Temperate rainforest cool and wet

1. Temperate rainforest cool and wet

2. Temperate Rainforest The Temperate Rain Forest is a richly productive biome. Mild temperatures and abundant rainfall encourage plant growth, and the forest is covered with plant life at every level. Because chemical reactions occur more slowly at lower temperatures, the minerals in dead plant material are recovered more slowly than in the tropical rain forest. The forest floor is carpeted with fallen needles, and fungi grow on fallen logs. Temperate rainforests receive from 1,500 to 5,000 millimeters (60 to 200 inches) of rain a year. There are two seasons in the temperate rainforest; one long, wet season where the temperatures rarely drop to freezing and one short dry season when the temperatures rarely exceed 80. The forest is always damp with water dripping from the tree branches and sunlight filtering through the canopy onto the forest floor.

3. Trees, Ferns and plants

4. Layers of the Temperate Rainforest The temperate rainforest is divided into layers. The topmost layer is called the canopy, which is dominated by tall evergreen conifers (trees that produce cones with seeds). Because of the heavy rain and mild temperatures, these conifers enjoy maximum year-round growth and reach record heights and growth. These trees are; Hemlock, Cedar, Spruce, and Douglas Fir. When these trees are full grown, they are between 130 to 280 feet tall.

5. Understory Beneath the canopy is the understory. In this layer are found small shade-loving trees, such as the dogwood with its’ beautiful pink and white flowers, and vine maples. Ferns, salal, and berry shrubs grow in the filtered sunlight beneath the small trees On the forest floor, the lowest layer, there is a thick covering of lowgrowing lichens, mosses, small plants (such as oxalis), wildflowers, and grasses. The ground is covered with conifer needles, leaves, branches, twigs, and fallen dead trees.

6. Animals

7. Animal life Most of the animals in the temperate rainforest live on or near the forest floor. Here, the understory and canopy provide protection from the wind and rain and most of the food is found there. Some animals in the forest are; river otter, bobcat, black bear, flying squirrel, black bear, raccoon, cougar, white-tailled deer, and elk. Some birds are Clark's Nutcracker, Rufous Hummingbird, and Gray Jay. Some fish and insects are salmon, springtail, and red-legged frogs.

8. Climate Warm Temperate Rainforests Cool Temperate Rainforests

9. Cool Temperate Rainforest • It mist for days, the dominant trees usually have a thick coat of mosses, liverworts, ferns and lichens. • They are silent, usually damp forests with high altitudes, cooler climates and very high rainfall. • Stretching from the McPherson Range on the New South Wales-Queensland border to Tasmania, are classified as Cool-temperate rainforest.

10. Characteristic features of cool-temperate rainforests include: • simple structure, often with only one species in the upper canopy and few species in the lower layer • small average leaf size of trees. Leaves are simple and feature toothed margins • palms and stranglers absent • buttresses are absent, but the bases of trees are sometimes massive • tree ferns, ground ferns and ‘mossy’ epiphytes common and obvious

11. Warm Temperate rainforest • Warm-temperate Rainforests grow at higher altitudes, in cooler climates and on less fertile soils. • The key features of Warm-temperate Rainforests are order and uniformity. • They stretch from northern Queensland’s Atherton Tableland to eastern Victoria’s Gippsland.

12. Characteristic features of warm-temperate rainforests include: • two tree layers usually present • vegetation less diverse than in Subtropical Rainforests with three to 15 species making up the canopy    layer • leaf size on average smaller than in Subtropical Rainforests. Leaves are usually simple and with toothed margin • absence of buttresses • thick woody vines replaced by thin wiry vines • palms and stranglers rare or absent • large epiphytes and vines present but usually neither abundant or diverse • trees of medium size mostly with slender trunks and a smooth grey bark mottled with lichens 4 • ferns common

13. Vocabulary – Temperate Rainforest • Biomass n.- The total amount of living things in a region such as a rainforest. • Canopy n.- The layer of rainforest made up of the tops of the tallest trees: Coastal Redwood, Douglas Fir, Sitka Spruce, Western Red Cedar, and Western Hemlock. • Conifers n.- Cone-bearing evergreen trees with needles. • Decomposers n.- Microscopic fungi and bacteria that feed directly on dead matter breaking it down. • Epiphytes n.- Plants that live on other plants instead of in the soil. • Forest Floor n.- Also called the Ground Layer, this is the lowest layer of the rainforest and has a thick layer of low-growing plants. It is dark and moist with rich soil. Most animal life exists here. • Nurse log n.- A dead tree that falls in the forest and provides nutrients for tree seedlings and other plants to grow. • Organic adj.- Coming from living material such as plants. • Understory n.- The middle layer of rainforest containing broadleaf trees and shrubs.