

Compared to taiga, the climate of mixed and deciduous forests is less severe. Winter is not so long and frosty, summer is warm. The average temperature in January is -10...-11°С, and in July + 18...+19°С. Average annual precipitation is from 800 to 400 mm. In general, the climate is transitional from maritime to continental in the direction from west to east. If in the Baltic states and Belarus the proximity of the sea smoothes out the difference between the air temperature of summer and winter, then in the Vyatka and Kama basin it becomes significant. In summer the air here warms up to +40°C, and in winter frosts reach -45°C. In all seasons of the year, winds carrying moisture from the Atlantic Ocean prevail.

The snow cover is less thick than in the taiga, with a layer from 20-30 (in the west) to 80-90 cm (in the east). It lasts on average 140-150 days a year, in the southern regions - 30-60 days.

With the onset of winter, life in forests, especially broad-leaved ones, comes to a standstill. Majority insectivorous birds flies away to warmer climes, and some of the animals fall into hibernation or dream ( the bats, hedgehogs, dormouse, badgers, bears). In spring and summer, all tiers of forests are inhabited by various animals.

Deciduous forests are located along the southern edge of the forest zone.

Among deciduous trees, there are broad-leaved trees with large leaves (oak, maple, ash, beech, elm, elm, etc.) and small-leaved trees (birch, aspen). The former are relatively shade-tolerant, so their plantings are shady. The latter need a significant amount of light, and their forests are light. Obviously, due to this attitude to light, broad-leaved species gain the upper hand in the fight against small-leaved species and form the most stable phytocenoses.

Of the broad-leaved forests, the most widespread in the USSR are oak forests, or oak groves. Floristically, they are richer than coniferous forests; they almost always contain admixtures of ash, linden, Norway maple, elm, elm, and in the west - beech and hornbeam; in the second tier there are wild apple trees and maples; the undergrowth usually consists of hazel or hazel. Since oak forests belong to ancient phytocenoses that formed in the tertiary time, develop in a mild climate and on rich soils, they have complex structure: they usually have two tree layers, two shrub layers, and the grass cover also falls into three or four layers. The grass cover includes grasses with wide leaf blades, sedges, various dicotyledons, etc. When they die, all these plants form a thick dead layer that interferes with the development of the moss carpet, which is usually absent in oak forests.

In the spring, while the oak leaves have not yet unfolded, numerous oak forest ephemerals develop, forming a colorful carpet of yellow anemone, lilac crested flowers, azure snowdrops, pink catfish, etc. Snowdrops appear directly from under the snow.

In the first half of summer, linden blossoms and the herbaceous vegetation becomes poorer; this depletion progressively intensifies until autumn, when the grass dries out, although some spring species bloom a second time. Plants that bloom in the spring before the forest is shaded have mainly yellow or pink-violet corollas, and those that bloom already in the shade of oak crowns have white corollas.

Oak forests of Eurasia are characteristic of continental climate. In more favorable conditions they are replaced by beech forest, and in the mild Mediterranean-Atlantic climate by chestnut forests. In Western Europe and the Caucasus main role Beech forests play; in Middle-earth they are joined by walnut forests.

Deciduous forests are very diverse in North America. In the Appalachian Mountains region (34-40° N), the lowest vertical zone is represented by a belt of chestnut forests characterized by a wide variety of species. The oak distribution area, gravitating towards the Great Lakes region, is characterized by stands of red oak (Quercus rubra), black (Q. velutina), white (Q. alba), hickory (Hicoria ovata), etc. In the Mississippi floodplain, flooded for most of the growing season forests of Nyssa aquatica and swamp cypress Taxodium distichum grow in water areas; In areas that are less flooded, in addition to these species, ash and poplar also grow, and in even drier areas, Caribbean pine, oak, ash, hickory, red maple, etc.

Between areas occupied by deciduous forests and the taiga zone there are often mixed forests, where coniferous and deciduous species are found.

Deciduous forest in Germany

Deciduous forest in autumn, England

Deciduous forests are forests consisting of deciduous trees and shrubs. They are also called deciduous or summer green for their characteristic annual shedding of leaves before the onset of cold weather.

The share of deciduous forests in Europe accounts for 24%.

Spreading

The deciduous forest zone is better developed in the Northern Hemisphere and is located south of the zone boreal coniferous forests of a moderately cold climate, the southern border of which runs between 50° and 60° northern latitude, but does not cover the entire territory itself temperate zone. It includes Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Scandinavia, wedges into Eastern Europe before Southern Urals, a narrow strip runs in the latitudinal direction to the south Western Siberia and after the break - a wide meridional strip along the coast East Asia from the Yangtze to 54° north latitude; There are isolated areas of this zone in the Caucasus and Southern Kamchatka.

In Europe, deciduous forests extend far to the north, in the western part of their range even north of 58° north latitude, which is due to the favorable influence of the Gulf Stream. Deciduous forests in Europe stretch along Atlantic coast, starting from the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula and ending with southern Scandinavia; in Eastern Europe, where the influence of the continental climate is felt, deciduous forests begin to thin out already in the Dnieper region; thus their area of distribution is European continent resembles a triangle in shape. In Western Europe, deciduous forests are represented by Atlantic heaths, as an extreme degree of degradation of deciduous forests; forests have been preserved in such a densely populated area as Central Europe, only in small limited zones; to the east they are replaced by mixed forests.

In North America, deciduous forests are developed on east coast, where they stretch in a strip of up to 1000 km from Northern Florida to 50° north latitude. Deciduous forests in North America and East Asia are limited to the south by subtropical wet forests Florida or Eastern China, and from the north - boreal coniferous forests; mixed forests predominate in transition zones.

In the Southern Hemisphere, deciduous forests are found in southern Central Chile and Tierra del Fuego. The southern limit of deciduous forests in Chile runs in a longitudinal valley at 41°30" south latitude, in the coastal ridges at 40° south latitude, on the western slope of the Andes at 39° south latitude. These forests are also found on the two high peaks of the Campana coastal ridge and Robles, far north of the main zone, between 39° and 40° south latitude they pass to the Argentine side of the Andes.

Climate

The zone of distribution of deciduous forests is characterized by a temperate climate, with alternating summer, autumn, winter and spring periods. Peninsular character Western Europe determines the influence of the ocean on climate. The prevailing westerly winds bring moisture into the interior of the continent, and the prevailing warm ocean currents prevent the formation of ice off the coast of Western Europe south of the North Cape. In western Europe winter temperatures 20° above the average temperature for the corresponding latitude. The further inland the continent, the stronger manifestations continental climate with cold winter and hot summer. The zero isotherm, limiting the frost-free climate, runs from the North Cape in Norway south to Hamburg and the Alps, crosses the Balkans and Crimea, and reaches the city of Baku on the Caspian Sea. The frost-free period lasts from 200-208 days in the west to 120 days in the east of the European part of the deciduous forest zone. The average summer temperature at 55° north latitude is 21 °C, while at Mediterranean coast There are three hot months when the temperature exceeds 21 °C. Annual rainfall in the mountains and parts of the west coast exceeds 1500 mm per year. In the Pyrenees, Alps, Carpathians and the Caucasus there are places where annual precipitation amounts to 1000-1200 mm per year. In most of Europe, annual precipitation ranges from 500 to 1000 mm per year. The mild climate is characterized Far East Russia, where the Pacific Ocean influences.

In North America, the climate varies from region to region due to big size continent. In the temperate climate zone summer periods hotter and winters colder than in Europe. Prevailing north-westerly winds blow from Pacific Ocean and create a mild and even climate on the west coast. In this and others coastal areas precipitation abundant, less precipitation falls within the continent.