Coniferous Biome
Benchmarks:
Area: Life Science
Category: Cells
Benchmarks:
Elementary School
1. Explain characteristics and functions of observable body parts in a variety of animals.
Key concepts: Observable characteristics—fur, scales, feathers, horns, claws, eyes, quills, beaks, teeth, skeleton, muscles, exoskeleton; functions— insulation, support, movement, protection.
2. Compare and contrast (K-2) or classify (3-5) familiar organisms on the basis of observable physical
characteristics.
Key concepts: Plant and animal parts—skin, shell, limbs, roots, leaves, stems, flowers, feathers, scales.
4. Compare and contrast food, energy, and environmental needs of selected organisms.
Key concepts: Life requirements—food, air, water, minerals, sunlight, space, habitat.
Middle School
1. Demonstrate evidence that all parts of living things are made of cells.
Key concepts: Types of living things: plants, animals; parts of organisms: tissues, organs, organ systems; all functions of organisms are carried out by cells.
Category:
1. Identify familiar organisms as part of a food chain or food web and describe their feeding relationships within the web.
Key concepts: Producer, consumer, predator, prey, decomposer, habitat, community.
3. Design systems that encourage growing of particular plants or animals.
Key concepts: Needs of life—food, habitat, water, shelter, air, light, minerals.
Middle School
1. Describe common patterns of relationships among populations.
Key concepts: Participants and relationships—competition.
2. Describe how organisms acquire energy directly or indirectly from sunlight.
Key concepts: Sunlight, plants, food, photosynthesis, producers, consumers, food webs.
6. Describe ways in which humans alter the environment.
Key concepts: Agriculture, land use, resource use, solid waste, toxic waste. Bio diversity.
High School
2. Explain how energy flows through familiar ecosystems.
Key concepts: Participants and relationships—food chain, food web, producers, consumers, decomposers.
Area: Physical Science
Category: Changes in Matter
Benchmarks:
-Middle School #4: Describe common energy transformations in everyday situations.
Key concepts: Food energy.
-High school #4: Describe energy transformations involved in physical, chemical, and nuclear changes and contrast their relative magnitudes.
Key concepts: Original sources of energy; sun, radioactivity, conservation of energy, conservation of mass/energy
Background:
A biome is classified by the different types of plants that live there. The plants in each biome are affected by numerous factors, for instance, astronomy, climate, water, and soil. The astronomy effects biome plants because of the latitude, the higher the latitude results in day lengths changing throughout the year, and how powerful and concentrated the sunlight is, which affects the amount of photosynthesis that occurs in plants and trees. The geology of the biome affects the landforms that are in each biome plus the soil and sediments, which are found in your biome. These landforms can then affect the amount of sun, and the amount of precipitation that that area receives. These soils and sediments also affect how well plants can grow, depending on how much or how little of nutrients and minerals are in the ground. In a well nourished soil area, the plants usually grow tremendously, unlike in a malnourished area. The weather and water in the biome affect the amount of precipitation and the ground water or surface water. These all affect what kinds of plants and animals can live and survive in the biome. Humans affect each biome by what activities they participate. For example, the impacts of logging trees, leads to less animals having homes, and the soil becoming more depleted. The coniferous biome is characterized by the Coniferous trees. Evergreen, Spruce and Popular Trees are some examples. The common animals which are found in the Coniferous Biome are the squirrel, black bear, deer, moose, fish and fox. Because of its high latitude at 64.5 degrees, the sunlight is less direct and is spread further over more land. As a result there are lower temperatures 2.3 degrees in the winter and at 44.3 degrees in the summer, because the land does not absorb, and therefore does not create a lot of heat. There is a lot of precipitation in this biome; it is a mix of rain and snow. The coniferous biome is located at 90 degrees north. Because of the high latitude, this biome can receive only four hours of sunlight and sometimes it can receive over twenty-four hours of light. The geology of this biome is made up of thin nutrients and poor soils, which are good for trees, but not much else. Because of the location on the globe, the glaciers influenced this part of the world, and as a result, sediments were left behind. As previously stated, the biomes are categorized by numerous determinants.
