FantastiC Forests Forests are fascinating A large area filled with many trees is called a forest It is hard to imagine a resource that provides more benefits for humans than do forests Food shelter tools and fuels are all products of this natural treasury Forests grow in almost every part of the world Every forest is a complex living system made up of thickly growing trees bushes vines and other plants There are several different types of forest biome They include the taiga and tropical rainforests Another type of forest biome is one in which temperate deciduous 4 This forest’s leaves drop in the fall
Vocabulary trees are the native trees Such forests are found mainly in the Northern Hemisphere They have four distinct seasons The trees in a temperate deciduous forest shed their leaves in the fall A wide variety of plants trees and animals grow and live here This map shows Earth’s major biomes 5 A biome is a large region of Earth that has a certain climate and certain types of living things
a temperate Climate A temperate climate is mild which means the temperatures are neither extremely hot nor extremely cold Temperate deciduous forests have moist warm summers They also have cold frosty winters They are found in eastern North America eastern Asia and much of Europe These forests are some of the oldest in the whole world Winter in a temperate deciduous forest means cold temperatures ice and snow 6
Think About It Some trees lose their leaves when there is a drought Why is this an advantage to the tree Not all temperate deciduous forests look the same They can have different temperatures moistures and elevations So the plants and trees that grow in each one may be different Temperate deciduous forests make up one of the wettest major biomes Only the rainforests are wetter The average yearly precipitation in a deciduous forest is between 30 and 60 inches 75 and 100 centimeters Precipitation falls as rain or snow depending on the season These forests are one of the wettest biomes 7
