What is the “taiga?
The boreal forest is the taiga. Originally a Russian language word meaning “a marshy forest in Siberia” the word has come to mean the circumpolar coniferous forest. It is the same level of general ecological classification as “tundra” for the land beyond the poleward limit of trees or “steppe” for grasslands or prairie. Between the taiga and the tundra is a transition zone or ecotone of varying width, sometimes as much as several hundred kilometres. This is the forest-tundra. Forest-tundra can occur in two different aspects. There may be scattered trees, with shrubs between, or there may be isolated bits of forest in protected sites. I differentiate between taiga and forest-tundra by restricting taiga to be where a red squirrel (Tamiasciurus) can travel from tree to tree without having to come down to the ground. In the south, the edge of the taiga is more difficult to define. Here the coniferous forest intergrades with a complex of vegetation types – northern hardwoods type, prairie t
The taiga (ty-ga) is the largest land biome. It stretches across a large part of Canada, Asia and Europe and can be found between the tundra and deciduous forests. Winters in the taiga are cold and the summers are warm. The taiga gets between 15 and 30 inches of precipitation a year. In the summer, temperatures can reach the 70s. In the winter, temperatures can be as cold as 65 degrees below zero! The taiga is sometimes called the coniferous or boreal forest.