Description of Visual Model: My model is made up of a shoebox. Inside this shoebox, I have a sun in that is located a little more than halfway up the back of the box, to show that it is around 48 degrees. I have included numerous animals inside the biome, including a bear, deer, coyote, fox and a fish (all represented my magazine cut-outs). The coniferous biome does have rivers and lakes, so I have put a river inside my biome, made up of blue construction paper inside of my project. The water goes all the way down in the ground, and you can see this water table underneath the earth’s surface, there are also rocks (represented by ripped up cardboard) to show how it is not just a layer of water. The different layers of the Earth in my biome are represented by having different layers of construction paper and cardboard. On the top of the surface, you will see that I have cut up cardboard into tiny pieces representing twigs, branches, pine cones and other little pieces of wood. I have trees spread out all across my biome, they are Coniferous trees, and I made them so that they are all in a triangular shape, with the point facing up, these are made of paper, and cardboard. The landforms that are seen in my biome are mountains in the background, and highlands inside the box, the highland was made by simply stacking layers of cardboard, and then layers of construction paper. There are different layers of soil in my biome, but I did not make too many, because I wanted to show that the ground is not that good for farming, or agricultural growth. The bedrock is actually made up of metamorphic rock, which is the cardboard. The three human interactions that I included in my diagram are magazine pictures of the killing of animals, especially of deer. I have also included deforestation, the cutting down of these trees to use for other uses such as furniture. The last human interference that I included is another type of recreation, and that is camping, and how forest fires can start from people being careless in the woods. All three are negative effects on the coniferous community.
Map: See attached paper. (#7)
Discussion:
Sun: The angle of the sun is constantly changing as it moves across our skyline, Earths revolution around the sun, the latitude, and Earths tilt (23.5 degrees) all affect the angle. In the winter time the angle of the sun in
Temperature: When there are more hours of sunlight, the suns light becomes more intense on more amount of land and therefore leads to warmer temperatures. As a result of this, in the summer the average high temperature is 56.3 degrees and the low is 44.3 degrees. When there is less hours of sunlight, the sun is less intense and as a result the Earth can not be heated as much as a city that lies closer to the equator. The temperature is also not as warm as a city by the equator. Hence why in the winter the average low temperature is 2.3 degrees and the average high temperature is 14.3 degrees. These temperatures are also affected by the air masses which bring weather into the region. An air mass is a body of air that has the same temperature and moisture. The air masses which affect
Precipitation: The annual amount of precipitation in
Water: There is mainly surface water all over the biome, which was left behind from the glaciers scraping the ground and filling in with water. This surface water is very plentiful. There is however also some groundwater, but it is not found all over the Coniferous region. The drinking water used in
Landforms: The main landform region of this area is mountains. Mountains have steep sides and a pointy top. These mountains are formed when the edges of two plates come together and cause both shearing and building up of earth. This causes both volcanoes, and earthquakes. There are also many highlands, which are formed from mountains that have been weathered away and silt has fallen from the top of the mountain, to the valleys, from weathering caused by gravity. Throughout the biome, there are mountains, highlands and plains. Plains are a flat region of land. The mountains are found to the west in the Colorado Rockies, and the plains are in the east of
Weathering: The most common type of weathering in this region is physical weathering. Physical weathering is when the material does not change chemical composition, for example, a huge bolder being broken down into pieces of rock. The most common type of physical weathering that occurred in the Coniferous region is from the glaciers. Glaciers are huge blocks of ice that scrape the surface of the earth, this scraping breaks down the sediments below the ice.
Bedrock: The glaciers left a huge impact on this region of the world, leaving behind sediments of gravel. The glaciers are mostly comprised of ice, which scrapes across the earth. The glaciers in this region actually dug out holes, and then eventually filled in with water, making lakes. The bedrock is made up of metamorphic rock, in
Soil: The Coniferous Biome has poor soil with thin nutrients and is highly acidic. It is not commonly used for farming and agriculture. This is because the leaves, which are needles do not fall to the ground and decompose to enrich the soil, instead they stay on the trees all year long. The soil however is good for trees to grow. As a result of the low amount of plants inside this biome, the trees are able to obtain most of the light energy and their roots spread out underneath the ground to absorb as much water and minerals as possible. Therefore the soil is a key factor in which plants will grow.
