Temperate+Rain+Forest

** Temperate rainforests ** are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive high rainfall.
=__**Location:**__=

They are geographically located in British Columbia, Alaska, Chile, New Zealand, Pacific Northwest USA, Australia, Western Europe & Asia.


=__**Soil Profile:**__=

=__**Food Web:**__= __Third Order Consumers:__ Lynx, Wolf, Bear, Cougar.

__Secondary Consumers:__ Shrew, Amphibians, Weasel, Raccoon, Insects, Owl.



__Primary Consumers:__ Salmon, Insects, Deer, Elk, Birds, Small Mammals( Squirrels, Chipmunks, Mice)

__Primary Producers:__ Ferns, Mosses, Shrubs, Flowers, Dogwood, Vine Maples, Conifers, Fir, Hemlock, Cedar, Spruce.



__Ground Layer:__ Ferns, Grasses, Moss, Small flowering plants, Fungi, Small leafy plants, Bacteria, Protozoans.

=__Climatogram:__= High rainfall (minimum 2-3 m/year, depending on latitude), usually from moisture-laden winds off the ocean. Relative proximity to the ocean: temperate rain forests depend on the proximity to the ocean to moderate seasonal variations in temperature, creating milder winters and cooler summers than continental-climate areas.

Source: http://biomee.wikispaces.com/Temperate+Rainforest+Biome

=__**The Diversity of Plantae, Amilia and Fungae Kingdoms:**__= =**__Plantae:__**=


 * **The Sitka spruce is one of the few plant lifes that can withstand the temperate rainforest moderate climate,minimal changes in seasons. The average temperature all year round is 60-degree F ,or 15 Celsius. The constant rainfall allows the Sitka to grow rapidly amount the temperate rainforest.The tree can only survive in well drained soil which the rainforest provides. Sitka spruce trees grow to be up to 80m tall and the trunk up to 5m 6-7m wide ;it is known to be the largest species of spruce and fifth largest conifer in the world.**

__**Taxonomy:**__

 * Kingdom Plantae
 * Divions:Pinophyta
 * Class: Pinopsida
 * Family:Pinaceae
 * Genus:Picea

__**Characteristics:**__
The bark is brown,sometimes grayish and flacky thin and scaly,their leafs are stiff sharp and needle like they are about an inch long and are one of the prickliest of all the spruce needles.Its cones are generally tooth like papery flakes.

__Reproduction**:**__
The sitka spruce grows at its best during the spring because the sap has melted and gives the tree nutrients and other nutrients from the soil and good sunlight.the tree has these little cones that fal from the tree that holds seeds in them the seeds then need sunlight and disruptive soil or dirt to sink in and grow. ====**Interesting fact:**The cone that grows on the sitka is both male and female,the cones that are brown are the male and the cones that are green or purple are the female. Sitka gets its name from the community Sitka,Alaska.==== || ==__Giant hemlock:__==

__**General characteristics**__
====Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) is a large evergreen tree growing from ninety to two-hundred feet high. The needles are short stalked, flat, finely toothed, irregularly spare, and of unequal length (five to twenty millimeters long). The seed cones are ovoid, short-stalked, brown, with many thin papery scales, stalkless, and hanging down at the end of the twigs. The bark is smooth when young, reddish-brown, becoming darker, and deeply furrowed with flat-topped scaly ridges.====

__**Taxonomy:**__
 * Kingdom: Plantae.
 * Confiers, Cone-Bearing Trees.
 * Cone-Bearing Seed Plants.
 * Pinales.
 * Pine Family.
 * Hemlock.

|| Kingdom: Plantae. Division: Pinopyhta. Class: Pinopsida. Order: Pinales. Family: Pinaceae. Genus: Pseudotsuga.
 * Douglas-fir ** is one of the English common names for evergreen coniferous tree's of the genus // **Pseudotsuga.** //

