Decidious Forest Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Decidious Forest - Research Paper Example 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 sta rt 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 wi nter, 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