Plants: The predominant plants found in the Coniferous Biome are Coniferous Trees, for instance the Evergreen, Spruce or Popular tree. These Coniferous trees bear needles all year long and are in the shape of a triangle, with the pointed end at the top. They have adapted to help them survive in the cold weather, because the cold air cannot get inside of the needles. Also, the snow falls of this needle type of leaves very easily. These trees do not drop their leaves in the fall, and because of this they do not need to re-grow every year. The trees are dark in color because they can absorb more light from the sun. There are also some grass areas. The plants of this region, just like all plants are producers, meaning that they help make food. These plants have to survive cold winters, short growing seasons, and cold-dry air masses. These shrubs hug the ground, and do not grow very high, because of the wind. The precipitation in this region is mainly of snow, which the plants need to survive. The plants that live in this region directly affect what animals can survive.
Animals: There is a wide array of animals that live in this biome. Some examples of herbivores in this biome are the Squirrel, Moose and Deer. Carnivore animals that live in this region are the Red Fox, and Wolves. The Grizzly Bear is an omnivore, because they eat both plants, and other animals. There are also decomposers located in the Coniferous biome. These animals have all adapted to this climate by having fur coats to keep them warm during the long cold winter. Some animals, like the owl, and rabbit have fur that turns different colors in different seasons as a way to protect themselves. The rabbit also has adopted by having fur located on the bottom of its feet, in order to protect them from the cold weather. Other examples of adaptation are the ability to hibernate during the winter months, and some of animals even migrate south for warmer weather. The bear stocks up on food during the spring, summer and fall so that he lives through the winter, the squirrel just like the bear collects nuts and buries them in the ground to eat at a later time. Since water can sometimes be scarce these animals obtain there water from eating the producers, or the plants and mosses on the forest floor. These animals also have to adapt and protect themselves from humans that could endanger their lives. (Food Web-attached #8)
Humans: Three economic activities that are impact the Coniferous Biome are clear-cutting forests, camping or recreational activities such as hunting and forest fires. Humans are destroying the biome for wood that is used for paper, furniture, and other uses. They are completely destroying huge amounts of forests every year. Because of this forests can not grow back quick enough, and we are not releasing as much oxygen out into the air. In addition, accidental forest fires can start from humans being careless while camping and enjoying themselves in this beautiful biome. These forest fires can burn down vast areas of the coniferous biome, which takes years to grow back, and animals that live here could die, or lose their homes and have to travel to a new area, where they possibly could be killed. Lastly, killing animals for game, is negative because some animals can become apart of the endangered species, and some could even become extinct. Human beings need to be extra careful when camping in the wilderness to have complete control over the fire at all times. Also, human beings should try to limit the amount of forests we take down every year, by not buying as much wood products. Maintaining hunting laws is also important so we do not extinct any animals.
Classroom Resources:
Song: Biomes-Doug Eldon
http://www.songsforteaching.com/lyricallifesciencelearning/biomes.htm
Deserts are dry but the temperature varies
Tundras are dry, but all year it may freeze
Grasslands get more rain and may be called prairies
Savannas are grasslands that also have trees.
Chorus:
Oh the biomes are regions with similar climate
(precipitation and temperatures)
The climate determines soil and vegetation
Which then determines the kinds of creatures
In coniferous forests, there are conifer trees
Needleleaf evergreens like pine and fir
Deciduous forests have trees that drop broad leaves
Rainforests are wet and warm most of the year
Chorus
The freshwater biome includes streams and
The saltwater biome, the seas and the oceans
Called the marine it's too large to forget
Chorus
Book: The Hatchet, Brian’s winter, Brian’s Return
Any of these three books would be a great choice to bring into your classroom. Each of them deals with a young teenage boy who has to survive in the Canadian Wilderness and survive. The three books all build upon each other, and would be great tools for teaching about the coniferous biome. Each book shows aspects of the biome, including animals, plants, weather, geology, and weathering. This book hits many of the important aspects that make up biomes.
Movie: Homeward Bound the Incredible Journey
This movie follows three pets in a search for their owners, through this wilderness. These animals encounter many different animals, which they interact with. They also have to deal with different landform regions. The movie is a nice fun-hearted way to view the coniferous biome and get a better idea of the weather, landforms and animals that are present.
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