Deciduous Forest - Research Paper Example

? DECIDUOUS FOREST RESEARCH PAPER The literal meaning of the word Deciduous is very simple. It implies to fall off during a particular season. Therefore, deciduous jungle is the one where the leaves start falling off the branches of its trees at the start of winter season when it is very cold in the year. The trees re – grow fresh leaves in time for the subsequent spring season. Here are some pictures of trees found in the deciduous forests (Cefrey, 2003). Deciduous forest is observed all around the globe. The most famous locations are northeast Asia, eastern Australia, New Zealand, Eastern Europe, the British Isles and North America. They are also found in southwest eastern China, Japan, and Russia. Middle East coast of Paraguay and Chile have the largest areas of deciduous forests in South America (Archibold, 1995). (Picture showing location of deciduous forest around the globe) The most significant and common characteristic of these regions is that they all have seasonal changes in temperature and rainfall. The outcome of this is that the tree acquires a special shape so that they can adapt to endure these changes in the environment during the year. The mean temperature in this forest goes up to 50 degree Fahrenheit. The rainfall is also average and ranges between thirty and sixty inches in a year. With the transformation in season, the color of leaves of the deciduous forest also changes (Nagle, 2009). For example, during the month of winter, there is scarcity of water and therefore the leaves can not stay alive. Hence, the leaves start falling off from the plants. But with the advent of spring, the leaves start growing back again. Some plants like evergreens retain their leaves during winter season also. They adapt to the winter and stay alive. There are several species of trees in a deciduous forest their variety depending upon the region they are located in. They generally include species like walnut, hickory, linden, sweet gum, oak, maple, beech, chestnut, and elm. The deciduous forests are further divided into five distinct zones. The Tree Stratum zone is the first zone. In this zone, one would find trees for example oak, beech, maple, chestnut hickory, and elm, basswood, linden, walnut, and sweet gum trees. The zone has a variable height that is from 60 to 100 feet. The second zone consists of sapling and small trees. As the name suggests, the trees here are young and smaller in size. The third zone is known as the shrub zone. Some of the popular shrubs found in this zone are rhododendrons, azaleas, mountain laurel, and huckleberries. The fourth zone is called the Herb zone. As the name indicates, it has very short plants like herbal plants. The fifth and final zone is called Ground zone. It consists of lichen, club mosses, and true mosses (MacMillan, 2003). The number of unlike seasons in the deciduous forests are four in all starting from spring, summer, autumn, and winter. While autumn seasons sees leaves changing their color, in the winter, the tress shed their leaves altogether. Dog Wood Leaves Fringe Leaf Ginkgo Leaves Deciduous forests can survive the extreme seasons of climatic change. They grow in those regions where you get plenty of rainfall, which is necessary for the growth of trees. The rainfall in the moderate deciduous forest is spread out around the whole year. But winter is the season of cold and therefore, everything freezes around and nothing is available to animals for feeding. Therefore, animals living in this region adapt themselves to the extreme cold winter and also hot season of summer (MacMillan, 2003). As leaves start falling in winter, there is not much of a cover available to the animals to save themselves from the vagaries of nature. The deciduous forests have animals whose pictures are shown below:- Black bear Fox Brown bear Animals use a special technique of adaptation by hibernating in the winter season and living off what ever is available in the other three seasons. The animals try out the plants and see if they are worth eating or not. They use trees to take shelter and also for food. The color of most of the animals is such that they camouflage themselves and look like the color of the ground they walk on or live (Nagle, 2009). Even the plants adapt themselves to the forest by leaning toward the sun to get light and warmth. Another way of adapting is soaking up the essential ingredients of survival in the ground. Not many flowers grow in deciduous forest. The few that are found are the passion berry and also the blue lily. Due to extremes of season, the deciduous forest does not have a variety of plants. However one can see some plants with very wild growth and some of them have a large amount of flowers. Nature has made them grow in such a way that they are useful to animals as they provide shelter as well as food and sometimes water also ( especially from leaves ). Even the trees adapt themselves to this climate of the forest by way of growing thick bark barriers on the trees. This helps them to keep the animals away and at the same time prevent the trees from dying an unnatural death (MacMillan, 2003). A variety of animals are found in the deciduous forest. These ranges from mammals like deer to bugs like huge as mosquitoes. The animals by and large feed on nut or acorn or at the most omnivores. The extreme climate has made them adapt to the forest life. Due to extreme cold, some of them go into hibernation in the winter months. Some common animals that are found in the deciduous forest are deer, mice raccoons, gray squirrels, snakes, robins, frogs salamanders and several varieties of insects. Some animals can not sustain themselves in winter and therefore they migrate towards the south at the onset of winter (Tagliaferro, 2006). Human beings are the biggest offenders of nature and one can see that a lot of deciduous forests have been destroyed by them while building farms and townships. A sincere attempt is being made by people to protect the forests but then poachers are coming in the way and kill animals at random in these forests. This action of there is really cruel in nature and thus the number of animals has dwindled with the passage of time. The animals loose their natural habitat as more and more people are building homes by cutting forests and reclaiming land (Cefrey, 2003). The deciduous forests are mostly located above the tropics in the most temperate zones, but just below the coniferous forests. History proves that a large part of Europe, the eastern part of North America, several areas of Japan and also Asia were endowed with large and dense deciduous forests. Unfortunately most of these deciduous forests are now lost to human greed. However, many of the trees found in deciduous forests still grow in these areas. Their numbers have gone down drastically. In the three regions mentioned above, one can find deciduous trees having broad leaves. In fact, at times, one comes across evergreen variety also. The common names of such trees are ash, oak, lime, beech, birch and northern arrow wood. One can also find in these region wild flowers such as oxlip, bluebells, painted trillium and primrose. It is also very common to find shrubs like tawny milk-cap mushrooms, carpet moss, and lady fern (Cefrey, 2003). The quality of soil is extremely good and fertile and therefore good for agriculture. It is not uncommon to find some of the largest agricultural regions in these areas. Due to this, a lot of original deciduous forest of the world has vanished. In North America, most of the forests are of secondary nature but then they still have a very large variety of original plant species in place. Europe is another place where not many of the original trees are left. In fact most of these have been cut and made way for agriculture. Even in China, the forests are not natural and original trees have been cut down mercilessly. The location of most of the deciduous forests is in eastern North America, Europe and Asia. Some stray deciduous regions can be found in the southern hemisphere but the plants, vegetation and habitat of animals found there is not the same as in northern deciduous forests (Tagliaferro, 2006). Thus we can conclude that nature has provided an excellent way to help plants and trees as well animals form protecting themselves from the vagaries of the climate. They adapt to the nature and protect themselves and survive on their own. Works Cited Archibold, O.W. (1995). Ecology of world vegetation. London: Chapman & Hall. Print. Cefrey, H. (2003). Deciduous Forests. NY: The Rosen Publishing Group. Print. MacMillan, D.M. (2003). Life in a Deciduous Forest. MN: Lerner Publications Company. Print. Nagle, J. (2009). Deciduous Forests: Seasons of Survival. NY: The Rosen Publishing Group. Print. Tagliaferro, L. (2006). Explore the Deciduous Forest. MN: Capstone Press. Print Read More