= = = = = = =__Fungi:__=
 * ====Phylum Basidiomycota (Club Fungi), Some examples of basidiomycetes are toadstools,mushrooms, puffballs,birds nest fungi, and stinkhorns.This group includes some serious plant diseases such as rusts and smuts. ====
 * ====Multiple puffballs or stone fungus are found on the floor of the temperate deciduous forest. These are a type of fungi that are round without a stalk or cap or are round with a very small undifferentiated stalk and cap. Mostly you will find these growing in fields, lawns or on rotting matter. ====
 * ====Shelf fungi are commonly found on trees throughout the temperate deciduous forests. The scientific name of shelf fungi is Ganoderma tsugae. Shelf fungi can be dull gray to white. Shelf fungi do not have a stalk and have a typically smooth underside with minute pores that can often only be seen with a magnifying glass. Shelf fungi are particularly important in breaking down wood. ====

=__Animals:__=

__Black Bears:__
( // Ursus americanus // )

__ Cougar: __
( // Puma concolor // ), also known as ** puma **, ** mountain lion ** , ** mountain cat ** , ** catamount ** or ** panther, ** depending on the region, is a mammal of the family  Felidae.

__Lynx:__
A ** lynx ** (plural ** lynx ** or ** lynxes ** ) is any of the four species within the // Lynx // genus of medium-sized wildcats.

__ Wolf: __
// (Canis lupus // ) is the largest extant member of the dog family of mammals.

=__**Relationships:**__= Kinds of symbiotic relationships would be **M utualism, C ommensualism, Parasitism** and **Predation.**

=**__Adaptations__**= The animals have deveoped different ways of surving in this biome. Many of them migrate to warmer places to excape the cold winter months, while others hibernate through the winter,when food is scarce. Some animals, such as quirrels, chipmunks and jays store food when it is plentiful, using hollows of trees as storehoues for nuts, and seeds. In winter this store of food keeps them fed. Prehensile tails are common on possums, new world monkeys, and some reptiles. Special flaps of skin help some lizards and frogs glide between treetops. Insects make up the largest single group of animals that live in tropical rainforests. Ants form huge colonies, often over one million! Many butterflies and other insects have bright colors and strong patterns. This helps them find mates. Others have markings that camouflage them so well it is almost impossible to see them.
 * __Animal:__**

__**Plant:**__ R ainforest plants have special adaptations. These adaptations help them survive in the special climate of a tropical rainforest. For example, many trees have buttress and prop roots for extra support in the thin rainforest soil. To absorb as much sunlight as possible in the shady understory, most leaves are very large. Some trees have flexible leaf stalks that rotate to follow the sun. This helps them get the maximum amount of light. Some trees grow larger leaves in the lower canopy level and smaller leaves in the upper canopy. Other plants grow in the upper canopy on larger trees. This helps them get closer to the sunlight. These types of plants are called epiphytes. Orchids and bromeliads.

=**__Environmental Concerns__**= Explorers thought the soil of a rainforest must be very rich. They tried cutting the forest and turning it into farmland. It didn’t work. When a rainforest is burned or cut down, the soil can only be used for a very short time before it runs out of nutrients. Afterward, biodiversity suffers.Today, we know that the soil of the tropical rainforests is thin and very low in nutrients. Decomposers like leaf-cutter ants, termites, bacteria, and fungi quickly turn falling leaves and dead organisms into nutrients. Plants take up these nutrients the moment they are available, so they don’t get a chance to enrich the soil. One of the most damaging effects of development has been dividing the rainforest habitat into little patches of forest.

__**What they are doing to help keep it safe.**__ The trick to keeping it healthy is to not take too much too fast. This gives the rainforests time to recover from human activities like logging. But many countries that have tropical rainforests are poor. They can make money by cutting down and developing the rainforests. But uncontrolled development results in deforestation, erosion, and loss of biodiversity. More research and strong conservation are the best tools for protecting the tropical rainforest. Instead of cutting the forests, some people take visitors on hikes in the forests, which is part of a conservation effort known as ecotourism. People also are trying to help wildlife survive by creating protected areas and rehabilitation centers.

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